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Sabaton Open Air 2014My fourth consecutive visit to Sabaton Open Air, more or less formerly known as Rockstad Falun, but to be straight, I'm actually still confused of which name to use. I frankly wasn't the least impressed by this year's lineup, but when looking back at my three earlier visits, I recall this event as something great and decided to drive northwest for nearly three hours to Falun anyway. This event is a smaller 3-day festival naturally
based on the local boys Sabaton's participation and Sabaton was in fact
the only band that had a somewhat larger audience in front of them. I
have no numbers at all, but I reckon about 3500 saw the band play and
I'd say that no other band had more than 2000, or perhaps as low as 1500,
people coming down. Even if there is a killing competition in these days,
which may reflect in the number of visitors, I believe that a lot of people
were a little disappointed in the lineup and therefore decided to stay
at home during this year's episode. |Thursday| - |Friday| - |Saturday| Reviews and photos by Tobbe Thursday - August 14Band: Revamp (sorry, no setlist) Band: Arkona (sorry, no setlist) Friday -August 15Band: Trail Of Murder (sorry, no setlist) Band: Grand Magus (sorry, no setlist) Band: Masterplan Multinational heavy/power metal act Masterplan seems to have established a solid lineup after a few members changes and pretty long periods away from the visible music business. Naturally this band could supposedly break up at any given point during unforeseen circumstances, but when looking at this live performance on the smaller of the two stages, I see nothing that could take this unit out in the near future. They definitely have a good time on stage and lead vocalist Rick Altzi carries the legacy of Jorn Lande more by stage presence in favor of immensely talented vocal efforts. Lande is absolutely the greater talented one in terms of vocal skills, but Altzi is nevertheless more entertaining overall and he shows more appreciation, dignity and interaction to his crowd. Former Stratovarius bass player Jari Kainulainen shows energy and what a skilled musician he is and he fits right in with the boys. Being long-time veterans of the band, guitar player Roland Grapow enjoys his moment on stage and keyboard player Axel Mackenrott has great input with his sweeping pattern. The band focuses immensely on the first and also eponymous record. 7
out of 11 songs is taken off that one and although it is seen as a defining
masterpiece, it yet seems a little weird to pick that many songs off it,
considering that Grapow is the only one in today's lineup that actually
plays on that album. I saw Masterplan earlier this summer at Sweden Rock
and I think that the band has stepped up a little with more gigs added
to their pockets and probably also because a few of the less good songs
were taken off the list of songs this time. 7 chalices to an enjoyable
hour of metal. Performance: 7 chalices
of 10 Setlist: Band: Testament Friday's headliner entered the main stage at 11 P.M. before around 1500 fans and that number includes the people in the back, standing at the grass slope drinking alcoholic beverages or people keeping company with friends who do so. Long-time bass player Greg Christian left the band earlier this year and has a few times since aired his dirty laundry in public, concerning him receiving too less dough for his live performances, travel expenses and his imaginary hard work. I guess his successor, Steve DiGiorgio, who has played with Testament earlier, is no stranger to the business side of the band, because he plays like he's on fire up there and I believe no one in the crowd actually missed Christian's appearance. Testament is one of the veterans of the Bay Area thrash scene and to many people a name for a potential Big 5. The band pretty much relies on experience and vocalist Chuck Billy launches his air guitar on his shortened mic stand about twenty times during the set, like he always does. Most things are the pretty much the same as always, as far as I'm concerned. Eric Peterson is still twice as much metal as his guitar partner Alex Skolnick and the band plays Practice What You Preach, which is a song I really can't see the greatness of. This unit is also one of few bands today that plays more songs in total from the latter half of its catalogue than from the first half. Impressive, if you ask me. Gene Hoglan is, in his position in the back, one of metal's greatest
drummers and he sets a standard tough to beat and he is one of the notable
reasons that the band is able to form a great energy field on stage. This
energy is unfortunately not enough to really induce a solid ongoing mosh
pit tonight, even if a few hardcore fans are trying their best to create
some rough activities. When Testament leaves the stage, ten minutes before
appointed time, I nevertheless feel that this band, in this day and age,
is definitely still something to reckon with. Performance: 7 chalices
of 10 Setlist: Band: Rhapsody Of Fire (sorry, no setlist) Saturday - August 16Band: Less Than 4 (sorry, no setlist) Band: Alien (sorry, no setlist) Band: Twilight Force (sorry, no setlist) Band: Battle Beast (sorry, no setlist) Band: Morgana Lefay (sorry, no setlist) Band: Sabaton Ten minutes early, the intros begin and people are getting excited for what's to come, since Sabaton has announced that they will play the Swedish version of Carolus Rex in its entirety. For the first time this weekend, the area in front of the stages is a little crowded, although a huge step from being overcrowded, but still it's highly evident what people has come down for. This set, split into 3 acts, started with the Carolus Rex section and the band was able to bring forth a great deal of history with Carolean soldiers on stage and a great empathy overall. After a stage changeover, act 2 was on and this was mostly a part where the new album, Heroes, was displayed. Guitar player Yanis Petras of the Bulgarian tribute band Unbreakable was given the opportunity to leave his position in the crowd and join the band for Resist And Bite and this move shows that everything doesn't have to be dead serious in a Sabaton set. Act 3, or the encores if preferred, was rather cool as well. The band sort of reopened the set, as all guys on stage were totally focused to make this look like the set's opener. Joakim Brodén even opened up with his rather famous line "We are Sabaton and this is Ghost Division.". Brodén is indeed a great frontman even if his vocal talent is
kind of limited. He really enjoys being up there and his appearance is
immensely contagious. With bass player Pär Sundström and two
guitar players, Thobbe Englund and Chris Rörland, who both really
take part in the performance and not just being present like the former
guitar players were, the new lineup of this band is way more entertaining
than the old one. The band's live shows are experiences of smoke, fire
and energy and this was definitely a great performance by a band that
has come to stay. Performance: 8 chalices
of 10 Setlist: The closing wordsThe two stages were placed side by side, since a rather large section of last year's festival area was now actually a work site to enhance the skiing stadium I reckon. Definitely something that happened to be a very positive element nonetheless, since I prefer a 20 second walk before a couple of minutes to reach the other side of the knoll. The bands started playing around 3 pm, but since a lot of people didn't come out that early, a few of the bands played before pretty small crowds. Just look at the picture below, where I reckon around 150 people decided to check out Less Than 4. The bar area was expanded with possibility to get
closer to the stages, but since the weather wasn't that great this weekend,
this room wasn't fully utilized. It was still something great though,
because if you decide to hang out in this area you will still be able
to see the bands playing, without wearing a pair of binoculars. I enjoyed
being in Falun this year as well, yet for the well-being of this festival,
some bands with bigger attraction will probably have to be announced for
next year's edition. Sabaton definitely did get good support, but they
of course play this event every year. Related links: |