Out in the Cold

ARRRRGH!!! I'm so sick and tired of this cold now. But it seems a lot of visitors from the NWOBHM X Mas Rocka brought home the same thing. I thought it was going away but yesterday it took another turn and now I have a fever and the headache from hell, yes still. Feels like someone is baking on my forehead and pushing my eyes out from the inside every time I try to look down or basically just move my head. Snotty and of course taking care of that hurts like hell too.

But, the Festival was a blast, very good atmosphere and a lot of good shows. Cloven Hoof and Mythra being my favorites but Demon, Blitzkrieg, Persian Risk, Tokyo Blade, Tytan, Chariot, Stampede, Venom Inc.... Ok, now it start to be crazy, all did very good shows actually. Apparently since I almost listed the full line-up before even realizing it. 

I really don't want to plan so far ahead but with the latest additions with Satan and Desolation Angels added and Salem, Gaskin, Raven and Diamond Head already on the bill, not much to think about. Also, with the benefit of the discount on tickets offered...

But there are more things (I need to have something fun to think about now you know. I surely missed not going to Malta this year and with the line-up they presented the other day, COUNT ME IN.... Old Grave Fest is always so much fun but it's a bit ironic I have to go to Romania to see the good Swedish bands, not that I mind. It's always fun to hang out with RTMC people and the rest visiting the Festival.

And the NWOBHM France looks REALLY good... Ok, Salem and Cloven Hoof did the trick but the rest is cool too. And we'll definitely go to Storm Crusher this year to see Exciter, they always kick ass and there are some really cool other bands there as well. Tygers of Pan Tang are always fun to watch. 

Keep It True and Headbangers Open Air it will be, no doubt about that. And I really want to go to the Metal Assault too, until now I've never managed to get it into my schedule. And the same goes for Hell Over Hamburg. 

Of the major Festivals both Sweden Rock Festival and Copenhell is tempting, this year I had the opportunity to get press/photopasses for both. I hope I am as lucky next year too. Else, I really want to see Aerosmith one last time and we had the plans to get tickets for Copenhagen, but over 1000DKK for the cheapest ones felt a little much. 

And, the line-up for Up The Hammers is a killer as always. I'm not so sure I will enjoy Greece in May as much as I've done in Feb-March... Will it be too hot??? 

Well, it looks like 2017 will be busy too! It will be hard to make it to all Festivals that I want to but it normally is sorted out in the end anyway. And of course, there will be a lot of concerts also to squeeze into the schedule. 2016 has been a very good concert year, I've seen a lot and I've seen a lot of very good stuff. But more on that later.

And now, back to the Top 10 list of the year. I realized I've missed a couple of albums completely, some I should have listened more to... But I guess that's the case. I'm twisting and turning of the order of the first 9 and have another 5 that really should be in Top 10... Deadline for Metal Kaoz is Saturday (which mean I won't have time to listen to the new Attacker album for example, sounds awesome the samples available). There are a few more being released now also that I won't have time to listen to before the list is due which is a bit of a shame. 

Hmmmm, wonder if I have any Whisky here??? Need to check, should be a good cure for the cold, temporary at least. 

Cheers
Erika

NP: Glenn Hughes - Resonate

 

Re-load and charge

Damn I'm longing for vacation now! The inspiration level at work has been rather low lately, it's just on a few occasions I've felt the same drive as I did during the winter or spring. Of course, the lay-off's take the edge of most things but now this is over. We had tell-day last week and the last ones had today. I haven't heard much how it went in Stockholm but apparently all my connections still have their jobs still. I'm having a meeting with my new manager this Friday. That will be interesting! 

And then it's only next week to work and then I'm off for a while. Not that it will be much rest though since we have 3 big Festivals lined up and a visit to Sandviken and say hi to Mom. 

So, the plan now is Metal Magic Festival and maybe also one Anvil show in UK, we'll see about that! Then there will be a long weekend in German with 3 days of Bang Your Head plus the Warm-Up show.

What a line-up it is at Bang Your Head... There's just like 3-4 bands I don't care all that much about (nothing I don't like at all), the rest is just AWESOME so it will be a hard one... Accept is always good but then I'm looking forward to Queensryche, Y&T & Morgana Lefay the most. And then of course Anvil, Exciter, Hirax, Death Angel, Flotsam & Jetsam and, and, and... You get the point, no use listing the whole line-up! *S*

But it shows it's holiday high-season during this time. The flights was rather ok in price and could have been VERY decent if I'd remembered to book the tickets... But Hotel and perhaps most so, the rental Car. €260 something for a Ford Ka (soap-cup on wheels) for Wed-Sun. Around KIT we paid €70 for a massive Diesel Renault SUV for Thu-Sun... But it will be worth it, it always is!!!

This morning, driving to work I listened to Y&T all the way (have 3,5h drive so I have some time to listen) and that sure is a nostalgia trip. I bought Black Tiger when I was on vacation with my parents -87 or -88 and of course listened to it countless of times. Then I filled up the collection rather quickly so it sure is a band that's been with me for many years. They've also done some of the best and craziest shows I've ever experienced. Just take the Rockland, Sala event where they played over 3 hours the first day and close to 3 hours the second day. Long sets but not boring for a second even.
I was rather disappointed when I realized I was going to miss Y&T playing in Sweden later this fall. We're at the Old Grave Fest in Bucharest then, which of course also is super and will be awesome. So it was extra fun realizing they're playing BYH!

We'll... Since I got up at 5am this morning it's bedtime!

Cheers
E

NP: Y&T - Black Tiger

 
 
 

Finish what I started...

That seems to be very hard at the moment, at home, at work, everywhere. I have a lot of things that should be done or should have been done a long time ago. Ok, work has been rather smooth lately, it's just the last couple of weeks I can't find the peace and quiet time (or inspiration for that sake) to complete the documentation I should...
And of course, being away during the weeks makes it hard to work with pictures. Writing on the other hand is progressing, not finishing anything though... I'm also trying to finish the plans for this summer, which Festivals to go to and when to take some time off of work.

Muskelrock is first up now. That's going to be fun, a lot of good bands as always. I'm especially looking forward to see Ashbury again since I really enjoyed their show at KIT. Then Citron, Anvil, Tyranex, Portrait, The Rods, Ice Age and a few more.

I really hope the weather will be fine though since it can be damn cold in the evening at the end of may. No camping of course, Rådmannen in Alvesta is close and comfortable so there's no use suffering in a tent!!!

After Muskelrock we'll go to SwedenRock for one day, Saturday. The line-up is great and I have to see Exciter & Riot V again when they're as close as this. Then also Nuclear Assault, Ace Frehley, Judas Priest and a few more makes it worth the visit.

But, one more thing I need to squeeze in is a Vicious Rumors show. They only play a select few gigs and I have it hard to get it into my schedule. At this point Leiden is the one I'm aiming at.

Seems to be easy to get from Schipol to Leiden at least and it can be good for me to build some bonus points with KLM also. Plus they had very decent flights to Amsterdam... I just wonder how I should manage to squeeze in all work in between the Concerts and Festivals... 

The KIT weekend was great! So many cool shows it's hard to pick a favorite. That has normally been clear after each Festival but not this time. Riot V and Exciter are strong candidates but we'll see...

I've been trying to walk home from work on a few occasions lately when it hasn't been raining. I really hate the buses so an hour and 15 minutes walk is an easy trade. I get some time to listen to music. Today I picked up Vicious Rumors "Electric Punishment". It was a while since I last listened to that record and as with all Vicious Rumors records, when they've had some rest, I'm always surprised that they are better than I remembered. I think it has it all, the riffs, the fines, just as the classic albums. I'm really looking forward to some new stuff. I really liked Brian Allen but it will be very interesting to see what Nick can do. He sounded amazing live at least. Listening to music sure makes the walking easy at least.

Cheers
E

NP: Vicious Rumors - Electric Punishment

 
 

Easter full moon

The moon sure is impressive tonight. Of course, completely impossible to shoot and get a decent shot so I have to settle with looking at it. 
And it sure has been good with a few extra days off now. Not that I've had much time to relax though since Friday meant Void Moon rehearsal from 9:30 in the morning... (normal bands rehearse at night and take a beer, Void Moon rehearse BEFORE breakfast on occasion...) But ok, we got to have a BBQ lunch before the guys had to leave for their easter comitments and I had the afternoon to take care of other stuff. For some reason it feels like things are taking so much more time than they used to. I never had problems to squeeze in Rehearsal, fancy dinner, photo-editing, TV watching and a party in a day but that don't happen often now.

My plan was to catch up as much as I could with photo editing since I can't open the raw-files from my new camera in Elements 7 and I can't install creative cloud on my work computer. Need to see if the little red one can handle it so I'm not locked to editing on weekends only. There's just too few of them to manage everything that shall fit. But else I'm very happy with the new camera and my new toy... Yep, I bought the Canon L 8-15mm lens... Turns out rather crazy and it's not all that useful, but it is FUN!!! Also, I tried the Sigma 10-20 but it was too slow for the price so it felt right to add a bit more cash and get the really good one.

Perhaps a 10-20 would have been more useful since it the 8mm almost takes 180 degrees, the pictures are virtually round. And I assume it is stressful for the bands as well since it focuses on 15cm away from the target and fully opened, this is what it looks like from 2-3dm away from the fist dude on stage!!! I.e. I get AWFULLY close with it... :O)

But it was quite a challenge for a while. My main lens broke during the Satan gig in Gothenburg. I got it fixed but I was out of it for Sacred Steel, Sanctuary and Up The Hammers. As a backup I had a fixed 50mm and the 8-15. A BIT of a mismacth in the middle but it turned out ok. That VERY CHEAP fixed 50mm is still very good and stable but it's hard to not have the zoom, I've always had that and I'm used to it so it becomes rather strage with a fixed lens. Also, for the EOS 50D I had 17-50mm and for the EOS 5D I have 24-70mm which made me miss the mm's up to 50 more than above. 

 
It sure would have been good with a few more days home now. I've been away a lot lately, two weeks in Dallas felt like an eternity and prior to that we went to Katowice to see Overkill and of course Up The Hammers in Greece. So these days has been really nice even ifI haven't completed what I set to do. I doubt I will manage by tomorrow but who knows, I might wake up early (fat chance, nooo) and feel inspired and start right away.

Anyway, if I can keep the speed up with writing and editing the days I'm home I will be in a good position before the new Festival season start. And I'm sure looking forward to it. I got a report yesterday saying Exciter kicked ass at Defenders of the Old Festival. I'm really looking forward to see them at KIT together with Uli Jon Roth, Riot V and more... Great line-up as always. But first we're off to Ireland!

Cheers
E

NP: Riot V - Unleash the Fire

Recorshoppers Anonymos #16

Well, things got very crazy when it got to shop for Records these last few weeks. But of course, when the opportunities comes, why not take them. For example, one Swedish online shop, Ginza actually started their sale at the same time as the sale for books started, which is at the end of February. I don't shop from them very much anymore since their webpage got quite bad after their upgrade, also the result when searching is really off. But, they are the best ones for Plastic covers for LP's and while I was getting that I thought I'd check out the sale as well... Ooouups! BIG BOX of CD's all for me! Also, Peter almost the same thought and bought a bunch for himself as well. For me it was a few MSG remasters, Grave, Thy Majestie, Holy Grail, Dr Livingdeath, Zombified, Deicide, Morbid Angel, Evil Masquerade, Vixen (yes, the US hair ones...), Seven Witches and a few more.
A package from TPL (Attacker, Blaze, Matlese Falcon...), some off of eBay (Access Denied, Lethal Saint...) and of course the visit at Keep It True (Legend, Toranaga, Artizan...). The collection of new ones then looked like something like this;

Sure, these are both for me and Peter but they're going into the same shelf no matter what.

And when starting checking eBay it tends to be rather expensive in the end... Perhaps not per record but in total it can run away a bit, but it's very rare that I actually regret buying any records.
When searching for Savatage or Vicious Rumors stuff on eBay, there are a few compilation album that always shows up. I don't know why I never checked them out before, should have been interesting enough at least. At least now, I took the opportunity to get them.
First the "US Metal Vol I-III". The first two are really cool, featuring songs (some unreleased) from Exciter, Vicious Rumors, Manilla Road, Vixen, The Rods and a lot more. The fun thing is that it isn't the bands that are listed for some songs, just the guitarplayers.
"Welcome to the Metalzone" is more standard but still a lot of good stuff. And since Savatage is featured, of course it is needed for the collection.

Speaking of collections, Peter started to do a homepage for his Anvil collection. Taking photos (multiple) for each unique record. And we are talking about a serious collection so it sure was a lot of pictures... A very cool thing to do and I got a bit inspired and started off with my Savatage stuff as well, but it won't be as many pictures. Not to start with anyway...

And while ordering, since the postage for one LP from US can be rather expensive and that most sellers combine shipping for multiple items it feels better to get a few extra so the postage per LP won't be as high!!!!
One of the choices was Tyton "Mind over Metal". Took it one more of a chance and damn, it was a surprise. The things I've heard earlier sounded great but that was from an earlier release. But apparently I've heard stuff from "Mind over Metal" as well. At the old Swedish Radio show "Rockbox" back in 1987 or perhaps 1988 Tyton's "Legacy" was played. I was completely sold on that song and I'm so sure Per Fontander annouced it as the new and upcoming Testament album. Of course I've never ever heard anything like Tyton's "Legacy" from Testament for obvious reasons so it was good to solve that mystery now 25 years later!

And yes, that package from TPL was massive. It felt a bit bad though, because all of it (Ginza, eBay stuff) showed up while I was in England for work so when I got home around midnight I just opened it up and check that all was in there, not more than that! The next day it was an early morning and away for Keep It True. And of course, a visit on that Festival ended up in another bunch of records. The TPL package got to me a bit late though, I would have liked to listen a bit to Air Raid prior to the Festival since it's always more fun to see bands after listeing a bit.

The pack on display above shows a selection of the latest arrivals, mainly from TPL but also from KIT (High Spirits and Eliminator 7"). The real stacks are much bigger, both me and Peter got one similar...

But back to the TPL package, the crown jewel is still to come... Damn, I would love all my favorite bands to do something like this. I mean the book, a lot of pictures on old (sometimes very odd) releases and old pictures. I'm of course talking about the Jag Panzer box set "Historical Battles". Hard to get stuff in a very nice package, that's great!

 

Since the plastic covers I got from Ginza was far from enough I dug into the sale ones more but couldn't find anything really interesting. Checking out some product it was either just a recomendation to check out something or something someone else had bought while getting something I was getting. Started to click around and found the Blue Öyster Cult Columbia albums, which is everything up until fantastic "Imaginos" plus a few collection and live albums, all in a nice package, 17 CD's plus a few free liveconcerts downloads. Really cool!

And then last but absolutely not least, the new Vicious Rumors stuff. Took the opportunity to get the CD and LP from Ginza. The japanese version of the CD arrived the other day as well...

So I know what I have to do the coming weeks!!! Need to go through all of it before the next TPL package arrives. I think the deal will be to pick it up at Muskelrock.
But before that we'll have a releaseparty for the Cult of the Fox album and Void Moon rehearsals. Gonna be nice but busy (since I need to practice quite a lot for the VM rehearsal), business trip again and we are going to catch a few Vicious Rumors shows down in Europe before Muskelrock!!!

Cheers
E

NP: COMMUNIC - Waves of Visual Decay