A-ha - Foot of the Mountain

Next week will the norwegian band A-ha release their 9th album "Foot of the Mountain" and the single with the same name is very good! So I'm very excited to buy the album!

Foot of the Mountain will go back to the 80's synth and electro-pop sound! A-ha should be A-ha as long they can! His voice is still smooth and clear as back then, it's still a pleasure to listen to!

I remember my A-ha audio tapes that I listened constantly to during a special period:

Hunting High And Low (1985) with the hit Take On Me and Scoundrel Days (1986).

I wonder where they are! I really should rebuy them on CDs!

Video - Foot of the Mountain

A-ha is to headline the iTunes Live festival on 24 July 2009. The lineup for the festival also includes Simple Minds, Oasis, Snow Patrol, Franz Ferdinand, Kasabian and The Saturdays.

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/Viktoria Colonna

Takida - New Video - As You Die

Takida's new single "As You Die" is now digitally available for download. It's the first single from their new album "The Darker Instinct" which will be released on September the 2nd.

Download "As You Die" HERE!

Watch a preview of the new video "As You Die" HERE !

The video is in a James Dean theme and it is shot in Germany.

/Viktoria Colonna

Jace Everett - An Interview

His voice is deep, cool, rough but still tender. His music is a flavour of blues, rockabilly, country and rock. Jace Everett, well known country artist, has just released his new record Red Revelations this June. He is even recognized because of his song "Bad Things" written back in 2005, which is used as the True Blood vampire drama's theme song! Actually some tracks of Red Revolution is inspired by the first season of True Blood! That's just awsome!

Just the other day I had the opportunity to interview Jace!

How is this summer going?

It's actually been a great summer so far. Released the new record June 23rd and we've had a lot of great reviews and sales happen since.

Are you satisfied about your new album Red Revelations?

I think this is, by far and a way, the best work I have done yet. The songs and the production are really right where my head and heart are at right now. I couldn't be happier.

It is indeed inspired of True Blood. Do you like the show as well? Do you watch it?

I do watch the show. I actually just got HBO, but I've been able to keep up with it thanks to friends and family beforehand. I think the show is a great mixture of sexy, cool, funny, and dark. Since that's the kind of music I make I really dig it.

When you wrote the song Bad Things back in 2005, would you imagine back then that it could be a vampire theme?

I was a big Anne Rice fan back in the day (who didn't want to be Lestat!?), but no, I hadn't thought of it. I did always think it had great potential for film or TV. I glad Alan Ball agreed!

What music do you like to listen to?

I listen to it all; country (old stuff), rock, classical, ambient, even jazz. I love anything that's got heart and soul with a little brains and balls attached!

What do you do in your free time beside music?

I'm a book nerd. I love to read. I spend a lot of time with my dog out in the parks. I love to travel and see new places and cultures.

Have you been to Sweden?

I have never been to Sweden. When I lived in the south of France I had a lot of Swede friends and always found them to be, across the board, very clever and very cool people. I would love the chance to see Sweden.

We really want Jace Everett to Sweden too! Soon!

Listen to Jace Everett HERE !

/Viktoria Colonna

The Sounds

The Sounds are a Swedish New Wave band founded in 1999 in Helsingborg. Their musical style mixes punk and pop/Synth-pop influences. Most songs make integrated use of synthesizers. The group is often compared to Blondie, The Cars, the Epoxies and Missing Persons.
Their debut album Living in America was released in 2002, with the follow up Dying to Say This to You on March 21, 2006. Their third album Crossing the Rubicon was released on June 2, 2009. (Wiki)

Maja Ivarsson - Vocals

Felix Rodriguez - Guitars
Johan Bengtsson - Bass
Jesper Anderberg - Synthesizers/Piano
Fredrik Nilsson - Drums

Now The Sounds are on a Usa/Canada tour with No Doubt during the summer so it will be a very big step forward to their career.

Like most people in Sweden they also think that it's really sad that Hultsfred Festival has such big crisis. For them the festival is very important. They had one of the best shows there this summer and it is at Hultsfred Festival that the band met Jesper Anderberg. (Aftonbladet)

Of course they all hope for a better future for Hultsfred.

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/Viktoria Colonna

New Pearl Jam song ! - Listen it Here !

Pearl Jam will release the new album Backspacer in September (Around the 20th) and you can listen to the new single The Fixer right HERE!

A great tour will follow so check out the dates!

The Fixer - Backspacer

This full-of-energy song really shines the day! It is a mixture of typical east coast smooth rock with New Jersey 's Springteen sound! Their early grunge almost totally disappears!

/Viktoria Colonna

Hultsfred Festival might be over

Now it is official. It might be over for Hultsfred Festival.

This is a very tragical and sad event for Sweden. This festival has been an historical music event and very important. But from 2007 a wind of crisis came in. Now they have in mind to fire all the 20 employees and after 24 years they will close the big music door.

According to Aftonbladet this morning, Hultsfred Festival has lost 7 milion of swedish crowns.

Maybe that is a chance that next summer they will have the festival for the last time but in a minor scale. After that we'll see how they will handle it.

We will simply wish on the other hand that there is a chance anyway to make this great festival survive!

Afb, Exp

/Viktoria Colonna

Ashes You Leave

Her voice is kind and telling, the doom metal confronts a really dramatic gothic melody as well. The sad violin makes the music more outstanding and supernatural when it plays along the tough heavy guitar riffs. In the song "Every you and Every" me I really like when the female voice sings at the same time as the rough melodic growl from behind. Ashes You Leave is a band from Croatia and they are still a fresh band so they have still much to develop and they are really talented. In their own complete new album Songs of The Lost they really have emerged and the band has found a very good balance through the sound of the vocals and the instruments.

Listen to Ashes You Leave HERE

/Viktoria Colonna

Archive - Richard Sanderson & La boum

This morning I was reading my very old diary from 1992-93 and I got some great memories of those years. Between Guns 'n' Roses' photos, Pop idols, and I ♥ dedications that took over all the pages, I found photos of La boum (The party), a very cute french movie from 1980. It is about Vic (Sophie Marceau) and how it is to be 13, in love, and living an up & down life. It was a movie you just had to see. The movie's hit song was "Reality" of Richard Sanderson.

Through all rock'n'roll Vic gets to listen to

"Reality".

"Reality" was at the 1st place on the hitlist in 15 different countries and it sold more than 8 million copies worldwide! Anyhow Richard Sanderson was very unknown and if it wasn't for his contribution to the La boum's soundtrack he would have stayed that way.

/Viktoria Colonna

Metallica - Sonisphere - Reviews

Now that the show at Sonisphere festival in Sweden is over, and unfortunally I couldn't be there or at the other cities where the one day festival took place, for the fans and interested people out there here's some Metallica reviews:

Magazine: Expressen

Reporter: Martin Carlsson

Degree: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

"Det har knorrats en del över valet av spelplats. Metallica hade spikat Ullevi, men det är faktiskt skönt att en sådan gigant faktiskt kan lira ute på vischan."

Read it HERE (In Swedish)

Magazine: Online - Metalrage.com

Reporter: Buzzin Hornet

Degree: ♥ ♥ ♥

"Then it was time for 'Tallica! The stage got rearranged, because you just can't let 'Tallica play on the exact same stage as any of the other bands. 9 pm sharp, 'Blackened' kicked everyone's ass that had been playing their songs that day!"

Read it HERE (In English)

Magazine: Aftonbladet

Reporter: Marcus Grahn

Degree: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

"Man lämnar det med en känsla av att James Hetfields öppningsfråga är retorisk. Att det känns fantastiskt att leva om man vill att det ska göra det. På något plan har detta varit Metallicas tema sedan tiden kring ”St. Anger”, och man kan inte protestera mot den livssynen när ”Nothing else matters” förs metodiskt in i en odödlig ”Enter sandman”.

Read it HERE (In Swedish)

/Viktoria Colonna

Moonspell - An interview

What is Moonspell?

"Even I have problems with the answer to this question. Id say we are representing a mixture of horror and beauty, heaviness and melody. The Antidote starts off very brutal and ends very melodic. This way we close the circle. This is moonspell".

-Fernando Ribeiro

Fernando Ribeiro - Vocals

Mike Gaspar - Drums

Pedro Paixão - Keyboard/guitar

Ricardo Amorim - Guitar

Aires Pereira - Bass

Sitting with a cup of coffee I'm listening of Moonspell's last album Night Eternal. A very 5/5 points CD!

It is really as they are casting a spell in my apartment! Maybe I should make more coffee for fallen angels!?

Anyhow I really hope they will come to Sweden again soon!

Moonspell is warming up with some festival shows before they will start a big tour in the states.

I had the chance to ask some questions to Mike Gaspar:

When was the last time you guys played in Sweden?

It was the Arvika Festival last year. It was a strange festival with many diferent types of music! But we had played there before and we get along great with these kinds of alternative festivals. Summer in Sweden is always great to see!!! he he

How will the upcoming USA tour be?

It starts in October and we are taking with us our great friends and inspiration for years ! The mighty Samael!

Last time we toured with them was 96 in Europe and this will be 13 years since but in the states! The stars are allinged on this one!! I think it will be a great and one of a kind tour.

Which is the ideal setlist?

Well for us it is always difficult to play 30 min 40 even 50 min sets with all the albums we have and history.

So perfect is of course when we can headline and go through our new album and all the best songs the fans want to hear, making the show one big celebration that is just between us and the people who are in front of us. Like a ritual that starts and ends with a bang and some kind of memory to take home and remember forever!! That's the Moonspell's way!

Are Moonspell planning some new material?

At the moment we are doing many shows and maybe doing an acoustic album for Portugal . Still not clear but the idea is in the air. For sure we will have some new material for the next year and release it . We did a great album, Night Eternal, so we feel we really have to push ourselves to live up to it.

Which songs on Night Eternal do you like the most?

Well the title track is awsome because of the combination of sweet and angelic voices giving you a soothing reaction to then go for the extreme of pure agression with such a great balance! Pure goth on Death Metal ! he he

Is Metal very popular in Portugal?

It has always been a subculture but a bit hidden and badly viewed by society . Things changed a lot with the 90's and it is a lot more acceptable but still lacks the history of many other countries. But compared to places like India, China, Marrocos etc. We are very fortunate and we understand a bit what it is like to love metal and not having any shows or access to the music. Internet changed this a lot and metal is now a lot more universal and the portuguese have developed also side by side.

As a drummer which are the drummer/s you admire and inspire you the most?

When i was 8 guys like Alex Van Halen and Tommy Lee changed my world! They were just perfect and had so much energy. Something that inspired my own playing.

As i got older drummers like Pete Sandoval, Gene Hoglan, Donald Tardy and many other great Death Metal drummers is what really excited me and all I ever wanted was to be as good as them behind a kit with a great band!

These days so many diferent drummers have inspired me and I always look out for the good qualities in them and try to enjoy it and maybe even learn from it!

Do you have any other projects outside Moonspell?

Well Fernando has many projects but I am very much a one band kinda person and I want to be ready and always do my best possible performance. This takes a lot out of me 'cause drums are very intense and I have been in bands since I was 14 and now I'm 33! he he

So I try to stay in shape and I have developed a love for Taekwondo and Bodybuilding. Even to the point were I am now a 3rd Dan and Instructor and give classes and train regularly when we are off tour! I also was a gym teacher but i found that it took to much out of me ! So I train for myself and help friends when ever needed! I also learned a lot of Physiotherapy and this comes in great hands when we're on tour and someone has a big problem!! Doctor Mike comes in!!! ha ha

And check out Moonspell's unbelieveble great website! HERE !

/Viktoria Colonna

Metallica - Keep On Rocking!

Tonight at 11: 35 pm will Metallica make a show at one-day Sonisphere festival in Hultsfred (Sweden). Many people are at the place (Not me unfortunately) and it will be very interesting to read the different reviews of the show tomorrow. Sometimes a concert can be liked very much or very critized. It is sad that I can't be there and watch the gig with my own eyes and to get an own opinion.
In an interview with Metallica's drummer Lars Ulrich in Aftonbladet, Lars says that Metallica will play until they can't no more stay on their own feet! Isn't it great?
Not just because Metallica is now a legendary band that wrote many hits but I love their love and dedication to music.
Many people think that musicians after 20 or more years of music should just retire. Most think of that because the music changes and the old fans don't like it and also because "the band" becomes old and doesn't sound like the past years.
Of course they can't always sound the same! A person change with the age!
Of course they don't always want to make the same music, time and style change with the years!
Many should admire a band that doesn't quit just for the age. Many should be inspired of the devotion to a job.
Then there are bands that after many years really sound awfull but many of them just have the courage to change style even if a lot of criticism come along.
No one should give up a passion. And I think Metallica as many other great veteran bands should really play on the stage even if they just sit down!











Metallica

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/Viktoria Colonna

Michael Jackson unreleased song!

An unreleased song has been found of Michael Jackson.
The song title is "A Place With No Name" from 1971 (Americas band).
There must be hundreds of unreleased songs of Michael Jackson and I really think this is not a simple found. I can imagine that making money has more to do with it than the song appearance just for the fans' sake. But it happend almost after every common death, something comes up from the locket anyhow.
Anyway it's always interesting to listen to unreleased songs, they are more down to earth and the real artist's aura is more in them!

















I remember when I was 5 years old and I watched an old VHS with Michael Jackson. I danced for hours to his songs and made up moves that was similar to his. He was some kind of an idol back then and will remeber him as the King of Pop that he really was.

R.I.P

DN, Afb

/Viktoria Colonna

Whitney Houston makes a comeback

In the new album (that will be released the 1st of September) both Alicia Keys and Akon are guests and it is a mix of R'n'B, pop and of course powerballads!
I was really glad and of course surprised when I read about her comeback in the news.
I admired her for a long time and she gave me much inspiration as a singer and from her song techniques.
Her heavy drug problem made it all fall down for her music business and her voice became only a ghost in the void and almost only her 80's and 90's hits were still big alive in the radio stations and compilations.
I really look forward to listening to her new songs! And we sure all hope that the music will make, such a great diva like her, in a better way of life!

















Afb, Exp, DN, SvD

/Viktoria Colonna

Seventh Wonder (Rockweekend)

This will be my last post about Rockweekend.
A week has past since the festival started and I already miss it! (Well, not the mud and the rain) but there were so many great bands that I quite don't remember the bad weather at all!
I named the post "Seventh Wonder" because it his their day today and alone of beeing the last Rockweekend band I will review and add the 5 questions asked to the singer Tommy Karevik.

SEVENTH WONDER (Thur. 16:00 RK-tent) ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥
















Very nice progressive metalband from Stockholm, Sweden. They played very technical and tight! The band had similar clothes and they matched each other great! I adore the fact that they do their own thing. Metal is not always wearing black. White shirt and white shoes matched their melodic technical metal very well!
Tommy Karevik, was in a really good shape and he sang with great self esteem and charisma, Andreas Blomqvist, bass, owned the stage indeed and he really rocked the Rockklassiker's tent off! It was sad that they had so short time to play.

How was Rockweekend festival?
I think that the festival managed to put together a nice line up considering this beeing their second year and all! However the festival really suffered from bad weather and on top of that, really really bad allround organisation! Nothing really worked here!
SW arrived at the festival about 3 hours before the gig (this is usually more than enough...) 15 min before the gig we were still standing outside the festival area all wet in the mud, carrying our gear with no one to tell us what to do or where to go! Due to this fact we where a little late on stage and there for had to cut one song from our 30 minute set (initially we were promised a 40 minute set on which we made the decision to play at RW... but I guess someone decided 30 min sounded better!)
Seeing some familiar faces in the crowd made it all worth it though!

What did you think about the sound in Rockklassiker's tent?
I think the sound on stage was ok overall... as a singer it is so important to hear yourself in the monitors which i also did most of the time! Regarding the outgoing sound I have no clue... I guess you have to tell me=)

Did you feel in shape?
My voice was feeling very good before the show and we were all psyched to play as always, so with the proper warm up, time to relax, a tempered loge with a mirror we would have been all set to kick ass...
Now we had to kick ass anyway=)...

How did the show go?
The gig went great, I mean it is always fun to play and the supporting audience really made us feel like it was all worth it! A huge thanx to everyone who attended! We are just sorry on behalf of our fans that we did not get to finish our set! We promise to make up for that next time!

Did you watch some other bands too?
No I didn't and I am sorry to say that! We had planned to stay and watch some of the great bands and have a good time, but the weather just didn`t allow that this time!


I really want to thanks Rockweekend for the great band line-up this year and say hi to all the great people I met!
Rock on!

/Viktoria Colonna

Rockweekend Part 3

Friday, the sun came entirely out and most part of the mud dried out so even if my boots still had problems of dealing with the ground, the mud wasn't so mean anymore!
I must admite that in this day my band's schedule changed. I was on my way to see Scar Symmetry but it wasn't a good concert at all: It has a really bad sound, the singer wasn't in a good shape at all, and together they played as they were in a bucket full of sand..Maybe I'm too hard on chosing my words but it felt that way. Nightingale was very good the little I listened to. I met many people that I didn't speak with since a while and my social skills took over the listening. What can I say? Nightingale was great as a background music! In the wait for Dimmu Borgir , that was the most wanted event for me of the festival, I really enjoyed U.D.O and Queensryche! I danced almost as long as they played and they were amazing!

MACHINERY (Thur. 14:00 RK-tent) ♥ ♥ ♥



















Machinery was a great start for my schedule, I like their mix of Death, Black, Thrash and Heavy metal. Michel Isberg has a really pure melodic voice with a pinch of aggressive energy in it.
He gave it all to the crowd, even if I think he should have been more relaxed. I sensed a touch of James Labrie in Michel's smooth way of singing when he didn't growl. For beeing only 30 min show and the sound was quite turbid in the Rockklassiker's tent they made it all sound as it should.

Like I wrote in my post yesterday I will ask 5 questions to the singer in Dreamland, Machinery and Seventh Wonder. You can read the Q/A with Jake E of Dreamland in the yesterday's post and with Tommy Karevik of Seventh Wonder tomorrow.
Today is Michel Isberg's day!

How was Rockweekend festival?
I really liked Rockweekend very much. It had the greatest band line-up of all the festivals this year. I liked the festival area more last year and it's annoying that you couldn't take the beer with you in the biggest area...otherwise it was fantastic!

What did you think about the sound in Rockklassiker's tent?
The sound was ok, but not the best though, even it we have had it worse before. The crew, that fixed the scene and the technics, felt professional so we didn't need to worry about a thing.

Did you feel in shape?
It was a little hard to sing so early in the day, The more time you have during the day to focus the best it is. The first song felt a little entangled in the throut, but after that everything felt great!

How did the show go?
After the nervousity in the first song I felt that it went good! The guys played great and I sang better and better as the time went by. The atmosphere was great such it was the little extra that loaded up everything more.

Did you watch some other bands too?
I saw most of the bands! hehe, The high lines was Testament, Wasp, Pure Mania , U.D.O, Queensryche and Memory Garden!














Tobias Sammet (Edguy)

I thought that the high line was Dimmu Borgir!
I waited 2 hours in the middle of the front row just to see them. And you know, readers, what is it most chocking? I've never seen them live before! So better late than never.
Edguy made a terrfic show just while I stood waiting for Dimmu Borgir. The scenes were so near each other that I could watch the show from a distance. Such a great charisma Tobias Sammet has!
There were long minutes until the music started and finally Shagrath came from the darkness in front of us like a ghost...

DIMMU BORGIR (23:35 OA stage) ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥


















Shagrath (Dimmu Borgir)

Fire, sparkling rain and explosions. It was amazing! I was captured by his growls and the music's empathy. It was rough, cool and dark. The band made a wonderful show and played really great and perfectly synchronized. I adored the costumes, the sharp spikes and the make-up. They know what to wear and how to wear it. They had a great contact with the crowd and even if the music is very serious and full of mystery the atmosphere was very relaxed even if my adrenaline was up to my ears! Even a man falling from behind on my head was not so much to worry about, Dimmu Borgir made the music sound like a curse that made you feel good.

/Viktoria Colonna

Rockweekend Part 2

RockKlassiker's tent at Rockweekend is a drink tent indeed with a scene where young and smaller bands with often great talent plays.
The tent was a good place to hang out when it was raining the most, although after one day it smelled like a stable and we were the animals full of mud...
No, it was not soo bad! It was cozy and there were many tables, two bars and the scene was big enough.
Like I wrote in my last post I started the festival with Machinery, Seventh Wonder and Dreamland at Rockklassiker's tent.
That's why I'm going to review their concerts and ask each of the bands' singer 5 equal questions just to make a perspective of their opinions about the festival, the tent and their gig.
I will let them have one day each in this blog starting with Dreamland.

DREAMLAND (17:00 RK-tent) ♥ ♥ ♥


















Jake E

Dreamland is from Göteborg, the Swedish city known for the origin of many rockbands!
They play melodic power metal and their new album will come out in August.
The played the great songs "Eye For An Eye" and "Revolution in Paradise" and the crowd sang along! Friends and supporters of Dreamland had taken place in the front row singing, screaming and cheering!
That was the first time I watched Dreamland live. I discovered them on Myspace actually! It was a good 30 min concert with great playing, well sound and character. I just hoped that the band could have the same emotions and enthusiasm that the crowd had! They should seem to be more related to each other as musicians.
Jake E, the singer, had some problems with hearing himself at the beginning but I absolutely didn't notice it because his voice was brilliant!

How was Rockweekend festival?
Well over all we had a great time!
Unfortunately the weather was as bad as it could get on the first day, BUT, It couldn't have been better for us as we played at the tent stage which resulted in that all metal heads had to come and watch our show and squeeze in together with our hardcore fans, instead of standing in the storm watching the other bands which played at the open air stages!

What did you think about the sound in Rockklassiker's tent?
Due to the storm on our way over there and the tight schedule. we had no time at all to let the house engineers know what we wanted to have in our monitors! Over all it worked out fine but I couldn't hear a shit of what I was doing in the first two songs, but it got better at the end! Regarding the sound that the audience heard I can't say nothing about but I hope it was awesome!

Did you feel in shape?
Well we all were a bit stressed when we landed at Kilafors, as we had 30 minutes to load our gears, change clothes, and go on stage. But all the guys in the band did an Awesome performance and I must say that after the first song it was on 110%! :-)

How did the show go?
We're all very satisfied with it! Too bad that we only had 30 minutes on stage but in the end we had a great show and the response from the audience was fantastic! I'm pretty sure we gained a lot of new fans there !

Did you watch some other bands too?
Not that many, I went to say hi to my friends in Dia Psalma and Dead By April and watched a couple of songs from stage. But to be honest I spent most of the time drinking beers in the tour bus!

Well I couldn't do so many things either that first day because of the weather... Actually in the evening I drove all my way home and reloaded my energy for the upcoming day!

And what a day!!


















Fredde, Apostasy

It started with the really good black metal band Apostasy from Umeå Sweden which gave a terrific show in the Rockklassiker's tent. They played amazing together and the singer's growl was deep and right in sound. They had such a contact with the crowd and you could almost feel as you were on stage too!
I waited for Aeon from Östersund, Sweden, in the tent, they had the show right after Apostasy. I was sitting at one table near the stage and it felt like a massage chair! It was vibrating non-stop from the high rythm and the death/black metal hyper fast drum playing. They were nice to listen live to. Great show!
It was a buffet-day of different kinds of music, from doom metal's Isole, glam rock'n'roll's Gemini Five to the heavy groovy and melodic Corroded. I just almost fell asleep when Paradise Lost showed up..I really like their music, I've got several albums at home but live..It was going too slow and boring for a festival..It was just on time that Mustasch came along!

MUSTASCH (19:00 Open Air Stage) ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥














Mustasch

Ralf is loved by Sweden. He has become almost a national icon of rock music!
The crowd was very excited and big! It was impossible to find a good place to stay near the stage.
It was the first time I saw them play without 2 of the ordinary members that left a while ago (Hannes Hansson, guitar and Mats Hansson, drums).
He said he was upset of their leaving the band but the new guys were very appriciated and very great!
I really enjoy Mustasch. They have a good old school heavy sound with cliché songs wearing blues. It makes me remember the 90's Metallica. Ralf's voice is just too cool.
Wonderful show and the sun was looking through the clouds as well!

The night finished with Chickenfoot! What can I say about that?
-Legendary
-Show of great virtuoso musicians
-Good blues/rock music
-Chad Smith was the one
-Joe Santriani left me without words.
They really love to be there and they showed it!

Helahalsingland,

/Viktoria Colonna

Rockweekend Part 1

There is something magical about Music Festivals. When good music meet great people in so many different circumstances it is exciting and full of surprises. You never know if you will meet someone that you haven't met since forever or if you will get to know new wonderful people! At festivals you have the chance to discover new great bands and watch musicians that you have listen to since you were a little kid.
Like last year I was thrilled to be in Kilafors (Sweden) at Rockweekend last week.

It was very different though. Last year it was the first time that Rockweekend was on and this year I think it developed a little too fast.
Last time Rockweekend was a small festival with only few bands and it took place near a mansion and the lake. It was cozy and nice. It had a tender atmosphere that made you feel at home.
This year Rockweekend took a much bigger step than it could handle. The festival moved in a whole different area, away from houses and the lake and it was very clumsy to move from a festival's location to another. The ugly rainy weather didnt' make things go easier. It was mud all over and my feet just disappeared under the ground when I walked! It is sad that you can't make arrangements with nature. Rain should have visited Kilafors a week later.














Thursday in the rain

PLUS

-Great sound and loud enough
-The camping area was near the festival area
-Toilets were more clean than at many other festivals
-Good price on alcoholic beverage.
-Very polite people that worked at the festival
-The bands played at perfect schedule time.
-Many great bands at the same time
-Good food at normal price

MINUS

-Few toilets in the camping area
-Bad entries from the camping area to the festial area.
-It was like a labiryinth in the festival area, there should have been more open spaces.
-The two scenes outside had the same name. A bit difficult to know which bands play at which scene.
-The parking place was too expensive.
-The litte festival guide book was not free
-The VIP area was nothing "unique" compared to the normal festival area.

It is almost 50/50 of good and bad opinions but I think a good sunny weather and better organisation would have made things easier. It was raining only one day of three but the mud was there most of the time! There was so many great bands that I didn't mind so much to be frustrated about small things.
The quality of the bands was gorgeous and fantastic!

I started the festival with Machinery, Seventh Wonder and Dreamland, three young swedish bands that beyond all the grey weather in the RockKlassiker's tent made the best of it. (I will come back this week with concert reviews and some small chats).


















Me waiting for the bands

WOLF (17:40 Open Air Stage) ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥













Photo of Viktor Wallström

I really adore these guys!
They are relaxed but at the same time uploaded and they play true classic heavy metal!
The singer and guitarist Niklas Stålvind gives the best of his symphaty and he has a great, light and pure energic voice that cut the heavy rain right through it.
They played songs for early albums, from "Black Flame" and the new CD "Ravenous".
The new song "Voodoo" made most of the crowd sing-a-long and even entirely when the well known hit from The Black Flame "I Will Kill Again" started!

Helahalsingland, ST

/Viktoria Colonna

Rockweekend Next !

There will be three days of rock music! I will be in the middle of a great young festival,"Rockweekend" in Kilafors (Sweden), from tomorrow to saturday!
The most negative thing is the weather...It sounds that rain will accompany us most of the time..So I don't know if I will sleep in my car or I will set up my tent! I don't care! I have 20 bands to see!!
As we say in Sweden "Det finns inget dåligt väder, bara dåliga kläder!" such as: " There's no bad weather, only bad clothes!"








I just packed my bag and like before every festival I did my private "band-list-schedule!" :

9/7 - Tomorrow

14:00-14:30 Machinery
16:00-16:30 Seventh Wonder
17:00-17:30 Dreamland
17:40-18:20 Wolf
20:05-20:55 Dia Psalma
22:05-23:05 Dark Funeral

10/7 - Friday

13:00-13:30 Eclipse
14:00-14:30 Apostasy
15:00-15:30 Aeon
17:05-17:35 Corroded
18:00-18:30 Isole
18:25-18:55 Gemini Five
19:00-20:10 Mustasch
22:35-23:35 Paradise Lost
23:4o-01:10 Chickenfoot

11/7 Saturday

17:50-18:30 Scar Symmetry
18:35-19:25 Nightingale
22:15-23:30 Edguy
23:35-00:55 Dimmu Borgir
01:00-02:00 Napalm Death

Great bands ah?
I will return here next week with reviews, interviews and good stuff!

Have a good music week!

/Viktoria Colonna

Alan Jackson - To Sweden!

Finally Alan Jackson will come for the first time to Sweden!
You just can't miss the chance to see one of the greatest country artist on earth!
He will make a show in Eskilstuna Sundbyholms Travbana 14th August with a 8 musicians' band!
Alan Jackson has sold more then 50 millions albums in the world, an excellent career!!
So be alert and ready to face a man with a fantastic voice, style and wonderful songs!












Alan Jackson's Website !

SvD, DN, SvenskaCountryArtister

/Viktoria Colonna