The Sadist

That's how it has felt from the management at work the last couple of weeks since Tell-Day for the lay-off's has been pending and pending. Just to know almost every 5th person at work have to leave is hard, not knowing if being one of them is really stressful. Ok, I was never really worried for myself. I have a lot of years in Ericsson and good skills for my work but the ones I'm working with. The team is really good and it was definite some changes would come. Especially since it was communicated (although taken back for a while) that my position would belong to Stockholm instead of Borås, which mean a new manager for me but not the rest of my team...

Anyway, I still have my job and the rest would be sorted out later.

Then I'm not sure how I missed that Saint Vitus is playing at Truckstop Alaska tomorrow. Maybe since they're playing Copenhell and the assumption was that we were going to see them there. And then, deciding not to go to Copenhell it kind of slipped our minds. But at least we found out in time so now it's concert time tomorrow.

And then we're having a few weeks of Concert vacation before the real Festival Season starts. Metal Magic, Bang Your Head and then Headbangers Open Air...

The last for sure is one of the highlights of the year. Awesome people and awesome bands. Not the major Headliners but a lot of good bands anyway, and frankly, compared to the bigger Festivals there are always more bands I haven't seen before at Headbangers, which always is fun. Ok, I still think it's fun to see Motörhead and Saxon even if I've seen those bands well over 30 times each.

I'm really looking forward to see Treshold, Satan, Rock Goddess, Iron Angel, Hurlement, Stormwitch, Hexx, Hirax... Ok, it's useless to list all bands, gonna be a tough one again.

And of course, it's not really a Festival but a Warm-Up for a coming one... 2 Heavy 4 You reemerge after 15 years and the line-up is a killer. Of course, it include Void Moon so that makes it more fun.
The warm-up is damn good too, Hungarian Omen, Ram and Stonegriff.

But first it is midsummer, nothing planned but it will be really nice with an extra day off and to stay at home and do nothing. Ok, I have tons of things to do so it will be a busy weekend but you get the point. No travel, no concerts... Should gather some energy and sort out the vinyl shelf. I should have done that around Easter but then I was busy recording.
Speaking of the bands. We had the first Cult Of The Fox rehearsal in 3 years. I know the band was put to rest but hey, getting on offer to play live can change such a decision. So yes, we're playing the Malta Doom warm-up show with Iron Void and Hooded Priest and some more. We're kind of the odd sods in the bunch but it sure will be fun. The rehearsal went really well also and it feels good to have the privilege after just one rehearsal to be able to pick the songs we want to play rather than taking the ones we've had time to nail... We nailed more than needed so that's good!!!!

I should have some record packages coming in for the weekend too which will be good company to the cleaning activities planned for the weekend also. And, in the freezer right now I have a batch of Wolf Pale Moon Ale's which will be a nice addition to the midsummer herring (Sill is a must at midsummer) or BBQ!  

CHEERS
E

NP: HELLOWEEN - My God Given Right

 

Dark at Dawn

Even if it should be a lot colder outside than it is, I still think it's too cold now. I do like dark night at the end of summer, when it's just so comfortable to be outside you can stay out forever. The darkness now is just depressing.

But, we had a very cool and fun weekend which started early with Trouble at Loppen. Very good show but it could have been more people. Great performance non the less. Then a bit of a hangout with Stonegriff before we went to see Saint Vitus and Orange Goblin at Babel. Another great one but the atmosphere was odd, very raw and gruffy at the floor!
Then home for a few hours before we caught the plane to Bremen for the Overkill package. That too was a great one but perhaps both me and Peter was a little too tired to appreciate it fully. Still it was great and we had a very good time. 

Took the opportunity to enjoy some local goodies as well, found a very cozy place which brew their own beer, very nice one. The food too was good even if Germany isn't famous for their cousine. 

Now a new week and it's "only" Saxon and one more Saint Vitus and Orange Goblin show... Calm week that is!

Cheers 

E

First up...

Yep, it will be a lot of travelling the coming days/week... It's not really how I planned it from the start. Then it was just supposed to be a break from work. Not a break and then moving on to tasks that generates even more work.
But at least it means a week at another office than the regular one.

And it sure is nice with some vacation before next week. I'm actually really excited about the trip, since it's a whole new place to visit and hopefully it still is end of summer Instead of dark and rainy there as well! Where? Later...

But it will be an intense fall! Lots of concerts coming (Trouble, Overkill, Saxon , Saint Vitus...) and Festivals (MDM, DDD, OGF)... So it sure is catching up for a rather calm Festival summer!

But first there's a bit home and I need to repack my bag, which will be a challenge since I want to fit all into my small bag... We'll see how that works out!

Cheers
E

Sabbath Bloody Sabbath

Just middle of the week still but I feel like I've been working two weeks straight now. But that's of course not the case but the weekend passed way to fast and I didn't find time to do even half of what I thought of doing. But at least I've finished off a few things at least. 

During the Easter weekend I started off with a bit of a Health mission, make good food and boost up with some extra vitamins, i.e. fruit smoothies for breakfast. Those were really nice and very simple to prepare. And they actually work. Need to find the same for the cat... For Easter Friday he was passed out on the couch most all day. 

But since the sun showed up a little at least we decided to take the cat for a walk outside. He really liked it and walked around on the patio and law sniffing most everything. He also tried to crawl into the hedge, when I poked him he hissed at me that little yellow-belly. After an hour outside he slept like a log the rest of the afternoon. 

And of course, no Metal Head in Sweden can have missed that Black Sabbath is coming to play in the winter (huh, don't want to think about that now when it finally starts to feel like spring here). I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it will be Black Sabbath this time and not Ozzy with Friends even if that was a very nice event too. Tickets are released on Friday, will be interesting to see if Ticnet will survive this one...

In the Live Nation news mail I got it mentioned pre-pre-purchase for some Mobile Operators event manager. Go Live I think it was called for Tele2... Tickets available now already so I shopped until I dropped... Or at least one for me and one for Peter. MUAHAHAHAH!!!! So I'm not bothered if Ticnet crashes on Friday now!

The Easter Weekend started off with a concert, Saint Vitus and Mos Generator played at Loppen in Copenhagen. Awesome gig really! But the lights at Loppen is almost non-existent so I decided to go for (almost) Black & White's for this report since that looks better if the pictures becomes grainy. The flash was still needed though. And since the place doesn't have a Photopit and the place was rather packed so it was hard to move. Which means the pictures are all from the same angle so I'm not all happy about the result. But I got a few cool ones.

But what was even worse was the light at the Helloween and Gamma Ray concert. There were absolutely no lack of lights but these modern spots are really evil and the colors messes up the digital camera. Normally it is just in red light the camera gets blind but now it was for almost everything. Or, when it was Green the pictures got Super-green, same with Blue as well. Really annoying. So again, (almost) B&W to get anything at all out of it. The report will be up on Metal Kaoz in a few days.
  

Is there anyone who has any tips on how to behave in situations like these ones. Let me know. I really would appreciate some tips... 

During Easter I also amused myself with sorting out the vinyl shelf. The big Expedit ones hold 25 pockets each and 2 of those is almost filled with LP's... To sort alphabetically I had to take down all apart from the first two pockets and put them up again. Worse than a long pass at the gym I tell you, damn my legs and arms were hurting after that! BUT IT LOOKED COOL, very massive. 
Of course, for the last few weeks both me and Peter has gone on shopping sprees when it comes to records. I got 15 or so from the Ginza sale (good one and there's still a few I really want), Peter got another package and then we went to Skivesset i Malmö and picked up some 2:nd Hand vinyls. And hopefully I will receive a really FAT package from TPL before the weekend... So I guess it is time to start all over again...

And now Keep It True is just a bit over a week away! Everything's sorted out and for the weekend we'll have our own Warm-Up party! 
But before I can relax in Germany it is a few more days of hard work!!! (but at least I got a raise last week, quite good one too)

Cheers
E

NP: Liege Lord - Master Control

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