gothenburg_metal_festival

» Gothenburg Metal Festival 2005

~Written by Thomas, June 2005
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Gothenburg Metal Festival 2005
Bands / Set length:
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Cryonic Temple - 45 min
Pathos - 40 min
Nostradameus - 45 min
Torch - 45 min
Destiny - 50 min
Falconer - 50 min
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City: Gothenburg, Sweden
Venue: Musikens Hus
Date: 18 June 2005

Watch official trailer for the festival here »

Summer is festival season and now there is yet another one popping up out of the soil, this time it is the Gothenburg Metal Festival that makes an entrance. The reasons given to attend this little mini festival were by the organizers the following:
1. The perfect "pick you up" after Sweden Rock Festival
2. The festival doesn't collide with either Metal Town or Metal Meet. (Two other local festivals)
3. The festival does collide with Hultsfred (The biggest festival in Sweden, but does usually not have that much to offer according to metal)
4. If the weather gets bad you will neither get wet or cold since it will take part indoors.
5. If there is good weather you can see all bands with proper stage lighting since it will be held indoors.
6. And most important: You will get to see and hear six gruesome great Swedish metal bands.

I don't know if I am willing to agree on all accounts but I must say that it was a perfect way to wind down after Sweden Rock festival, and it was cheap. The entrance fee was only 100 Swedish crowns, which is approximatly 10 euros, and you get a lot of music for that amount of money. Although, as it is said in point #3, it did collide with Hultsfred which is the biggest festival in Sweden and has a wide span of bands from genres like: pop, indie, electronic, rock and all the way to metal. And I guess that stole some of the crowd from Gothenburg Metal Festival considering that they had bands like Slayer, Slipknot, System Of A Down, The Haunted and Marilyn Manson on the bill. There might not have been the biggest names in metal in the line-up of Gothenburg Metal Festival but there were bands interesting and well enough good for me to not have wanted to miss this, not least when Falconer and Destiny was amongst the bands featured. And since the festival was about to be documented for a forthcoming DVD good performances from the bands was to expect, at least that was my suspicion.

I really enjoyed my time spent on this festival, and I further like the idea behind it. Six bands with about 45 minutes of time each and just a small intermission before the next band went on. Each band was supposed to be starting on the hour with the Cryonic Temple starting at 7 pm and Falconer as last band at 12 pm, and the organizers managed to keep that very well as Falconer started barely thirty minutes late. The intermissions were just enough for you to go out and take a breather (or a smoke) and catch a few words with other people there, then it was back inside for the next band. A well organized festival with good sound and considerable good stage lightning in this little venue and the only down side was that the turn up of visitors wasn't the exactly the biggest.

And here comes an in-depth look into the inbreed with metal bands with connections to Gothenburg: When Pathos left the stage the bass player and drummer could just stand and wait, since they also plays in the band Nostradameus that was next in line. And when Nostradameus was done one of the guitar players only got to rest during Torch's performance, since then he had to be on stage with Destiny. And when Destiny had finished their performance their vocalist could stay on the stage preparing for his next gig that was with Falconer. Just some fact for the department of worthless knowing. And since Cryonic Temple and Torch comes from other parts of Sweden they got of the hook for this time.

Cryonic Temple

I felt sad for Cryonic Temple as they entered the stage. The band had traveled long for this and when they started there were merely twenty heads in the crowd, and none that stood in front of the stage. The guys from Borlänge plays power metal of the fast and catchy kind and they do it good. Despite the small crowd, Cryonic Temple did the best out of the situation and did a good deliverance of their songs. Although they aren't any great stage personalities and that the vocalist did have a smashing resemblance with Jack Black when he was striking classic metal poses, I did enjoy this. A refreshing start that got you in a good mood.

6 chalices of 10

Pathos

Pathos stood for being the thrash representatives this evening. Technical thrash and a similarity with Nevermore is not a bad description of this. Now there were actually people in front of the stage and Pathos did a convincing and equal dynamic performance. Most songs were picked from their second album Katharsis and the song Inhale from that one is one of my all time favorite songs but it unfortunately didn't come out as powerful live as it does on the album. But on the other hand most of the other songs sounded better and not least more alive and with Mask Of Fear (Hoverface ´97) I realized that I perhaps should check out their earlier albums as well. A healthy dose of thrash is never out of place and Pathos should go out on the road more, this is definitely a band I want to see a full set with. And when the hell are you guys gonna make a new album? My copy of Katharsis is almost worn out by now....

7 chalices of 10

Nostradameus

Nostradameus seem to have a small group of hard-core followers as they definitely drew the biggest crowd this evening and now there was finally some action in front of stage. It is mature power metal spiced up with some heavy riffing and it gets a lot rawer when Nostradameus plays live than how it comes out on album. Their performance had some great intensity and there were some really big smiles on stage. These guys had fun and their cheerful mood seemed to be affecting on the audience. Freddy Persson has a great set of pipes but it didn't fully come to its right, it felt like it wasn't coming out flat with the high-pitch parts and it took a couple of songs before it was warmed up. Their gig had a good vibe to it and with the catchy last song One For All, All For One they ended their set in a true power metal style.

7 chalices of 10

Torch

I was very skeptic when I saw the band enter the stage, the vocalist appeared to me as an Udo replica and when he started to sing, that skepticism grew even worse when he almost sounded as Udo Dirkschneider as well. Torch started back in 1980 and has been brought back to life - after about twenty years of sleep - by vocalist Dan Dark who is the only original member remaining. He acted as he was still back in the days and as it was a big gig with thousands in the crowd even if there only were about ten people in front of the stage, you got to give him credit for that. Musically it sounded much of the early eighties and similarities with Accept and Saxon is a good description. It was remarkable that the old songs didn't feel outdated but instead still work today. But on the other hand I found the material to be of the not so good kind and this simply wasn't for me. Nevertheless, Torch worked their way into the show and by the time it came to an end, it started to sound good and the songs started to sound somewhat ok.

3 chalices of 10

Destiny

Destiny sound and act confident on stage delivering heavy metal with a darker edge. Many of the songs were picked from their new album with re-recordings from their debut Beyond All Sense and they picked the right songs from that album to perform live. Starting with Sacrilege you got a great daily dose of metal and followed by tracks like Ode To You and No Way Out, the band seemed determined to deliver a good show. I am not that familiar with the older material from Destiny but The Flying Dutchman with a galloping bass rhythm was the highlight of their performance along with Rest In Peace from Beyond All Sense 2005. Kristoffer Göbel is a great front man that makes people put on a smile during his talks between songs and bassist Stefan Björnshög has some cool Steve Harris like moves as he is pointing his bass towards the crowd. I spoke with Stefan after the show and he said that they could do better, but from where I stood I could se no wrong with their performance.

7,5 chalices of 10

Falconer

I have often seen and heard comments about Falconer being a lousy live band, and now that I have seen them myself I can't understand where those are coming from. Falconer mixed a good set of songs with some from the new album and some of the older stuff. The songs from the new album Grime Vs. Grandeur, which is heavy and have a more direct metal approach, worked great live and an aggressive side which I didn't know that Falconer had showed itself live. The band did an amazing job even if many in the crowd had left prior to Falconer entering the stage but that didn't seem to bother the band that much. I was curious on how Kristoffer was going to be able to do the older songs, but all my worries were in vain as it turned out. Kristoffer is a very talented vocalist and he did an awesome job with the older songs. It was good with the new Falconer material but we might as well face the facts - their best work is to be found on their first two albums. Songs like A Quest For The Crown, Upon The Grave Of Guilt, Lord Of The Blacksmiths and Clarion Call add a whole new dimension to Falconer live. I only wish that there could have been some more people in the crowd. Then this could have been as mighty as Blind Guardian and those moments when they put on their cheerful side with catchy songs.

8 chalices of 10