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

 

An eye for an eye...

Ok, last week was rather crazy. At least when it comes to workload and it don't seem to cool down anytime soon either. There's a lot of new projects that needs to be looked after and so. Of course, I'm not the only one to do this but it feels like all are equally busy these days. And then, if everything goes according to plan I'll have some cool trips to look forward to. That's always nice. But I wouldn
t mind if it calmed down a little bit at least. Ok, this week it sure will since I'll be working from home Tue-Fri, gonna be awesome.

And it wasn't just a busy week, it has been a busy weekend also. First I got home rather late Friday evening. Managed to do a good deed though. I found a wallet on the train (after freaking out on the drooling kid I changed to a free seat and there it was), called the guy up to confirm it was his and get the address. Now the wallet is on it's way back to the owner again. Hopefully I was the first to see it so noone else has stolen something and I get blamed for it. The cash was still there though so I think I was the first to see it.

Saturday morning me and Peter went for a walk with the camera. It is time to get the last few details for the upcoming Void Moon record in place so we took some photos for the artwork/booklet. The record will be titled "Deathwatch" and it feels really good at the moment. Coming back home again I had to boost a bit for Sunday's rehearsal. We're adding new songs to the live set and since there's only a few rehearsals left until we hit the stage next time it really is important to know the music when it's time to rehearse.

Of course it's hard to stay dead serious after a while and we had to joke around a bit also. Wonder what the neighbours was thinking for this shot... Nothing to do with the record but when Peter checked the well out in our backyard I couldn't resist taking some pictures. To get it all right I directed him a bit and it turned out rather cool (funny) I think.

Saturday evening it was thime for the first concert of the year. I don't remember when it was this long between gigs last. But there hasn't been anything between this, which is Entombed and Anvil in Trollhättan in December. So I was really charged. Peter offered to drive which ment BEER for me... He was a bit scared I would be hungover for the rehearsal but no issue there..
And Entombed really kicked ass, as always. It was a real smack in the head, intense, loud and groovy. Really cool.

Sunday's rehearsal went really well too! I was a little bit sleepy of course (since I woke up at 6am for some stupid reason) but not hangover at all. Must have been quality beer all Saturday then... New song "Assassin of an Age" went well so the hours spent playing Saturday really paid off. I realized I really miss spending time in the rehearse room cranking up my marshall and just play and play...

And now of course it's the ketchup effect instead. We haven't decided 100% yet but if I know myself right I won't be able to not go. So first up will be Satan @ Truckstop Alaska next weekend.

The weekend after that, in about 2 weeks we'll go to Sandviken and it turned out so good that Rocka Rollas, Sacred Steel and a few more are playing there that weekend. Yey...

Then I'm going to London to see Sanctuary (decided to skip the Hotel and go directly to the airport after the show, not too sure that feels as a good idea when I'm there though). Home and re-pack and off to Greece and Up The Hammers. Will be a massive concert weekend with the Warm-Up show, 2 Day Festival and Afterparty with Wolf among others...

Home again to reshuffle the bags and try to finalize the remaining things on the Void Moon record. Then off to Katowice to see Overkill and Sanctuary. (don't want to miss Overkill since they're so damn good, especially live)

So, the coming month sure will be full on! But I really look forward to it since I've just been working and working lately. I need some fun too!

How's the workout vs beer status? Quite good actually. After Saturday's beer intake I'm 1½ hours workout behind, but it could have been worse. Shouldn't be any problem to catch that up during the week. I've actually been on + for workout the last couple of weekends...

Cheers
E

NP: Centaur - Perception

Recordshoppers Anonymous #19

This time it was the right bottle at least! Last weekend when I was going to pick up the Wolf Absinthe (with 66,6% alcohol of course) it didn't look right at all and when checked the shop had sent the wrong one. Today it was the right one...

I also got some Savatage and Vicious Rumors Japanese prints for the collection! New versions it is also so that is cool! But not as cool as the batch of cassettes, polish prints for Sava. VR's Cyberchrist I've never seen on cassett earlier so this is of course very cool! I really should document the collections since both are getting quite big now... We'll see when I find the time though!

Yesterday it was Accept in Copenhagen, today it is a lazy day! Maybe I can find some energy to record some also. Would have been great to finish "Out of the Well"... Tomorrow it's rehearsal time again and a second Accept concerts! Full on right now!

Cheers
E

I know how men feel now...

Because I think I caught a man-cold... I feel very miserable and frustrated, sneezing and coughing like crazy. Also, I was stupid enough to not listen to Peter on Monday morning so I actually drove to work and now I'm stuck in my shoebox flat in Borås. No records and nothing in the freezer. And worst of all NO COFFEE in the morning... (The Horror)
Even if I'm not well I've decided to take a few meetings over phone for work, mainly because it's easier to live with that than to rebook all other busy people in the near future. 
But without coffee in the morning I felt like this;

(yes, I stole it from internet...)

Lucky for my colleagues they weren't close before I could go out and shop for a cup of coffee I tell you...

 

I've boosted up for tomorrow though to not have to go through the same thing again.

 

Anyway, I'm not completely out of Metal here even if the selection is very limited to what I brought to listen to in the car. New The Haunted, sounds amazing, disappears a bit in the middle though, songs just becomes a big mash but beginning and end of the record is kick-ass. Also, I think it needs more than 2 spins to settle so I shouldn't say to much about it yet. Same thing goes for Entombed A.D. and Wolf, that I shouldn't say too much but both sounds amazing and will easily make it to the selection for album of the year (the pile for that should be extensive this year and there's so much more to come).

 

Else I'm working hard on catching up. My new computer is installed at home with a new monitor and the Photoshop CC as well as Lightroom 5 handles .raw files from both my cameras. And damn there's a difference. 

 

Deep Machine from Keep It True with my old camera;

And Kansas from Gothenburg with the new one;

Perhaps not the best way of checking to add pictures adjusted for web to compare but the feeling with the new camera is so good. Also, to be able to push the ISO has showed to be very efficient for concerts to get faster shutter-speed and increase the sharpness in the picture. And no, the grain is not that huge pushing it as it was with my old camera. So of course the EOS 5D MkIII wins but I really like the EOS 50D still, the built in flash comes in handy still, since it is very dark in smaller clubs and flash is a necessity to get any pictures at all. Now, to complete my wishlist is to get a real fish-eye lens. Have my eyes on a Canon L 8-16 which can't fail but the guy at Rajala Photo really recommended the Sigma 10-20 also as a very good one and more usable (Peter still looked a bit bothered when I tried it out in the store though, camera was a bit too close to his face to be ok...) Price is half off on the Sigma compared to Canon so the main question is if I want the lens NOW or I can wait for next years Festival season and save some money and buy the Canon...

I really want this week to be over now, first because I hope that my cold will be gone to the weekend. Also that we have a Void Moon rehearsal planned. Dutch Doom Days are coming closer so we really need to get in shape NOW! Also, one big package from Pure Steel (Project Terror and more) and from TPL should have arrived until then!!!  

Now I'll go back to self-pity here!!

Cheers
E

NP: Serpent Venom - Of things Seen & Unseen