Live Reviews – Page 87 – Metal Express Radio

EUROPE (Live)

August 1, 2004 Frode Johnsrud

Over the last five years or so, there have been so many reunions that it’s been hard to keep track of them all. Some are useless ones by one original member who refuses to do what he does best instead; flipping burgers, while others are so satisfying that they call for the title “reunion of the year”. Some people, musicians in particular, are fed up with the word “reunion” – I couldn’t care less, it’s in that bloody dictionary – and Europe deserves this year’s “reunion of the year” award indeed (though I doubt they can match Tesla’s 2004 release when their new CD is out in September. Tesla’s reunion happened a few years ago though). After their demonstration of Viking power (not really, it’s mostly a Swedish band) at the Sweden Rock Festival in June, they have been playing the occasional gig here and there, mostly festivals and other outdoor events where local heroes will put their Poco Loco clothing back on and get shitfaced beyond recognition. And last night in Sandefjord, Norway, was not really any different. The setting with aging Pat Sharpers didn’t prevent the band from doing another great gig, though. The set opener surprised a few, none other than the band’s first hit in Japan, and still one of their best songs, “Seven Doors Hotel”. The same few probably wonder what the heck is going on when the band thereafter launches into “Wings Of Tomorrow”. The sound is perfect from the first John Norum six string strike, even in my rather bad spot sound-wise, in front of the right PA. Norum by the way. He looked extremely focused and didn’t move much, but he carried the band through the set and I really didn’t hear him miss a note. Seriously, I couldn’t hear any of …READ MORE

SPAN (Live)

August 1, 2004 Per Olav Heimstad

Span has played at a heap of festivals this summer. Most gigs have been in their home country, Norway, and this time around they participated at the Baderock Festival in Sandefjord, being the last band to hit the stage before main act Europe entered. Back in February they released their long awaited debut Mass Distraction, which was a great album. At the Baderock Festival, they played all the songs from this album but one ( “Wildflower” ) … and then some. They’ve been told to play a bit longer than they usually do, and quite a bit longer than what their material could justify – they were struggling to fill the time with crowd pleasers. Guitarist Joff talked too much, and the non-album compositions they added didn’t make the audience go crazy. It took the band a lifetime to put their debut album out. Span were playing the same old songs for a long time prior to the release, and now the guys are eager at testing their present writing skills. Therefore they added some new songs like “Outside” and “Diamonds”. These were heavy and fit with the rest of their stuff, but still, being unfamiliar to the crowd, they represented the weakest parts of the show. However, Span are at their best when they play the hardest. Down beat songs like “When She Stares” and “Peaceful” got very boring, as they always do at Span concerts… The need for changing the routines also led the band into adding a country and western intro to their hit single “Found”. Cool. Even though they spent the last half hour performing remarkably strong songs like “Don’t Think The Way They Do”, “Papa”, and “Baby’s Come Back”, the show never took off. Most people had come to hear Europe of course, however, the …READ MORE

TUSKA OPEN AIR METAL FESTIVAL 2004

July 19, 2004 Metal-Katie

Friday, July 16, 2004 The completely sold out festival started on Friday afternoon (the 16th) at 15:00:00. I got there in time to witness Sonata Arctica’s set. They were the second act on the main stage and played a bit lame. They hurried their set and suffered from sound problems that took them half way through the set to sort out. Gone were singer Kakko’s custom “mostly-amusing-if-not-a-bit-juvenile” stage antics. Instead, we got a really professional looking performance. The schedule was set up so that after each main stage act there was a break during which the 2 side stages had bands playing at the same time. So next up on the side stages were Impaled Nazarene, who as usual played their fast and furious Metal with a whole lot of attitude, and Ensiferum, whose set I missed due to the fact that there was no room to get into the tent they were playing. Kotiteollisuus on the main stage officially played the loudest set of the whole festival. You could feel the vibration even at the back of the field. The site was set up at the park in the heart of Helsinki on a sandy soccer field. You can still cough up and sneeze the sand and dust days after the festival, but that’s part of individual charm of this festival. Friday’s most “happening set” honor goes to the Finnish Thrash-band Mokoma who played a really tight set consisting of songs mostly off their last 2 CDs. These guys really look and sound like they are having fun while playing, and with songs as excellent as “Takatalvi,” it is certainly understandable. This was the first time I saw ladies moshing and doing really serious headbanging. It must be said that this band cannot be upstaged in the headbanging department …READ MORE

BRIDES OF DESTRUCION/SILVER (Live)

June 19, 2004 Per Olav Heimstad

On Friday, the 18th of June, Alice Cooper brought the Skool’s Out party to Oslo, Norway. He and the arrangers didn’t settle with one support act, but three. So Silver (N), Brides Of Destruction (USA), and Turbonegro (N) were given the task to make the night something extra before the rock and roll grandfather, Alice himself, entered the stage. SILVER Norwegian shoe-gazer rockers Silver started the Skool’s Out party with a 30-minute act, focusing on the material from their debut long-play album White Diary. To them, it must have been a blast being given this gig, prolonging an already successful half-year of album promoting in Norway. Existing for several years, they have been playing on quite a few stages all over Europe, but I doubt they were very familiar to concert halls the size of Oslo Spectrum. But the band, led by the charismatic Blanco Summer on vocals, performed their set as if they were fueled by experience. BRIDES OF DESTRUCTION What more people had come to hear was Brides Of Destruction. Not because their album Here Come The Brides has put the world on fire, but primarily because the Bride’s guitar player is Tracii Guns from L.A.Guns, and because Nikki Sixx from Motley Crue plays the bass. London LeGrand sings, and Scot Coogan beats the skins. Dressed like a mix between the stone age, the eighties, the nineties and 2004, the band entered the stage and kicked off their set with the first single track from their CD; “Shut The Fuck Up.” Their whole approach sounded at first a little reserved, but they tried as hard as they could, and good old Nikki and Co. proved at last, by running and jumping all around the stage, that they physically were in impressively good shape. Even though “Natural Born Killers” …READ MORE

ALICE COOPER/TURBONEGRO (Live)

June 19, 2004 Odd Inge Rand

ALICE COOPER It has been about a year since Alice Cooper released the astonishing effort The Eyes Of Alice Cooper. Standing as one of the best rock albums in 2003, there were big expectations to see if Alice Cooper was still on top of his game concert-wise in 2004. This was the first Alice Cooper concert in Oslo since the Brutal Planet tour, and with David Bowie playing in town the same day, there was plenty of room in the 8,000 capacity Oslo Spektrum. Nevertheless, due to three bands warming up the audience prior to Alice Cooper, it was nearly midnight before Alice arose behind Eric Dover’s Marshall stacks to the sound of “Black Juju” on tape … leading then into the classic song “Hello Hooray,” which made it official that Alice had finally arrived to rock off our asses. The stage set was much more stripped down than on previous tours. It appears as if Alice “lets the music do the talking” these days, and with the catalogue he possesses, there’s really nothing that needs to be said about him when he decides to serve up classic after classic. This time, in addition to the standard “No More Mr. Nice Guy,” “I’m Eighteen,” “Billion Dollar Babies,” “Only Women Bleed,” and “The Ballad Of Dwight Fry,” Alice opted to pull out a few gems from the archives that he hasn’t performed live for quite a while. The biggest surprise was the Special Forces opener from 1981, “Who Do You Think We Are,” and it was also delightful to revisit some of his other great numbers like “Muscle Of Love,” “Cold Ethyl,” “Halo Of Flies,” “Desperado,” “Be My Lover,” and “Gutter Cats vs. The Jets.” “Gutter Cats…” was one of few songs which included a certain degree of stage-theatrics. Not the …READ MORE

ANTHRAX (Live)

June 15, 2004 Odd Inge Rand

For the third time since the release of We’ve Come For You All, Anthrax again sold out the London Astoria’s 1600 capacity venue… and this is the fourth time in 18 months the Thrash-legends have visited London after a five-year hiatus following the flop of Volume 8. This was the first London visit to include the band’s new bass player, Armored Saint’s very own Joey Vera… and correctly speaking, Anthrax in 2004 is as much Armored Saint (AS) as it is Anthrax. John Bush (Anthrax since 1992) is also the singer in Armored Saint and only Scott Ian and Charlie Benante remain from Anthrax’s classical lineup of the 80s. So that’s 2-2 then, mathematically speaking … John Bush has everything Joey Belladonna didn’t have and never got. He is amazing in working the crowd, and he has a powerful voice as well. In my opinion, he is one of the best front men this genre has to offer today. The set was put together to include some songs which haven’t been played for a while in the Anthrax-camp. After the usual opening trio of “What Doesn’t Die,” “Got The Time,” and “Caught In A Mosh,” the crowd was due for the delightful surprises such as “Random Acts Of Senseless Violence,” and “Keep It In The Family.” The set contained nothing but crowd-pleasers, and “Safe Home” and “Any Place But Here” are great efforts from their latest album. In addition, killer versions of “Antisocial,” “NFL” and “Only” are always welcomed. Anthrax recorded many tracks from the 80s, again with John Bush on vocals, this spring. Instead of giving the London audience the usual Fistful Of Metal classic “Metal Thrashing Mad,” they surprised the crowd in delivering a thunderous “Deathrider” instead. As the clock moved to 10:15 p.m., it was time to …READ MORE

BLUE ÖYSTER CULT (Live)

June 14, 2004 Odd Inge Rand

Every June since the release of Curse Of The Hidden Mirror, BOC has played London’s Astoria Theater. They were also scheduled to play the same venue this time, but lack of interest made them move it to Mean Fiddler, just a couple of steps away from the Astoria. In light of this “demotion,” it was not a defeated Blue Öyster Cult witnessed tonight. The band is truly on top of their game, and there’s always loads of classics in their sets. This time around, the three original members: Eric Bloom, Buck Dharma, and Allen Lanier, presented yet another set of classic Cult-tunes. “E.T.I.,” “Burnin’ For You,” “Lips In The Hills,” and “Shooting Shark” were the openers, and the crowd represented the core-fans in the London area for suen its perre. A new concert rule must be that a small and dedicated crowd is better than a large, unfocused one. “Career Of Evil” is a Bloom-masterpiece, and he’s good in working the crowd when it’s performed. The same can be said about Buck’s guitar-doodling, and even though we didn’t get “Buck’s Boogie” this time around, he was, as always, great at the end of “Cities On Flame With Rock ‘n Roll.” There is never a great Blue Öyster Cult show without the mighty pieces “Godzilla” and “Don’t Fear The Reaper,” and on this occasion we got an extended version of “Godzilla,” in which both bassist Danny Miranda and drummer Bobby Rondinelli showed their skills. A bit too long perhaps, but the efforts of these guys easily made us forget the Bouchard-brothers from the BOCs heyday. Let’s hope they will release something new soon to collaborate with their next London-visit, just to keep the interest rising a bit again. The Curse Of The Hidden Mirror is a great piece of work, and …READ MORE

SWEDEN ROCK FESTIVAL 2004

June 13, 2004 Frode Johnsrud

Written in collaboration between Frode Johnsrud, Torgeir Krokfjord and Odd Inge Rand. The Sweden Rock Festival (SRF), held a few hours away from Copenhagen (yes folks, that is, of course, the capital of Denmark, but it’s also the most convenient place to fly into when coming in by plane as there are direct trains to hop into that take passengers close to the festival site), has become an annual excursion for the Metal Express Crew, or maybe I should call them the “Crue,” due to some of its members’ liberal partaking in the festivities. This year, the biggest rock and Metal festival in Scandinavia (Roskilde has too much of a diversity for the narrow-minded Metal fan) was sold out … supposedly 20,000 tickets were purchased, plus all of us spoiled press members who were benefactors of freebee passes, along with the even more spoiled rock stars, making the total number of people invading Norje upwards of 25,000. An impressive lineup of bands was employed, although a few things should be looked into further – I’ll get back to that topic later. (Frode Johnsrud) LUMSK From the deepest Norwegian forest (actually, the relatively big city of Trondheim) comes the Folk Metal octet called Lumsk, which was the first band I watched at this year’s festival. I have to say that I have not yet checked out their debut album Asmund Fr?gdegjevar, but I’m very likely to do so now, as they made a definite positive impression at the festival. The sound was good enough to let the different elements of their music come through, and although the male vocals were only average, the female vocals and violin were utterly beautiful, and I was not the only bewitched young man fantasizing in the grass. (Torgeir Krokfjord) TNT The first ones out on …READ MORE

STAGE DOLLS (Live)

June 13, 2004 Anne-Lene Rodahl

Oh, what a walk down memory lane! The 80s album oriented rock (AOR) legends, Stage Dolls, came on stage fashionably late Saturday night, but still managed to satisfy new and old fans alike. It was quite a humorous start to the show when they introduced themselves as a young, promising, teenie-weenie band from Trondheim, Norway, when in fact they have been one of the most popular hard rock bands in Norway over the last two decades. Stage Dolls started off with a couple of songs from their new album, Get a Life (2004), impressing the crowd, especially, with the title track; a song about “not giving a fxxk,” as singer Torstein Flakne so gently put it! This song really shows they still have more to give and that there still is room for Stage Dolls out there. It’s a modern rock ’n’ roll tune that certainly gets you dancing, rocking, and your feet going! The main men — Torstein Flakne on vocals and guitar, and Terje Storli on bass — as small as they are, managed to fill the stage, joking and interacting with the audience during many occasions. They both showed their skills and did their best even though the place wasn’t even half full. Norway’s new smoking law, or non-smoking law, I should say, caused a lot of the audience to run out for cigarettes in between songs, so lead singer Flakne decided they would continue on with their tour by including cigarette breaks. After a session of beautiful, acoustic ballads like “Ammunition” and “Sorry Is All I Can Say” (and a lot of kissing couples and lighters in the air), the pace picked up with a funky, calypso-inspired solo from drummer Morten Skogstad. The band then continued by performing hits like “Money”(’91), “Commandoes” (’86), and the major …READ MORE

EXODUS (Live)

June 13, 2004 Odd Inge Rand

For the first time in many attempts, Exodus succeeded in finally getting to Norway to play without being cancelled. In their heyday, Exodus was a fine Thrash band, just behind Anthrax, Testament, and Megadeth. This year saw the release of Tempo Of The Damned, an excellent album 12 years since the disappointing swansong Force Of Habit. The pioneers of Thrash are back, 19 years after their historical release Bonded By Blood that far and away started the whole Bay Area Thrash Movement. They didn’t pack the Garage entirely this night, but it was a dedicated crowd who finally experienced Exodus in their hometown. They started off with “Scar Spangled Banner”, and visited their past with great versions of “Deliver Us To Evil”, “Piranha”, “Till Death Do Us Apart”, “Fabulous Disaster” and “Toxic Waltz”. During “Toxic …” and “Bonded By Blood”, the crowd went completely mental, and it was total mayhem in the pit in front of the stage. The temperature was insane, and instead of calling it “The Garage”, Steve “Zetro” Souza renamed the venue the “Masoleum Sauna”. After 90 minutes of vintage Thrash Metal, including great songs from the excellent Tempo Of The Damned, Exodus’ first and only Oslo-gig so far was then history… and it was truly a night to remember. Next time, let’s take it to a bigger venue, with air-conditioning shall we?