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Reviewed by Thomas
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Gothenburg Metal Festival 2006
City: Gothenburg, Sweden
Venue: Musikens Hus
Date: 29-30 April 2006

Bands (in running order):

Day 1:

Fatal Smile
Cryonic Temple
Cloudscape
Dragonland
Destiny
Bloodbound
Day 2:

Apes IQ
Prey
Violent Work Of Art
Dreamland
Dragonland
Tad Morose

It was great to see the return of Gothenburg Metal Festival, and the fact that it had expanded to a two-day event did not make me less happy. I really like the idea behind this festival, that it has its focus on Swedish and somewhat not yet established bands but still bands that are very good at what they do. All bands share the same stage and have a forty minute-set to convince the audience about their grandness, and after a twenty-minute break, it is time for the next band to enter the stage. I raise my hat and must give a huge amount of credit to Stefan Björnshög (also bassist in Destiny) who organised this event, it is great with people that gets involved and dares to take initiative and I really hope that all went well so we can see a return of Gothenburg Metal Festival again in 2007. Unfortunately, I was not able to attend both days of the festival but here are my impressions from day one:

Cryonic Temple

Cryonic Temple started out good and was a nice band to warm up with as starters for me. At this point, there were not that much people in the crowd although the band seemed to be having a good time on stage and did not hold back as far as I could tell. I am not that familiar with the band but I believe they picked songs from all of their album making it more a "best of" set rather then putting focus on their latest release, and their kind of eighties heavy metal spiced with some power metal influences becomes better live than on album if you ask me. Cryonic Temple offered nothing out of the ordinary but did a solid effort and it was refreshing to see them again just as the last time they played at Gothenburg Metal Festival in 2005.

5 chalices of 10

Setlist:

Heavy Metal Never Dies
Travellers In Time
Shark Attack
Story Of The Sword
Metal Brothers
Mercenaries Of Metal
Rapid Fire
King Of Transylvania

Cloudscape

This was the big surprise for me this evening. I have heard people saying a lot great stuff about this band and they lived up to all of the positive rumours and even surpassed them as well as my expectations. Cloudscape from the southern parts of Sweden play progressive metal and bands like Fates Warning, Magnitude Nine and Dream Theater came popping up in my head as references as I watched and listened to them. The band acted confident and relaxed on stage, their music had substance in it, and did not contain overly progressive parts just for the sake of it, and their deliverance had further a great amount of feeling that made it highly enjoyable. Still it was not that much people in the crowd but most seemed to appreciate Cloudscape as well as the band members themselves seemed to appreciate those who listened to them. Their music is progressive but the emphasis is put more on the melodies and it never became pretentious or introverted and this is a band that I surely will have to find out more about. And all of you that like progressive music should check them out at Sweden Rock Festival if you are able, I surely will.

7 chalices of 10


Dragonland

How can a band that is so good on album be so totally boring live? Dragonland was a disappointment for me as it felt totally uninspired and even if I am a big fan of traditional cheerful power metal this gave me nothing. Ok, one of the guitars fucked up during the first two songs and left the other guitarist playing all the guitar parts by himself, but it did not get much better after that anyway. A band that has released three albums, that all sounds really good by the way, ought to be able to give a better performance live, especially in their hometown. But this was untight, uninspired and gave me the impression of a band that is still on the demo stage and that hasn't played together for that long, even though the band has existed for many years.

3 chalices of 10


Destiny

You can always count on Destiny live, and this time was no exception. Compared to the last time I saw them they were one man shorter on stage, as was the hair of vocalist Kristoffer Göbel. I must say that Destiny did amazingly well with Michael Åberg as the only guitarist and damn me if this has not made Destiny even more dynamic. And the new haircut on Göbel proved that the strength was not in his hair as his voice was as great as ever, and as a front man he acts with confidence and knows his ways on stage as well as to interact with the audience. Destiny's dark heavy metal with some Savatage influences works perfectly well as the band is tight and you can see that they like what they do. My memory is failing me about the songs that they played but I do remember thes song The Flying Dutchman as the definite highlight, with a pounding galloping base from Stefan Björnshög and the melodic vocals. That is a killer song which ended their set leaving you wanting more from Destiny.

8 chalices of 10



Bloodbound

Behold the future of Swedish heavy metal, my friends. Bloodbound with former Tad Morose vocalist Urban Breed has not only made one helluva a debut album but is also one surely great live act. And don't be fooled by the corpse paint, they might seem dangerous but there is nothing dark or evil about their approach on stage, this was all in a really cheerful mood. Strangely, the crowd was getting thinner as Bloodbound was about to enter the stage as last band of the first day at Gothenburg Metal Festival, but damn did those that left miss something grand.


It was obvious as Bloodbound entered the stage that they had come to play and to deliver one great performance, you could see it in their eyes. With the great songs they have - classic heavy metal blended with brilliant catchy riffs, splendid melodies and catchy refrains - combined with being a strongly convincing live act, they ought to be ready to take on the world with storm. All in the band did well live but it is Urban Breed that impresses the most with his amazing voice that worked perfect live and his relaxed chatting between the songs. Despite the painted faces, Bloodbound had a humble attitude between the songs but gave hell when they unleashed their brilliant music. As I try to pick out one or two songs as highlight, I can only think of all of the songs as a whole. Their whole 40 minute set was a highlight for me.

9 chalices of 10




Related links:
www.bloodbound.se - forum.metalcovenant.com
www.cloudscape.se
www.cryonictemple.com
www.dragonland.se
www.fatalsmile.nu
www.destinymetal.com - forum.metalcovenant.com
www.violentworkofart.com
www.prey-nation.com
www.dragonland.com
www.dream-land.nu
www.tadmorose.com
www.apesiq.com