Record Shoppers Anonymous #15

The meetings last Friday really became extended so it took a while before I could hit the road towards Höör. It was a nice drive most of the time but turning into Road 13 towards Höör the sunny weather changed and it started to snow heavily. Lucky enough it was just a little here and there and it had stopped when I reached Höör. Still I think it is way to cold and snowy for this time of the year.

My cold almost given up and I was starting to feel quite normal during the end of last week. Now it was Peter's turn instead. He was a bit low when I got home so we turned in early Friday. Saturday I woke up, feeling rested and decided to take care of the laundry. I can say like this, it won't be as nice to hang out in the basement anymore. I found Hubert lurking in the laundry room and something as big as that need a name. I think it is a normal house spider so it's not dangerous but just really creepy and scary. 
 

Hubert is about 7-8cm's from front to end including all 8 legs... I sure hope he's all grown up now! 

To something a little more fun instead, Peter's first batch of home made beer got ready just before the weekend. First edition got the name "Mourning Brew", and is a dark ale. Really easy to drink with a slight bit of a fruity taste. Really nice actually! So it will absolutely be another batch, Peter mentioned something about a Stout for the next try, all well by me. The brand name "Isle of the Black Cat" came from this summer when we visited Peter's parents in their summer cabin at Hasslö and I was picking black and red currants and the cat kept me company around the bushes.

So the brand makes red currant jelly and black currant jam apart from the beer. Perhaps production of apple pure if the tree in the backyard allows it!  We'll see what happens during the summer.

It's very nice that the Festival season (and concert season) starts now. Keep It True is just a few weeks away. But first it is Saint Vitus and Helloween, Edward from Triffid productions was nice and gave me a photopass for Helloween. According to the promoters at Loppen I don't need a pass for Saint Vitus, as long as I check with the bands it's ok. So now I need to figure out how to do that! :O)

But KIT looks nice as always! Saturday will be really tough even if I like the line-up for Friday also. But Warlord, Angel Witch, Steel Prophet, Jack Starr and Legend, that really is a killer line-up!

Then it seems like April will continue it a furious speed. Perhaps a few trips with work and at the end of the month, Overkill and perhaps also Doro. We'll see what I manage to squeeze in to the schedule. 

I was complaining about not having any incoming packages last weekend. Of course I realized I had a few records to look for and hitting Underground Powers eBay store I realized just HOW much I had on my want-list! A very fast delivery from Underground Power and I could pick up my package when I got back home. 

So the weekend was spent listening to music. I can't remember the last time I listened to music as many hours as I did this weekend. Of course, since Peter stayed in bed most weekend I amused myself with writing MK stuff so apart from the nice package (Lord, Obsession, Taunted, Overlorde SR, Midite Hellion and Axxion) it was also a lot of stuff that I need to review, like Colossus (Swe), Kingcrow, Hürlement, Omission and of course the new Vicious Rumors "Electric Punishment" plus a whole lot more. 

And from TPL, two weeks back I got the new Saxon album, really nice Picture Disc in a Gatefold sleeve, really nice. Also Witchgrave. So it was a very small package this time. Actually, the new Circle II Circle was in there also, wonder why I forgot that one... I didn't like it very much when I first started to listen to it, but it actually is getting better for each spin.

Peter got two albums as well, Alice Cooper and Black Hole. 
And last but not least, I finally got my Eleminator tape. Daniele was really nice and sent a bonus tape, Nekrofilth which was quite cool as well. Perhaps not REALLY my favorite style of music but not bad at all.

So the weekend was really nice even if I felt sorry for Peter (apparently my cold wasn't a real man-cold because Peter was much worse than I ever was). I needed a calm weekend and it was really nice to just explore a bit and dig up new nice bands.

The drive back to Borås Monday morning was rough. I didn't want to leave Peter in his misery, also it would have been very nice to have another day just like Sunday (Hubert was gone from the basement then too) and just listen to more music and perhaps play a bit of Guitar as well.

At least it was a nice, but cold day Monday morning. It's good that it is daylight out and that the roads are getting dry. Still there's so much salt our Blue car is completely grey even if I washed it about two weeks ago. 

It feels like I'm shopping a lot now... (found a cool bookshelf at Blocket as well but it might be a bit too big for the house) But I'm living my dream and I really want a BBQ Grill and they actually had 2 very cool ones at ICA... So the aim is to spend some of the bonus money that arrives in April on one of them!

So I really hope the summer will be as long as winter so I can threw a lot of candlelight BBQ suppers out on the deck, but sure, with a grill like these it just need to be above 0 (ok, a little warmer perhaps) until I can start with it all. Half the deck is under roof so that should be fine...

Cheers
E

NP: OBSESSION - Order of Chaos

 

Metal on Metal

I don't get it... I really shouldn't be restless now. I have tons of things to do at work, I've been working hard to catch up with the Metal Kaoz stuff and I've kept myself (and Peter) busy trying to figure out how to take care of the Void Mansion. It was great to get out too, the weekend when we went to Stockholm and Sandviken and got to go to a few concerts. It's actually very strange for me, Blaze/Dianno and Manowar were the first concerts since Malta Doom Metal Festival. Peter also got to see British Lion with Steve Harris (and said it was good) but for me I was in Stockholm when they played in Gothenburg and in Höör when they played in Stockholm. Of course there's been a lot of other things happening but still, I normally go to 1-3 concerts/week else. But either, I've been in Stockholm when the bands playing in Gothenburg or the other way around. The Gothenburg concerts happening in the weekends, and the ones in Malmö in the weeks.. Nothing has really gone my way!
But now it looks a bit better. I'm really looking forward to see Saint Vitus @ Loppen in Copenhagen on Easter Thursday. 

And then Helloween and Gamma Ray @ Arenan in Stockholm. 

My plans actually worked for me this time and I'll be working from Stockholm so I can see this one there. 
Then Keep It True is just a few days away. That will be amazing. I realized though I haven't really told my boss or my colleagues  I'll be out of office for a few days, or really, work from home half Thursday and off Friday... But it normally isn't any problems with that! We are rather busy though. 

One more thing I really would have wanted to join this time is the Sweden Rock Cruise. Would be very cool to get to see Queensryche with Todd LaTorre since he was awesome with Crimson Glory (Still a huge shame he quit CG though) and 220 Volts. Only seen them once and that was my first real concerts at "Folkan" in Hofors at the Swedish Monsters Of Rock tour in 1988!!! But not this time so I sure hope there will be more opportunities to see both bands in the future. 

But first a calm weekend to cure this damn cold so I can start to go to the gym again. I was really good at the beginning of this year as well as the last one, but then it has been up and down. I need to get back on track. Need it for my back and also to burn off the stress from work. So I sure hope I will be well enough next week.

Cheers
E

NP: ARIA - Blood for Blood

 

Cat on cat

During the night we heard a noise from the kitchen, of course the house makes a lot of noises all the time but this was something falling. Neither me nor Peter wanted to get out of bed to check it, we just assumed it was the cat making a mess.
And right it was! My thought was of course that he was on the flower I got for my birthday from Peter's parents (apparently it worked well as cat grass, yummy) but when I got down in the morning it was the egg clock looking like a fat and grumpy cat that was on the floor, in pieces... That cat BASTARD!! :O) He sure is good at making a mess. 

The weekend was spent curing my man-cold. It got a bit better during Saturday so I took the opportunity to write some reviews and reports for Metal Kaoz. Not the best idea since I felt worse for Sunday again. I decided to work from home Monday. So the driving from Höör to Borås happened yesterday instead. I took the car despite the warnings regarding snow chaos. I'm not sure if it was because it was Tuesday instead of Monday or if people had listened to the warnings and stayed home. The road was empty at least. Both from cars and snow... The roads was really dry and nice. 

But of course, it took the opportunity to watch a few movies during the weekend. I bought "Last Days Here" and "Så Jävla Metal" when we were in Stockholm. Both were actually very good. It was horrible to see Bobby Liebling when he was at his worst. Fascinating film though and it was a good deal at Bengans as well, so check it out!!! 

"Så Jävla Metal" was a bit the same as that "Metal History", by the guy from "A Headbangers Journey" only that "Så Jävla Metal" was a bout Swedish Hard Rock and Heavy Metal history. Cool interviews with bands from all time and genres but the nerd in me felt it was like most other documentary's, not deep enough. Well worth seeing at least, since it was both interesting and fun. The title sucks though I think (So fucking Metal).

And then a bit lighter entertainment too. I actually fell a sleep when we were watching Kenny Starfighter but that doesn't say anything about the movie in general. I normally do that. The other one Superhero Movie was actually very funny, same kind of humor as Naked Gun or Airplane. Exceeded our expectations a lot I have to say. I thought it would have been more like Scary Movie which of course is fun too but not close to Naked Gun and Airplane. But it was some really nice jokes in it, and it can't fail with Leslie Nielsen in a movie. Well spent 19SEK at ICA a couple of weeks back!

 
Of course I felt a bit sorry for myself since I was ill and I complained a bit that I didn't have any incoming packages to look forward to. Actually I didn't even have a clue what to look for at eBay. Patrik has become our personal shopper when it comes to new records and I get a package about every 6th week from TPL... But this time it was only two for me, Saxon "Sacrifice" on Picture disc and then the new Witchgrave. Nice of course but still... Both Peter and David got more than I did! So I started checking a bit and found a WHOLE batch on the Underground Power eBay page (had to leave a few ones I wanted because it got a bit expensive in total, damn good store that one). What I really like about it is that they have a whole lot of self released records, underground bands and an almost unlimited selection of US Power Metal, that I like. So when I get back to Höör again I'm sure I'll have a BIG package waiting to be picked up! 

But still some intense days at the office to go before it's weekend!

Cheers
E

NP: SAINT VITUS - "Lillie: F-65"

 

  

The demon god

ARGH, this damn cold just refuses to give up! I thought I was getting better by the end of last week but after a few hours walking downtown Stockholm Saturday changed that. Both me and Peter was frozen straight through both of us and afterwards our colds came back, mine in the worst way though. It must have been one of those man-colds!!! 
At least to cheer me up we got some good news for both Void Moon and Cult of the Fox. It seems like the Void Moon album "On the Blackest of Nights" will be available on vinyl in April, should be a good one.
Also, we got a releasedate for Cult of the Fox's second album "Angelsbane", that one will be out on CD on April 19th. AWESOME!!!

  
And also, title track "Angelsbane" is available as a sneak preview...

 
 
 But the weekend was really nice despite the cold!
The real reason for doing something special was because of my birthday, and Peter's a few weeks back too of course. The real plan was to see Blaze/Dianno in Stockholm Thursday, visit my parents Friday and celebrate a bit, see Candlemass, Wolf and Storyteller in Gävle Saturday and then go back to Sthlm for Manowar. Unfortunately the concert in Gävle was cancelled due to poor ticket sales they said. Really boring because I was really looking forward to see both Candlemass and Wolf. 

Still, we started off in Stockholm and warmed up for the show with some food. I couldn't really decide on a place since I was really hungry (missed lunch at work) so we sort of settled for the first place available. BBQ Place close to Hötorget, really nice food but it's not the coziest place. Peter took a Chili Burger but I had my mind set on Spare Ribs. The thing though, the dish was for 900g grilled BBQ ribs... Need I say I got stuffed?

 
The Blaze/Dianno concert was very nice too but Harry B James, as nice as it is to hang out at, really sucks as a concert venue. Hard to see anything if there's more than 20 people present. We were a bit lucky and got a table at a nice angle from stage and could stand on the chairs to see. The downside was that it was next to the door to the smoking area so it was very cold. But it was a nice evening, Nina joined me and Peter but unfortunately she had to leave just as Dianno started playing.

In Sandviken it still was winter and lots of snow. No new one though so no extra shoveling this time. We took the chance and went out for a walk in the sun too while up north, very cold but still nice because there was some warmth in the sun. These few moments just fed the irritation over winter, I'm SO SICK of the cold, sick of dry skin and electric hair... Still weeks of cold it seems like though.

Then we headed back to Stockholm, we had no real plan but since Peter haven't been there very much we thought we'd check it out a bit. Again we were way too hungry when heading out to find something to eat. Decided for the Pub Molly Malone around Odenplan. Nice food but both the Guiness and Kilkenny tasted sour, so only food and one drink there. Decided to go to Anchor afterwards instead. And it is just nice to sit there and hang and drink beer and watch people... Still an early night to be fit for the Manowar concert the day after. 

 
As mentioned, we went for a walk down town. The day looked very nice but damn it was cold! In Old Town a woman walked up to me saying "Hi Erika" and when I looked like a question mark she continued "now you need to think, don't you?". I couldn't for my life figure it out and search my brain for a reference, she was familiar but not more. It appeared to be an old schoolmate of mine which I don't think I've seen since the 9th grade or so... Strange and funny!'

But the Manowar concert was great!!! More on that on Metal Kaoz soon....

The only thing to complain about is that they don't allow any photographers at all. The light was great so it would have been a lot of fun to shoot it. The good thing though with absolutely no photos, no mobiles in the air either... No complains about anything when the band had left the stage though!

And also, in the misery of the cold, I got the new Vicious Rumors "Electric Punishment" for review! YEY!!! I know it will be better in a few weeks/months but it sure is kick ass already!!! So of course, this is the one that's been spinning ever since!

Well, back to coughing up alines...
Cheers
E

NP: VICIOUS RUMORS - Electric Punishment