Dr. Space’s Notes on Motorpsycho and Ståle Storløkken – The Death Defying Unicorn

This is the latest release by the creative Norwegians known as Motorpsycho. It is a double LP with a fantastic inside artwork, like nothing they have ever had in any of their other records. They are joined by keyboardist, Ståle Storløkken. They just keep progressing and really pushing themselves and challenging the norm.

This is a real progressive orchestral rock record. It is inspired by Owen Chase’s The Wreck of the Whale Ship Essex, In the heart of the Sea by N. Philbrick, and the Aubrey/Maturin series by Patrick O’Brian. It opens with a very special orchestral jazz ting that leads into the psychedelic rock monster, The Hollow Lands, with these cool orchestral sections that come in and out. It really rocks at times as well.

Through the Veil Part 1, starts with a really jazzy horn section (Trondheim Jazz Orchestra) and then a heavy bass line kicks in and the band really get a groove going with some cool guitar lines. Bent sings very confidently with a bit of effect on the voice. A little King Crimson like part comes in eventually as there is a lot of interaction with the horns. The keyboard solo at the end of this track is super cool. Great song.

Side B starts with Part 2. It starts intensely and then gets a bit bluesy and relaxed and spaced out with a solid bass line holding it all together. Doldrums is a short keyboard horn piece that is pretty spacey and leads into the song Into the Gyre. It is a pretty melodic normal track at first but then goes into Gentle Giant like material except for the intense violin soloing as the track really gets psyched out. Another short Storløkken compostion closes side B.

Oh, Proteus – A Prayer starts side C with a slow growing spacey mysterious orchestral piece but with vocals by Snah and Bent. Sculls in Limbo sounds like a monster crawling out of the sea to attack. La Lethe is mostly an orchestral piece with high emotional content as it slowly grows with some really cool horns. It takes a long time before the rock band takes over as they are a bit dwarfed by the large sound of the orchestra. At the end a fantastic sax solo is played as the mood of the piece really shifts towards a happy feeling. Oh- Proteus – A Lament is a very short piece bringing back the sound and feeling of the opening of the side.

Side D starts with the melancholy number Sharks, with nicely arranged horns and strings (Trondheim soloists 9 of them). It really grows over time and becomes very intense. Mutiny appears very abruptly out of Sharks and is another progressive hard rock track, which the record really needed at this point. It gets really cool with the orchestra battling with the horns who are taking on the drummer, who is really rocking. Into the Mystic brings things down again and closes the storybook with an uptempo track.

Musically they have really nailed it as far as bringing across a really emotional piece of music that you could easily see set to a play or movie. The live concerts on this tour will be pretty cool and special. Sorry I did not get to see any of them.

Roskilde Festival 2011 (June 30th – July 3rd)

This was my 12th year going to the legendary Rosklide Festival. There are quite a lot of cool sounding bands on the bill this year so it will be some busy days. This year I am going alone and my nephew (Scott) is not here.

11:37 I am on the train to Roskilde now and there are a lot of people going to the festival and I just ran into Caroline (singer from Pickled Platypus) and she is going to have a baby in September!

12:30 Check in went very smooth. I took a taxi to the check in from the main station and then headed off for the camp. It must be 1½ km to p105 where Jesper, Dorte and the others are camping have left space for me.

13:18 I had a bit of trouble finding the camp but am relaxing with a beer now with Thomas. Everyone is in a good mood and the weather is nice now but it looks to be changing. Not too hot. At 14 I am suppose to meet up with Tom and Sally at the Van Dame Camp near the E tower for some punk rock!

15:00 That was some crazy stuff with this band Hjortne playing punk stoner rock stuff and people drunk (already), some naked and people really in a festival mood. That was fun. Met up with Anders and Freddy who had a case of beer as well that we need to drink before the gates open at 17.

15:15 The weather is pure shit now… windy, blowing rain but not cold. I am just in shorts and sandals. We are going to get some food near by and try to stay dry. This is going to pass and it will clear up again.

17:30 I am checking out this band from the Salomon Islands (near New Zealand) called Narasirato. It is only drums, flutes and voice but very rhythmic. They have these huge wooden pan flutes. It is pretty cool but gets a little tiring after a bit and strangely they seem to like to play reggae like stuff. It was ok but I was not that drawn in.

18:00 Tame Impala is next at the Odeon and this is some new young band from Australia. No idea what to expect.

19:40 Tame Impala was pretty cool. The songs are a bit too mainstream for my taste at times but they had a lot of delay on the vocals and certainly try to create a cool psychedelic sound and they had a few cool freakout like jams as well. This was pretty good. Next up is a singer songwriter guy from Borås, Sweden (where my friend Anders is from) called Daniel Norgren. This is on the new stage called Gloria and this is a cool new place but hot and stuffy in here.

21:00 Daniel plays real authentic Americana style blues-folk stuff and gave a really interesting and passionate performance. The crowd was into it for sure. Also a nice surprise.

23:00 I managed to get up in the front right section one person from the rail in the 2^nd part of this area. A great spot right in front of stunt guitarist, Janick Gers! The stage set up was cool looking but nothing really special going on. The band were really having fun and into it and the crowd was into every song, whether it was new or old. IT was a solid set of mostly stuff from the last few albums and then they thrown in an old song after 3 new ones (like Trooper, 2 mins to Midnight). You can hear the clear difference between the new and the old material, especially on the energy level. The end of the concert was just great with Iron Maiden, Number of the Best, Hallowed be thy Name, Running Free.

Set List: Satellite 15… The Final Frontier, El Dorado, 2 Minutes to Midnight, The Talisman, Coming Home, Dance of Death, The Trooper, The Wicker Man, Blood Brothers, When the Wild Wind Blows, The Evil That Men Do, Iron Maiden, Number of the Best, Hallowed be thy Name, Running Free

24:00 PJ Harvey was on at the same time as Iron Maiden and I would have liked to hear this as well and I was told it was excellent. I could have tried to catch the last 30 mins of this Norwegian band called Next Life but I was not feeling that well and headed back to the camp. Huge party going on in the area as it is every night. Hope I can get some sleep.

Day 2

10:40 Wow! It is late. That sleeping pill did knock me out. It is cloudy and very windy. I will probably not have time for a shower if I want to catch Electric Wizard at 12. I will just have my juice, granola bar and some water and head out soon.

13:00 Electric Wizard was damn cool again. Psychedelic Doom! The drums were too loud and the guitars too low for the first part of the concert but they were great. I am pretty sure it was the exact same set as Sweden Rock a few weeks ago. Crowd up front was really into it. They could use some slower and faster songs to mix up their set as these songs are all nearly the exact same pace.

16:00 Eyehategod, that was a fun concert. The band was in a very good mood and surprised some many people came out to see a bunch of drunk drug addicts from New Orleans! They had great sound and I saw a lot of friends at this Sabbathy sludge doom gig.

17:15 I had planned to try to catch Zun Zun Egui at 16 after Eyehategod but was hanging out with friends and now getting some Thai food with Gustaf and Nina. Next up is sure to be one of the highlights of the festival, Seun and Femi Kuti! I will take some photos of the graffiti, while I wait and rest my feet as well.

20:45 That was totally fantastic! Seun was amazing! They opened up with a instrumental jam piece and then he came out and theystarted with the Fela song Zombie. Next he played a totally amazing song with a killer guitar groove called Slave Masters. Two more songs from his latest record produced by Brian Eno, Let it Grow (and he gave a long pro-marijuana speech) and Rise. That was it 5 songs in 65 mins. Too short. They had a break of about 10 mins or so to change the entire band for Femi and Positive Force.

Femi was also very good but his songs are much shorter and slicker, not as groovy and organic like Seun. Still I liked the concert very much. He played quite a few songs from his latest and most political record. The end was the best when he played a long Fela like track with a chorus Bang Bang. Then Seun came out and this was the first time they had ever played together in Europe together. They performed Gentleman but a much shorter version that the 14 min one on the original record. They followed this by the track covered by a lot of Afrobeat bands, Water gets no Enemy from the Expensive Shit record. Again, probably 6 mins long. I was a little disappointed with the encores. You could tell there is not a lot of love between the two brothers. Pity… Still a fucking great 2½hrs.

22:00 Kurt Vile and the Violators, a new US band that I have never heard of but was told I should check out and man, I am glad that I did! They have drums and three guitars, no bass player and play some pretty cool psych rock. The 3^rdsong was really great and psychedelic. Despite having three guitar players they were virtually no solos at all. It was only the 2^nd encore song where they had a long guitar solo. A very good concert. I will have to check out their records.

22:55 I saw about 20 mins of Portishead while I am waiting for the Swans. Strange to have this kind of music on the mainstage. Spacey melenchaoly stuff. The 2^nd track was really cool and he played some nice guitar. The lead singer, she is scary emotional when they have her on the big screen. She comes across as an old lady who is dying of cancer and showing all the emotions of it. They had a very nice visual show.

24:00 The Swans totally blew me away. Man, I would have like to have seen this at Roadburn but I am glad I did not. These guys are very heavy and also psychedelic! Reminds me of a more psychedelic version of Ministry at times with that same heavy dark emotional freightrain. They put me into a far out trance at time. Great concert. I am just hanging out with Nik (On Trial/Black Pussy) and having a beer while we wait for Ghost at 1:00.

14:00 Ghost that was damn cool and the sound was more massive the lights cooler than at Sweden Rock. They used a lot of fog. I was pretty surprised to hear so many people singing the choruses of the songs for this underground band. I still don’t really connect with their music that much but I like seeing them live, with the costumes, stage set up, etc… Same set at Sweden Rock. I think they play the same set every night.

I caught a little bit of MIA as I was walking past the main stage on the way back to the camp site. That is strange stuff and a huge audience. I am not sure I get it at all. Very psyched out rap stuff. A lot of delays and effects on her voice and this strange break beat, off tempo electronic stuff. Far out. Crazy light show as well. People seem to be in to it a lot.

Day 3

10:00 It is really shit weather now. Very windy and it pours down rains now and then. It is not that cold but it is just nasty out. I will go try to get a shower anyway. First band is not until 13:00.

11:50 I just got a warm shower but it was really crap weather on the way to the shower, super windy and rainy. Yuck… I feel much better now and will soon head over and get some food before Be-Being at the Gloria stage.

12:55 I am hanging out with my Swedish friend Anders at Gloria. We are in the 2^nd row. Not a huge crowd here yet.

14:35 Be-Being was damn cool. A 5 piece band from Korea with a harp like instruments, different flutes, this Chinese string instrument that is strummed like a violin but is vertical, drums and a lady who sang and also played some hand drums. They were also accompanied by some Kabuki like theatre which was nice. The music was pretty cool, especially the last piece was really amazing and intense playing. Quite psychedelic.

The Ex are curators for a whole afternoon of music so I went over there and caught a few songs by jackdaw with Crowbar and this was terrible. Pre-recorded stuff with two guys and a guitar player yelling about stuff. I did not get it at all.

15:45 I saw 3 songs by Tallest man on earth, a new young Swedish talent, so they say. This was the hugest crowd I have seen at the Odeon theatre and he was pretty boring and ordinary. I did not hear anything special in this guy playing acoustic songs. Oh well. Then I was off to see some of John Grant at the Gloria before Killing Joke at 16. He was playing the piano and was accompanied by a guy on stand up bass.  He was ok but I did not think he had an exceptional voice or presence. Good but nothing that really grabbed me. It was really hot and humid in this tent.

17:30 Killing Joke started off playing a bit more of their mainstream stuff but really improved as the show went along. The singer is quite a character and totally give 100% to his performance. The band was clearly having a good time as well and the drummer was really good. When they played their hard edged stuff they were excellent, when they played the more catchy mainstream stuff I lost interest quickly. They were really politically conscious and he spoke out about a lot of different subjects.

I am hearing the last part of Kaisers Orchestra while having some food and the crowd on theOrange stage is massive! Their last song was really good and not at all what I expected from this band. The Ex is next.

19:15 The Ex were really damn good with the guest trumpet player named Roy Paci. They did some much more experimental and jamming stuff. The female drummer she is as good as ever and they had a lot of energy and intensity. Excellent concert but a pretty small crowd, surprisingly.

21:00 Oudaden from Morocco just played the best show of today. I can’t see how anyone will be cooler than this. Very cool tranced out stuff with a great vocalist and a guitar player who liked to play a lot of solos. They only played 5-6 songs in an hour and I was totally sucked in. Sadly the song I shot the video of was the least cool of all the tracks they played but the ending is good. Great stuff.

The weather has changed radically in the last hr and there has been thunder, lightning and pouring down, heavy heavy rain. It is going to be a muddy mess later. I am glad that I decided to wear my boots and had all my rain gear with me. It takes at least 30mins to walk back to the camp so I bring everything with me so I don’t have to go back the whole day.

22:50 I have been trapped in the Pavilion tent with the rain and I heard some of this American hardcore band called Underøath and it was not that interesting. Yes… They are intense and scream and yell and they have a guy who makes some electronic white noise and sound to give the band a tiny little extra dimension but not that interesting.

Congotronics, Awesome tapes from Africa or Kemiasset Ystävät from Finland. I made the wrong choice and went for Congotronics and this was interesting in that they had 19 people on stage playing but in the end I did not like it much. Members from two different bands from Congo mixed with some people who sing like mainstream pop music. It just did not work for me and I am not really a fan of the east African music much. So then I went down to the Awesome tapes at the Cosmopol and this was a guy with a box of cassette tapes (yes, he had real tapes) and he mixed this up with some techno beats and rhythms. Some of it was really really cool and sometimes the cool African music was just drowned out by his thumps. Not bad but I heard the Finnish band was super cool and like Tangerine Dream. Damn…

13:45 I have been watching Deadmus on the mainstage while I wait for Spids Nøgenhat. What a super cool show this DJ has. He must feel like he is the king of the world with 50,000 people in front of his techno throne! It was a super cool stage set up and amazing lights and visuals for sure. Some of the coolest stuff I have ever seen for electronic music but sadly, his music is not very interesting at all. Eat Static would be so much cooler. He is pretty far out sometimes though as he really teases the audience with slowly ramping up the frequency and building up and then slamming the people with techno beat and thump and the crowd erupts. Very intense to see and watch.

15:15 Spids Nøgenhat totally blew me away. The best concert of the festival! They played most of the songs from their one record as well as covers by Røde Mor and another. The visuals were great, the band sound excellent and psychedelic despite the drums being too loud. The ended the show with a very emotional song by Aron. I think all those in the tent were blow away. Fuck! I am tired now and it is getting light out and it is very muddy out there now. 30min walk in the mud back to the tent. I pray my tent is not full of water and our camp area is ok.

Day 4

8:55… I am totally blasted. The people were up late making a lot of noise and drinking until the sun came up. I got like 3 hrs sleep after a 14hr day and feeling pretty wrecked. It is very hot and sunny out now and you can’t even be in the tent. It is roasting. At least there is a little wind. I will lie down outside my tent in the shade of the others for a bit. I need to figure out if I will go home today or not.

10:20 We have heard that they got 15 cm of rain in Copenhagen and huge parts of the city is flooded including the main train station! The festival site recorded 3cm but it seems to be drying up quick. It is not bad around our camp site at all. I am not sure what to do, as I am so tired but there is some cool stuff today with Tarrus Reily, Afrocubism, Bad Religion, Graveyard and Yemen Blues.

12:25 I just had the excellent morning brunch at the Thailanna place for 80kr. Spoke to Tom and Sally and I will drive their car back later today. We will decide if we stay for Graveyard or not.

14:00 Tarrus Riley and the Black Soil band were the only reggae band at the festival this year so I had high hopes but sadly left disappointed. There must be some cool roots reggae bands out there that are not so influenced by mainstream music? The band started off with an excellent instrumental track with some cool guitar and sax soloing. Then a guy, who I thought was Tarrus came out and sang three tracks that were pretty good but still slick reggae. He had an amazing voice. A great singer, then they announced Tarrus and I was thinking, well, who the hell was that guy then?? Tarrus was a real let down and not nearly as good a singer as the other guy and the music turned into some sort of soul music, not even reggae so I left quite disappointed.

15:00 Bad Religion did not have that massive a crowd and I could get in the front section without a problem. There music is not really going to come across that well on this huge stage. It was fucking hot and I was melting out here and very tired now. It was pretty sad to see the state of decline that this band had taken since the last time I saw them back in San Francisco in 1993 when Green Day opened for them at the Warfield. They really have totally lost their edge and the singer just does not have it anymore. The old songs still sounded good but the new ones were all nearly the same with this pop punk catchiness that I get bored with after one or two songs. People were having a good time though.

16:00 Afrocubism, this would be my last concert this year at Roskilde and I really quite enjoyed this fusion of a group of musicians from Mali and Cuba! The music was really good especially when they were more on the Mali side of things. The tent was very full with people. I heard the entire concert from outside the tent in the shade. Cool band. I had hoped to catch Yemen Blues at 18:30 and Graveyard but was just too tired and Tom and Sally were ready to go as well.

My favourite bands this year were:

Spids Nøgenhat

Seun Kuti

Swans

Oudaden

Eyehategod

Blood Ceremony – Living With the Ancients

This is the Canadian quartet’s 2^ndrecord and it was quite delayed in coming out. The gatefold double vinyl LP turned out quite nice. I was a bit bummed I did not get to see the band at Roadburn due to choosing to see another band. There were three great bands all playing at the same time, so what can you do? You must choose one.

The record starts off with a short instrumental track with some nice acoustic guitar and flute, very folk oriented. This leads into Coven Tree which starts quite dramatic with a heavy organ sound and then some samples from a movie (I think) come in and the track takes off. This is a cool melodic doom track with a nice guitar solo and some great vocals.

The Hermit brings the flute back and the vocal is quite spacey on this one. Musically it is a bit like Witchcraft meets old Tull. Fantastic song.

Side B starts with an uptempo track called My Demon Brother and it has a long organ solo followed by a great guitar solo as well. Excellent track. Morning of the Magicians has a hard edge guitar riff that is nicely balanced out by the flute playing and melodic vocals. Wow. The flute playing is so much better on this LP than the first one. She has really improved a lot.

Side C starts with the track, Oliver Haddo. It sadly fades out with a really cool riff and groove going. Night of Augury is one of the really melodic epic style tracks and reminds me one from the debut LP.

Side D starts with a short intro piece with flute called the Witches Dance and this leads into a long track called Daughter of the Sun, a track with many sections. A great track to end this excellent record that tops the bands debut.

Sweden Rock Festival – Sölvesborg, Sweden June 8-12th, 2011

June 8th, 2011 Day 1

12:00 Sue and I arrived at the hotel and we have a better room than last year. This one that faces the Sea. The drive up was fine, a few places with road work but no big deal. We heard Five horse Johnson, Electric Wizard, and Judas Priest – Sin after Sin. IT is quite humid here and totally overcast but the sun should come out later. We will go have some lunch and relax and head to the festival around 15.

15:45 We got our wristbands and everyone around seems to be in a good mood. The sun is shinning and it is nice and warm but not super hot. We grabbed a beer and watched some of a Swedish band, who was the first to play today called Seventribe. It is a big band with 3 guitars, bass, drums, strange drum kit like Slipknot, 3 rapper singer, screamer guys and a guy running around with a horse head on. I did not like them at all. All dressed in white shorts and pink shirts with ties. Aggressive but totally uninteresting music.

Rhinobucket was next and this was good fun. We sat down for most of their AC/DC like good time high energy mid paced rock and roll. They were in a good mood and talking with the audience and really having a good time. The audience quite liked them. A guy came around and gave me a copy of a double unofficial live Rhinobucket CD-R set. I can try to review it. A lot of skin this year with this weather, but sadly, the fat women outnumbers the thin skinny ones 2:1! Men are slightly better off when it comes to weight but are catching up with the women as well. Lots of tattoos.

Mason Ruffner from Texas was next and he played a solid set and had some nice groove songs. The 2^nd song, I just kept on Playin’,  we heard had a totally killer guitar riff. He did a Santana cover (For all the Angels) as well. He does not have a very interesting singing voice but plays some good guitar and has a solid band. I enjoyed it quite a bit.

We got some food and heard a bit of Crashdiet but it was not for us. They had a really big crowd and people were really into it. They play a quite melodic 80’s glam metal type thing but not as hard as Motley Crue but not as soft as Bon Jovi. Very pop choruses to the songs but very professional.

19:45 We saw the first 4 songs by the very tattooed Hollywood band, Black Veil Brides. They were not really my thing. They play hard edged gothic glam metal punk stuff with catchy sing along choruses. They look way cooler than they are!

20:00 Bob Log III on the new Rocklassiker stage was really a great entertainer and we watched most of his set. He played a steel guitar with slide and was dressed up in a crazy suit with a helmet and telephone glued to the front that he sang into. He also played kick drum and tambourine with his feet. It was fun stuff.

23:00 Five Horse Johnson were next and kicking ass and had a pretty good crowd. I really enjoyed them a lot and the singer was really into it and played a lot of cool harmonica. The end of their set was really good with Ditchdigger for the Drowning man, Cherry Red (not the Groundhogs song) and a really jammed out encore track that was like 10 mins. Excellent set. Best of the day so far.

Necronaut was super cool and much better than I thought this would be. I am not sure who all these three different singers wereexcept for JD from Spiritual Beggars/Grand Magus. The group is made up of nine people from Dismember, Entombed, Watain, Nifelheim, Tormented, Grand Magus, Dundertäget). They had a guest guitar player on one song and you could not hear a single note he played. Normally the sound guy on this stage was probably the best of the whole festival but sometimes they just don’t pay attention to who is playing solo, etc.  They had some really great tracks and a pretty big crowd. IT was really cooling off now and the sky was getting black. Rain was coming soon. We left to catch the bus 23:10 as the next one was not until 01.10, so we saw 40mins of Necronaut and none of Hardcore Superstar, who I heard were really good but a lot of people left as it was pouring down rain super heavy before and during their set and the stage was very wet, etc… Crazy… Glad we missed the rain.

24:00 We are going to bed after a nice day. Sunny and hot most of the day and then when we were on the bus back to the hotel, it was raining pretty hard. We did not see any of Hardcore Superstar but I heard it was quite chaos as it was really pouring down hard and very windy and there is no shelter at all over by the Sweden Stage. Not a bad first day.

June 9^th

10:00 It is totally overcast and it was very foggy today. We need to catch the bus at 10:45 if we want to see OZ. today will be a very long day as we will stay and see all of Judas Priest as well today. Weather forecast says it will just be cloudy and about 15-18C today. NO rain after lunch anyway. I will still go for shorts. I don’t think it will be that cold.

12:30 We arrived in time to see OZ and they had quite a good crowd and had at least two original members in the band, including the singer. The singer he could still sing quite well and sounded great. It was a classic set of OZ stuff plus a few new songs, one of which was really good and the other pretty lame. They said they hope the new record to be called Burning Leather, will be out in September but they did not sound very convincing about it. They opened with Searchlights from Fire in the Brain, and songs from most of their older albums but the main focus was on Fire in the Brain and they of course, played Turn the Cross upside down! Gambler was really nice to hear. It was a good and fun set from a band I never imagined to ever hear live! Oh yeah, they had a guest bass player on the last song that I think he said was the son of one of the members!

Setlist: Searchlights, Let sleeping Dogs Lie, Dominator, Tease me, Seasons, Gambler, Burning Leather, Turn the cross upside Down, Fire in the Brain.

Next we caught a few songs but Perry and the Travellers, a very young new Swedish band playing southern style rock. They had some good songs and nice elements to their melodic southern rock. The guy in overall with tattoos and long blond hair played slide guitar and then switch to the piano and also played harmonica. The lead guitar player was not very impressive at all. Perry had a great voice. A band to watch out for!

13:30 After Perry, we heard some of Duff McKagen’s Loaded. They were on the rock stage and the sound was pretty bad and it would be pretty bad the entire festival on this ROCK stage due to all the bass cabinets placed in the center and the sound people just cranking out the kick drum and bass so loud through the center that all the bands sounded terrible if you were anywhere in front of the stage, you had to go off to the far sides for the bands to sound decent and only some did. What the fuck are they thinking? Make the sound for the 20% of the people and shit for the most of the people in front of the stage?? Anyway, Duff was so average cock rock with a punky edge. Not at all interesting. There were a lot of people there but it was dead boring.

We ran off to see some of the Haunted and saw about 30mins and that was much better than I thought. They are really a lot like Slayer without guitar solos. That is the best way I could describe them. Heavy and intense stuff. This was on the Sweden stage and again, all the bass cabinets were in the center so if you stood anywhere in front of the mixer, where most of the people are is sounded awful, only drums and bass, you could hardly hear anything else. This was not improved much on this stage either until the last day (I complained to the sound people about this and was so surprised, basically shocked by the response, that they knew is sounded bad but this was one way they could make it louder to overcome the db limit a little bit was to overdrive the bass, even though it destroyed the sound and they knew it. Unreal. Will anyone from Sweden Rock read this article, sadly, probably not.

14:45 We saw a bit of Buckcherry, who opened with a really great jamming guitar driven track with some great solos but they just went downhill after that. I was sadly disappointed. These guys are really seriously covered with tattoos. We saw 4 songs. So now we sit here and wait for Clutch in 15 mins. You could also choose to go see Joan Jett! No thanks.

16:20 Wow! Clutch started off a little shaky but damn, they caught the groove and played a really cool selection of old songs and Neil played guitar on like 5 songs today. I have never seen him play guitar on so many songs. I love the new record so I was really happy to hear several of the new songs but I really wanted to hear Abraham Lincoln but they don’t play that one much. I was little surprised they only used 65 of their 75mins though and did not play an encore, when they had 10 mins left. Not like them.

Setlist: Who Wants To Rock?, The House That Peterbilt, Pure Rock Fury, The Mob Goes Wild, Profits of Doom, 50,000 Unstoppable Watts, Animal Farm, Struck Down, Red Horse Rainbow, The Elephant Riders, King of Arizona, Soapmakers, Child of The City, Cypress Grove, A Shogun Named Marcus, Electric Worry

17:00 It is getting pretty windy and a bit cold now. I looks like it is going to rain later. I hope not too much. We saw the beginning of the Queensryche set and I have to say, this was really disappointing. The first two songs were really terrible. Some sort of really average boring rock. Then they played their big hit from Operation Mindcrime (the start of their downward spiral…) called I don’t believe in Love. They had a couple of heavier tracks next but I was really disappointed. I love their EP and first two records but once the main guitar player left, it seems to have been over for this band. I heard they did play the Lady wore Black from the first EP later in the concert. We went to see the Groundhogs!

18:30 The Groundhogs had a pretty small crowd and Tony is looking not too bad considering his stroke a few years back. He had a woman named Toni, who sang or tried to sing all the songs except one that Tony managed to sing. It was of courses a classic set and probably the only thing they can play these days with Eccentric Man, Garden, Split 1&2, Mistreated and Cherry Red. I am not sure what the encore was or the first opening track. I enjoyed it and he still can rip it up but his guitar playing is all over the place and very psychedelic at times. Split was really spaced out. Fun to see them again.

19:50 We caught the last half of MoonSpell concert on the Sweden Stage after the Groundhogs finished. I had only heard the firstrecord from this band from Portugal. They play very dramatic gothic metal. They were actually very good and put on a powerful set and were in a really good mood. They played quite a few early songs and had a cool back drop. They were quite a good surprise. The CULT is next.

21:30 We caught the last song Balls to the Wall by Accept while we were getting a place right in the center for the CULT. I had never seen the Cult before but Sue saw them a few times in the 80s and really liked the band. I only know their early stuff up to Sonic Temple. This was a really solid band and the lead guitar player was really good and Ian was very much on form and singing great and having fun with the audience as well. I have to say it was a set of great tracks and a big surprise for me. They ended with a sort of Doors Break on Through with some extra Doors stuff thrown in as well. Great concert.

Setlist: Rain, Everyman And Woman Is A Star. Electric Ocean, Sweet Soul Sister, Horse Nation, Rise, Nirvana, The Phoenix, Fire Woman, Spiritwalker, Lil’ Devil, Dirty Little Rockstar, Wild Flower, She Sells Sanctuary, Love Removal Machine, Break On Through>Dead rats, etc..

We missed GWAR. I really wanted to see them as well but what can you do? Now you have to choose between Morbid Angel and Saxon. I was a big Saxon fan in the 80s and Sue really loves them so this was not a difficult choice for us.

23:20 WOW! Saxon really kicked ass and we had a great place right in the center but sadly, the sound was shitty. You could not hear the guitars well at all but we could see really well. We suffered through the shit sound and we know all the songs anyway, so you just have to fill in the guitars from your memory. Sad that you have to do this. We left the center after an hour and it sounded much better when we got further away and to the sides but still too little guitar and too much bass and drums. Shit sound people. I was so disappointed with the great the Eagle has landed and you could not hard hear the great guitar solo parts in this cool song. They played a super cool set with the entire Denim and Leather record, which they played in two halves. Biff had to read some of the lyrics from these tracks from Denim and Leather that they had not played since 1982, but that was ok! Both the new tracks from A Call to Arms, were actually really excellent and Biff was sound great. I probably have to check out the new record. A great set. I really liked it.

Set List: Hammer of The Gods, Heavy Metal Thunder, Motorcycle Man, Back In ‘79 Never Surrender, Fire In The Sky, Midnight Rider, And The Bands Played On, Rock n Roll Gypsy, The Eagle Has Landed, Play It Loud, Rough & Ready, Out of Control, Denim And Leather, Princess of The Night, 747 (Strangers In The Night), Crusader, Bass solo >Strong Arm of The Law >Guitar solo (Doug) >Wheels of Steel

01:30 Wow! Judas Priest played a really great concert for the first 75 mins and a set of the classics for the end, which was not very adventurous as the first part of the concert. They had a really cool stage set up and awesome lasers during some songs. I think they first broke them out during Victim of Changes and because there was this light almost misting rain for most of their set, they looked really amazing. The best I have ever seen live. Some of the set totally blew me away and they had great sound but it was not very loud and were just to the left of the mixer in front of the stack. I could not believe they played stuff like Starbreaker and Never Satisfied (from Rocka Rolla). Halford is such an amazing front man but sadly he just can’t sing like he used to but he is still great. They did indeed play songs from nearly every one of their records, including the terrible Turbo Lover. It was a great set and excellent concert and the best headline show of the weekend.

Setlist: Rapid Fire, Metal Gods, Heading Out to the Highway, Judas Rising, Starbreaker, Victim of Changes, Never Satisfied, Diamonds & Rust, Prophecy, Night Crawler, Turbo Lover, Beyond the Realms of Death, The Sentinel, Blood Red Skies, The Green Manalishi (With the Two-Pronged Crown), Breaking the Law, Painkiller, Electric Eye, Hell Bent for Leather, You’ve Got Another Thing Comin’

Day 3

12:50 We are waiting for the bus in the sun now and it is a very nice day so far. I had really wanted to see Agent Steel at 12:15 but we need a bit extra rest. Slidin’ Slim (on Transubstans Records) was also on early today but we missed them both. Today looks to be the weakest day (boy was I wrong!).

15:00 We got in a beer in time to catch the entire set by this young UK band called the BREW. Guitar player and singer is only 22 (today) and is backed by a father and son team on bass and drums. They totally rocked, spaced out and jammed. Great grooving rock songs and plenty of solos. I don’t know what the set list was but I shot one video of a long instrumental piece.The Brew live instrumental Jam They ended their set with a long take of Dazed and Confused into Astronomy Domine by Pink Floyd (with no singing) and the guitar player played the guitar with only a violin bow. Strange but cool. A really cool band. I think the guitar player still has to develop a bit more. He is inspired by Hendrix and old Clapton but never does any long solos (seems to lack finger stamina?) but I like him. This is a band to watch and I hope we can get them to Denmark.

17:00 We saw some of Iced Earth (we saw most of their set last time as well) and then headed over to see Jason and Scorchers at 16:00. Iced Earth is a very good band and you know exactly what you are going to get: Some complex and powerful metal music. I saw Jason and the Scorchers back in 1985 or 1986 and Eric Johnson was the opening act. Jason is quite a funny character and this comes across in his oddball country rock twanged mainstreamish music. They were having a blast and the small audience liked them as well. It was very funny when before Deep Holy Water he asked how many Catholics there were in the audience and not a single hand or yell came back and he was like, “Oh that’s not very many”. It was a pretty stupid thing to ask this audience. We got a good laugh out of that. They were fun but we headed off for DOWN.

17:30 We just saw DOWN and they totally blew me away on the mainstage. We had a really great spot and the sound and the vibe was killer. The band was in such a great mood and having a fantastic time, and really playing and joking with the audience. Phil, the singer was having some vocal issues so he was not so screamy, which was really great, he actually sang more and did not push his voice. They were very powerful and my favourite so far today. Fucking hell it was a cool set. They did not play their full 90mins.

Set List: Hail The Leaf, Lysergik Funeral Procession, Lifer, The Path, Losing All, New Orleans Is A Dying Whore, Pillars of Eternity, Ghosts Along The Mississippi, Swan Song, Temptations Wings, N.O.D., Eyes of The South, Stone The Crow, Bury Me In Smoke

18:45 I had never actually seen Electric Wizard so I was not sure what to expect and they totally blew me away. Wow! And what a contrast with the Christian metal band, Stryper, whose set was starting half way into the evil Electric Wizard. I am not sure what the set was but they played Dopethrone, and A Chosen Few, etc. I think they played 7 or 8 songs in their one hour set of slow 70s DOOM rock. The bass player was totally tattooed on this hands and face. It gave him a special look. He played some really cool guitar solos as well. He was praising drugs and pot and this was funny to hear in Sweden! Great concert.

Set list: (maybe not exact) The Chosen Few, Scorpio Curse, The Nightchild, Return Trip, Satanic Rites of Drugula, Black Mass, Witchcult Today, Dopethrone, Funeralopolis

Before us checking out Rob Zombie we watched one song of Stryper and it was as I expected. They had a pretty big crowd for their very positive message, the completely opposite of Electric Wizard!

21:30 Rob Zombie had the coolest stage set up of the entire festival and the band members had really cool costumes and masks, etc… Rob looked totally insane and they had these super cool microphone stands. We only stayed for the first two songs and it was some sort of almost industrial metal thing. He was a very cool and powerful front man but the music did not catch me so we headed off to Doc Holiday and boy was I glad we did as they were really a huge surprise and excellent. In the 80s they were one of the most pop or mainstream of the southern bands (the direction that Point Blank took as well) and I never liked them. It seemed like they were quite a few of the original members if not all in this line up.

Anyway, they opened up the set with a really excellent hard edged and jamming track with some great guitar and organ. These same cool and crazy Finnish brothers we seem to meet up with at all the cool concerts were there again! Anyway, they played a few more mainstreamish tracks but quite good and then Moonshine Whiskey, just blew my socks off. What a great track and they were having a killer time and really nice solos. Doc then told a story about Ronnie James Dio and this was quite surprising but they opened for Black Sabbath on some dates on the Mob Rules tour and got to know the guys a bit. It was the Outlaws opening when I saw them on this tour as well. Anyway, he said Ronnie was a great guy and they played a strange version of Heaven and Hell next which was really cool. Stryper probably had just played this song in a totally different version on the other stage as it is on their recent album of cover songs. It was a great concert.

21:40 Now we have to choose, Overkill or Helloween? Who would you choose, I hope Overkill as I will tell you now, they totally slayed and blew me completely away. Wow. The sure power of their music, the passion they played with, the amazing set list, including some tracks from their early demos (Deathrider!), etc. They also have totally killer sound. Rotten to the Core, Iron Bound, The beast Within… It is pretty funny as I really liked this band in the 80s and basically never heard any of their records or seen them since the last time they played at Sweden Rock (that was the loudest band I had ever heard play at Sweden Rock, before the dB limits they have now came into place) yet, I just totally got sucked into the vibe. Bobby was an amazing front man and have a fun time and great conversation with the audience. Best of the day!

Set List: The Green and Black, Evil Never Dies. Rotten to the Core, Give a Little. Bring Me the Night, Hello from the Gutter, Ironbound, Death Rider, The Beast Within, In Union We Stand, Skullkrusher, Old School, Elimination, Fuck You!!!

Now it was time to check out Whitesnake and if we did not like them we will go see GHOST on the Zeppelin Stage. Whitesnake had a large crowd and we worked our way up on the right side so we could get a decent view of the stage. IT was the same tired set Best Years, What is Love, Love ain’t no Stranger, etc… same songs as when they played three years ago. We left for Ghost. Coverdale was not sounding that well. I just don’t think he can sing in this style that he had in the 80s anymore. He can probably still sing the blues but they don’t play any blues anymore.

01:00 GHOST was a really fucking cool show. The sound could have been better as you could not hear the guitar or keyboard very well and we were right in the center just two meters in front of the soundboard. I really enjoyed their strange set of as Sue says, pop melodic satanic rock. Could be on the radio some of this stuff the way the singer sings, if it were not for the musical content. Let’s hope they go for a darker less mainstream sound next record but I doubt it. Very cool to see live, even though I did not like the record they made much when I heard it.

Con Clavi Con Dio, Elizabeth, Death Knell, Satan Prayer, Stand By Him, Prime Mover, Genesis, Ritual, Here comes the Sun (Beatles)

We actually managed to catch the last two Whitesnake songs on the video screen after Ghost and there was a big fat Bernie Marsden playing Fool for your Loving and then out came Adrian Vandenburg to play with them on Here I go Again. People seem to be very disappointed in Whitesnake, playing mostly the same set, Coverdale can’t really sing these 80s power rock songs anymore, 15mins of the set wasted with drums and guitar noodling and only 90mins total.

Day 4

12:02 I am pretty damn tired today after not getting home before 02:00 an up at 9:10. I had hoped to catch the earlier bus to see Destruction at 12:15 but no chance. Our first band today will be the cool early 70s Swedish band, Fläsket Brinner.

13:35 We are sitting on the grass waiting for Fläsket Brinner. Not a lot of people here yet and I don’t expect too many for this band. The terrible AOR American band, the Hooters are playing on the big stage. Sound terrible. Crowd looks to be pretty big though.

14:55 Fläsket Brinner was very good. I think the lead guitar player was a bit off today but the band plays great instrumental jazz rock stuff that is pretty Zappa inspired at times (says Sue). I saw them once a few years ago and it was a great concert. I have no idea if they played any new songs or if they were all old. I enjoyed the set here in the sun very much.

16:20 Molly Hatchet played a very solid but too standard set. This is nearly the same set they played last time we saw them there except for these two new songs from their new record, Justice. One was really good, the other so so. I saw these guys back in 1979-1982 and it is just so different now. They still play well but they don’t have that ass kickin’ drive and energy they used to. It is also only one of the original members even though some of these guys have been in the band for 25 years. Sure I like to hear some of the classics like Dreams, Flirtin’ with Disaster, Beatin’ the Odds, Whisky Man, Gator Country, etc. but they could drop some of these and play some different old songs. The singer is quite a funny guy and he must have said “Hell Yeah”, 50 times during their concert. I expected a bigger crowd but perhaps more people went for Spock’s Beard or Angelwitch.

Set List: Whiskey Man, Bounty Hunter, Gator Country, Been To Heaven – Been To Hell. Fall of The Peacemakers, Justice, Drum Solo >Beatin’ The Odds, Live Til I Die, Darkness of The Night, Jukin’ City, Dreams I’ll Never See, The Journey, Flirtin’ With Disaster

17:55 We saw the first half of Styx and then we went and got some food at the new food stand that had this amazing Jerk chicken kebab thing. We could hear Styx perfect from there. I was really pleased with Styx and they played about 70% of the same songs they played last time they were here which they could have done better on but they were in a great mood and like last time they had the original bass player with them, looking rather out of place but he played bass on one old song, Fooling Yourself. It was really cool to hear Loreli and Madame Blue from my favourite Styx record, Equiniox. I would have totally been blow away if they played Midnight Ride! Great that they stick to the 70s material and don’t play any of the terrible 80s stuff but they could mix the setup a bit more expecially when they come to this festival and play the same thing they did last time.

SetList: Grand Illusion, Time on my hands, Lady, I am the Walrus, Loreli, Madame Blue, I’m Ok, Queen of Spades, Fooling yourself, Drum solo, Miss America, Blue Collar Man, Renegade

19:30 Kansas just finished. Wow! Saw them first time in 1979 on the Monolith tour and saw them last time they played here like 6 years ago as well. They had very good sound and played a pretty different set from what they played last time. Many more mellow songs and half of the Leftoverture record! We sat on the grass for their entire set and had a great view of the screen. Steve Walsh still sings excellent and this line up of nearly the entire band that recorded most of their 70s records (minus the violin player) is pretty cool to see. Solid set. Now Zakk Wylde.

21:00 Zakk was in a special mood today. I have never ever seen him so reserved vocally. What he made up for vocally he put into his solos though. He was on the top of the game. He hardly said a word to the audience on this concert and usually he is a bit like Ozzy and demanding some response and really raising hell but he was just focused on the music and he was awesome at least for the first part of the show and blew me away with the early part of the set list. Bleed for Me. Damn, I love that number. A very powerful set and I was totally sucked in. We were dead center in front of the soundboard and it sounded awesome. I think he lost it abit though after Fire it up when he played the most extreme shredding guitar solo you ever heard. I think he played 5-10 mins more of less constant notes. Takes amazing finger stamina but damn, it is pretty uninteresting after a few minutes. Really cool to hear the Blessed Hellride with both he and Nick playing 12 string guitars. He also did another monster solo during Concrete Jungle (the only decent song on Shot to Hell). I had hoped Ozzy would come out and sing on Stillborn but apparently things are not all the good in the Ozzy Zakk relationship, even though they say all is fine. If it was, Zakk would have played with Ozzy for sure later this night. Ozzy really hesitated also when before he introduced Gus G and said he had played with a lot of great guitar players and mentioned Randy Rhodes, Jake Lee… big Pause… Zakk Wylde. Did not mention Brad Gillis, Bernie Torme, etc.. Anyway, BLS kicked ass totally and it was a great set.

Setlist: Crazy Horse, Funeral Bell, Bleed For Me, Demise of Sanity, Overlord, Parade of The Dead >Born To Lose, Darkest Days, Fire It Up >Extreme Guitar solo > Godspeed Hell Bound, The Blessed Hellride, Suicide Messiah, Concrete Jungle, Stillborn

21:40 Now people had to choose between Hawkwind and Thin Lizzy. I of course was going to see Hawkwind, while 98% of the festival was going to Thin Lizzy. I got to speak with Kris (manager) and Richard the drummer briefly, which was nice. He wanted me to come backstage with him but I did not have pass for behind that stage, just normal backstage access. Anyway, they started on time and had some very serious sound issues at the start but the sound guy did a pretty good job sorting them out as they have a very complex set up with all these laptop computers, several keyboard set ups, two bass set ups, two guitars and no front of house sound check. It sounded great after 4 songs except not enough delay on the vocal and none at all on the theremin, which Tim played a lot, so that made it sound really strange and dry. They really had a great energy and Niall playing a lot of bass was great. He is a super cool bass player, much better than Dibs, who can sing much better when he is not playing the bass. Dibs vocals were the best I had ever heard him sound. The version of Angels of Death was really cool with along spaced out jam. They jammed a lot also in Brainstorm, Magnu, well, actually all the songs after the last new one. I was pretty blown away. Silver Machine sounded really funny though as the main vocal was not heard at all, only the chorus, as it turns out the sound guy had turned Richards mike off. Great set and way way better than the last time they played here in 2004.

Setlist: Poem- Warriors, Assault & Battery>Golden Void>Where Are They Now, Angels Of Death, Fahrenheit 451, Promotheus, Brainstorm, Sentinel, Magnu, So Far Behind?, Psychedelic Warlords, Wraith, Assassins Of Allah, Silver Machine

12:30 The master of Darkness, Ozzy himself, put on a solid set of old classic songs with not a single track from his latest record that he recorded with this band. It was a short concert, just under 90mins total. He went completely nuts during Suicide Solution with some gun shooting some kind of foam stuff like from a fire extinguisher. Dumping it all over himself as well. Quite foolish. He was also very demanding saying “I can’t hear you, scream for me”, almost as many times as the singer from Molly Hatchet said “hell yeah”. He was in a great mood and he sang better than I expected but he still is vocally only about 50% these days. Goodbye to Romance was a real surprise to hear. He played it at one of the two times I saw him on the Diary of a Madman tour. He has a great band, especially the drummer. Gus G, is so much like Zakk Wylde. His guitar solo was just the same type of shredder stuff as Zakk. Cool to hear these Sabbath numbers as well. I saw Ozzy 3 times with Randy Rhodes and it is fun to hear these songs again. Ozzy is still a great performer and always has a good band but he could have played longer and put some kind of show on for 6 million kroner he got. The lights were not very interesting at all and there was no screen projections, no explosions, fire, lasers, nothing…. The headline acts should be held to a higher standard. Solid show and a good way to end an amazing festival.

Setlist: I Don’t Know, Suicide Solution, Mr. Crowley, Goodbye To Romance, Bark At The Moon, Road To Nowhere, Shot In The Dark >Guitar solo >Rat Salad, Iron Man, Fairies Wear Boots, I Don’t Want To Change The World, Crazy Train, Mama, I’m Coming Home, Paranoid

On last thought, I really think that Sweden Rock needs to demand more of headline bands. They need to bring something unique to the festival. To just let these older bands come here time and time again and play nearly the same tired set of greatest hits songs year after year is really lame. People pay a lot of money, probably the most expensive festival in the world and especially the headline acts, who get millions of kroner, who put it all in their pocket, don’t even put on any special show or anything, is not really doing the festival or the audience justice. Please, Sweden Rock, just demand a bit more from the artists, you will get it from them if you just ask. It would mean a lot to us fans, like Saxon playing all of Denim and Leather. That was very special. Thanks to Ravenheart for help with the set lists.

Rosetta West – Racoon

It has been a few years since the last Rosetta West CD. Joe is back with a set of mostly acoustic or guitar tracks with mainly only additional other vocals and minimal other instruments. 12 new tracks in 33 mins. The band is the same as usual with Orpheus on Bass, and Nathan on most of the drums but 3 other drummers also pitch in. Joe is playing the guitar and all of the distinctive vocals. The CD is inspired by Joe’s recent interactions with Racoons!

The CD starts with Red Light is catchy. Suzie is probably my favourite track on the CD with a really nice bluesy thread. I don’t care is a really sung with passion and just guitar, bass, drums and minimal drums-percussion.

Sussana Jones has a heavier guitar and real drums but is a quite happy track.

Underground features slide guitar and tells a nice story. Me and My Friend is a foot stomping acoustic track for cranking up on the porch, if you have one!

River of Days is another acoustic number while The temple has a cool flangy guitar.

Desperation has a totally different style of drumming and is almost like a sort of tribal African thing.

Baby Doll has some nice guitar and sections in between the singing. Joe has a unique way of delivering his words into the rhythm of the music. Joe instils a lot of passion into his singing (my ex-wife, does not like him at all) and guitar playing and lyrics. While, not my favourite record Joe has made, there are many things to enjoy in these 33 mins. I am still glad Joe is making new music and these songs make me smile.

El Camino – The Satanic Magick

El Camino are a new Swedish band playing doomy stoner rock. This CD/LP features 8 tracks in 45 mins. The opening instrumental number, Prelude to the Horns is very doomy to start with a huge sound to start and then into a more stoner rock groove the next 2½ mins.

Hail to the Horns follows for the next 6 mins with some more monster riffing and now you get to hear the singer, who has a very growly singing style. The next section the guitar players each take solos (too short) and then back into the main riff and singing. The track is pretty intense and then a doomy ending.

We are the Dark is doomy to start and then the slow building riff starts to take off. Around 3mins the track gets a bit spacey as it slows down. The band then takes it back up into a groove. The solo section was a bit weak though.

Mountain Man is the most melodic track so far and a slow stoner rock style track with some cool parts. Intense end!

Rise of the Snake has some dual harmony guitars at the beginning and then kicks into the main riff. I was never really struck by this song. This is one of the weakest songs on the record.

Family Values, another track over 6mins and starting a bit more doomy. A very Black Sabbath inspired one! He sings some pretty heavy lyrics in this song, based on the title. The solo guitar section is pretty cool on this one before the singing kicks back in and the heavy groove. The title track (been used by a lot of bands), the longest on the CD at 8 mins. The singer is very intense and they have a vocal sample of some sort before the guitar solo section which is the best on the record. Nice solo and the space guitar at the end was excellent.

Abra Kahdabra ends the record and is the shortest track which starts with a strange backwards static vocal thing that is pretty strange and the music fades in and out with this intense voice on the top and also also includes some backwards stuff that morphs in and out. Far out ending. I loved it.

El Camino is a pretty intense band. The singer is really in your face and forceful. Some of the band’s songs are great and lots of amazing riffs. The band is a bit weak in the guitar soloing but they have nice part changes and some good harmonies at times. I still am mixed on this record. Some days it blows me away and sometimes not. You decide.

The Dawn Band – The Agents of Sentimentality

The Dawn Band is a new project with Daniel the drummer from Hainloose and Martin Treppesch. They call it Indie psychedelic rock, which was not a good start for me. I don’t want any Indie shit in my psychedelic rock! But it is my job to review it and give it a chance.

The CD contains 10 tracks in 42 minutes. The opening track starts slow and pretty Colour Haze inspired and then the more melodic riffing kicks in and the song gets less interesting. The singer has this really nice brit pop whispery vocal style that I am not at all fond of at all. This track slows and they try to be psychedelic and then they come back to the main laid back part.

City Lights is a more uptempo track and the backing vocal is really annoying and makes it too happy pop music. The next section of the song is pretty cool with a power riff and a more intense vocal and then they come back to the main riff. There are very few guitar solos on this CD. A powerful song and the longest on the CD.

Lost soul at the Nightclub is pretty far out after the last song. It is a very repetitive vocal track that slowly builds up and they psych out a bit with a cool heavy section but sadly it goes back to the repetitive theme and it did not evolve more.

Surfing the Big Wave is another long track, 8 mins that starts very slowly and then the bass and drums kick in as they hit the fast paced melodic groove. The end mid part gets pretty funky with the wah guitar kicking in and then they go into a short strange section before they kick back into the uptempo happy melodic guitar section. I am not so fond of some of the sections of this last 3mins but still a great track.

Boat across the Ocean is a 4 min acoustic track and with a very melodic theme and then this dual female vocal comes in that is pretty cool and then back into the acoustic theme again. The vocal parts are really cool and mainly sung by this woman. The next track is another double layered instrumental acoustic number.

Kussnacht continues with another track that starts with acoustic guitar and the whispery vocal again. This one picks up the pace, sounds like Cheap Trick actually, but gets intense.

Amours Ark starts with a bass line and low laid back whispered vocal as the guitars start coming in and increasing the complexity of the songs. I am not really into the singing on this one and it is very in your face in the mix. They break out of this into the heaviest thing on the record and cool riff and guitar. Still very melodic but a good build up and track. Wow! Hell of a track except the rap sample at the end. A very melodic track takes off next and is a bit spacey and then builds up and really reminds me of Motorpsycho.

The closing track features a really cool organ that is mixed loud and is pretty psyched out and the band is playing some heavy stuff in the background and the singer really screams and sings in a very powerful way. This song has a very intense ending of a damn cool record, despite my reservations to start. The band is clearly Colour Haze, Motorpsycho and Queens of the Stone inspired. This is another strange band choice for Elektrohasch but there is a lot of really cool music on this album and some stuff I am not so keen on. The release before was German punk rock band.

Chicago Odense Ensemble

This music was recorded in the summer of 2008 when Jakob Skøtt and Jonas Munk of the Danish band, Causa Sui, visited the USA to play some electronic music festivals and had some time in Chicago. They hooked up with some of the local experimental musicians from Tortoise, Isotope217 and the Chicago Underground Collective and had some old school early 70’s style jam sessions and this is the results. This was mixed by Jonas in Odense and has taken a very long time to come out but it is here on CD and very limited edition on heavy vinyl (only 250 copies).

The music is mostly improvised but a few overdubs were done in Odense. Side A starts off with Parallel Motions as all the musicians are getting a feel for things and it is lead by cornetist (sounds like a trumpet) Rob Mazurek. Pretty laid back noodling with two distinct guitar styles really going on and some electronic sounds in the background as well. This one builds up in intensity with again Rob really taking the lead but sadly as you are really getting into it, it ends in a pretty unnatural way. Cool piece.

Emanuelle has a deep and steady bass that drives the track and is a bit more psyched out with lots of stuff happening in the undergrowth.

Side B features 3 shorter tracks. Spirals is like 2mins and just coronet and guitar. Glide Path is also pretty short and mellow and does not have a lot of time to develop but has some really nice drumming.

Soup is next and really cool. I like the repeated guitar line and cross rhythm thing that is happening and also the return of some spacey electronics in the background. Great track.

Side C starts with another short track, Spine Dots. It is mainly some electronics and coronet and you can hear a few other sounds as it sort of builds the mood for leading into Delivery. I like the tabla like drums at the beginning and this really reminds me of some of the Causa Sui summer sessions stuff this track as it is also a little funky somehow. Rob totally takes the lead, in fact he is basically the only one doing solos on most of the record except this track. The guitars and other instruments are just providing the grooves and ambience for Rob. Great stuff. This is the most intense track on the album.

Pretty nice is the final track and takes up only less than half the space of side 4. It has a nice slow building atmosphere to it and cool percussion. Here is some advice. I found that this record can be a little boring on a low volume so really crank it up and then the great mix and interesting interactions between the members really cuts through the sound. You will get sucked in for sure. I did.

Scott’s Roadburn Experience 2011

Roadburn Festival 2011 (April 14-17th)

Well, here we are again for the 6th year in a row. This festival has simply become a fixture in my life now and something that I look forward to as if it was Christmas! Last year was a very special event with the massive volcanic explosion in Iceland that forced a number of bands to cancel (and luckily many were able to come and play this year) and my own band, Øresund Space Collective had the honor of playing as the first band in the Bat Cave on the first day. Ironically, just yesterday (Tues April 12^th) the day before I was leaving for the festival, the test pressing of the double vinyl, OSC – Live at Roadburn 2010 arrived! Cool.

April 10^th- Dr. Space rehearses with Dragontears

14:00  The amazing psychedelic rock band, Dragontears will perform their last two concerts for some time at Roadburn and I was invited to play with them at the festival. I had never played with any of these Baby Woodrose, On Trial, Spids Nøgenhat guys, except for Morten Aron, who played with OSC last year. We met up on the Sunday and had a beer in the sun. Anders (bass) overslept so was late but I had to leave to do the Roadburn Radio Show at 18, so we had to set up and just try to get things going. There is a lot of gear in this room that On Trial uses and has been in for many years. I found a place in the corner so it was no problem. We had a lot of discussion about what to play and it was decided to just run through the songs from the Loppen set and we will just totally play it by ear at Roadburn and probably play 4-5 songs and the rest will just be jamming. We ran through Gensigtig Man, Time of no Time, My Friend, Two Tongue Talk and Neonheaded Demon before I had to leave. IT was great fun and sounded really good. I recorded it as well. I made wind, bubbles, etc. I think Aron and Guf wanted me to really freak out a lot and really space it out. We will see. I fear it can just be too much.

18:00 I arrived 2mins late and Jens put on Circle to start the show, a track from Alotus, I believe and then I took over for the next 1½ hrs. It was great fun. I played Stone Axe, Count Raven, Quest for Fire (all 7” records), VoiVod, Incredible Hog, Blood Ceremony, The Machine, Beaver and a few other tracks. I have not idea how many people actually listen to this Christianhavns Virus radio show but it is fun.

13/4/11

10:45 Met up with Jens and Martin at the security check and everyone was in a good mood. Within a few minutes we had met up with Ole. Sadly, Magnus will only come for the Saturday and Sunday as his grandmother passed away at 102 years old and they are holding the funeral on Friday. Bummer.

11:10 We are in line to board the plane and Ole realizes that he is on the SAS flight that leaves at 11:20 and not the KLM flight that Jens, Martin and myself are on. Shit… It is unlikely he made this flight. He is staying at the same hostel and me, Sven, Nils and some of the others so we will have to meet up with him later. Bummer. The plan for Amsterdam this afternoon is to check out the record stores, coffee shop, and go see the special Kenji Haino – Stephen O’Malley show tonight! That will be super far out, I think.

12:15 I am on the plane now and feeling really tired. A cup of tea is cooling off. It will be an great festival again this year.

13:36 Ole was there when we got there. I have no idea how he managed that but that was great. We are all at the Central train station now and all is well. It is a sunny with clouds day but nice out. Just ran into Jussi from Finland as well. We will see him at the Kenji Haino show tonight. We plan to drop our stuff off and check into the hostel and then go out for some food and record stores.

16:10 I had to pay for everyone in order for us to be able to check into the room. It was 212€. I will collect up the money later. Nils put a down payment but I don’t think this was part of it. Anyway, we had a nice meal at some Argentinean place and everyone had ribs except Ole. We saw a couple of record stores when we were walking around trying to find this place.

18:30 Wow! I found some cool records. The two Bassekou Kauyote LPs, both double vinyls. I got the new Gregg Allman double vinyl, the double vinyl first Gov’t Mule record, which has never been out on vinyl before, and Mom’s Apple Pie, a classic cover and ok blues rock record from 1972. This is an original it looks like for 20€. We are sitting in a park with one of Martin’s Dutch friends and having a beer and talking about all sorts of stuff. He has been in quite a few crazy punk bands. The Sausage Factory sounded bizarre and their 7” covers sound like they were crazy! Nice people. We will walk over to the club that O’Malley from Sunn O and Kenji Haino will play and find a coffee shop.

20:45 People bought some AK47 and also some Amnesia Haze at a coffee shop. We also grabbed a bite to eat and will now go get in line for the show. Looks like a cue has already started.

22:10 The club is totally packed now but nothing has happened yet except some moving around of some gear, etc. Nils and Tom are trying to make it. It is going to be loud and Haino has a lot of pedals and 3 of these air synths. We are right up in the very front. We thought that they would play as three guitar players but O’Malley on bass, Haino on guitar and not sure who the guy playing drums is.

23:00 Haino plays like he is possessed by a demon and he is a true guitar torturer! He plays very chaotically and in a not very trained way. Just plain far out. The bass was totally massive and you could not even hear Haino very well and then he turned himself up and it was much better but deadly loud. Over 115db on my sound meter.

23:45 It is over and they played about 65mins of total crazy stuff. No groove at all, just a drummer playing along in his own world, and the bass was a wall of sound and occasionally, they would cross paths and it would sound like they were playing together. Haino at the end of the show was really wild and the layers of feedback guitar were huge and then he added some of air synth screams. About ¼ of people left but most people were into it and it was wild. Some people would not consider this music at all. Here is a link to some video I shot!

00:45 I went off to bed and Nils, Tom and Ole headed to another coffee shop and bar. I hope I sleep well.

Day 1

08:10 I was up early and felt ok. Had some breakfast with Nils and Ole and then took a shower and everyone was in a good mood and does not seem too tired or anything.

10:38 Martin and Jens were late and Ole had bought their tickets for the train to save time and they missed it. Tom, Nils, Ausi, Sven and myself are on the train to Tilburg. It takes about 75min with the train change and then we have to catch the bus to Hilvarenbeek. I just met some cool American guys from Portland. This is their 3^rd Roadburn festival. Very nice guys.

01.15 We just checked into hotel and the staff of course remembers us and they are so friendly. They did not charge me for the night I am not here on Sunday that we booked for the two nights that Magnus booked and is not here due to a funeral. I am in room 6 and the others are in 25, 26 and 27 but all on the 2^nd floor. Everyone is rolling up for the show. We are all excited to be back again.

2:15 We are all on the bus on the way to the 013 now to get our wristbands in good time and to relax and have a beer. We are talking with some Australian folks that are here again. Cool people.

16:20 I could not get into see Quest for Fire so I ran back to catch the Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble in the midi and there was plenty of space and it was very cool spacey psychedelic stuff. They showed some dark films as well. It was violin, French horn, female vocal, bass, guitar and beats. I liked this stuff and had a nice chat with Jack from Toner Low.

17:00 I saw most of the Acid King show and this was massive and the big hall was packed. I would really love this band if Lori were a better guitar player and could play cooler solos. Still, I really liked them a lot and they had these great biker films, which were also the same ones they showed 4-5 years ago as well.

18:00 Ghost was pretty damn cool. I caught the last few songs including a really good instrumental track. They are a pretty standard 80’s metal sound but then some small more progressive rock sections. They look totally far out in these hoods and the lead singer with a full mask and pope hat with the upside down cross. Pretty fun and cool. The place was totally packed.

18:45 Nils and I met up and got pretty far into the room for Naam. Nanna, Christiana and others were there as well. They played some pretty cool stuff this three piece from Brooklyn NY. It was a bit stoner rock, 70’s rock and some pretty cool psych rock guitar. He does not play that many mindblowing solos but still a cool style of guitar. Their songs were pretty long.

19:05 We split to go see Blood Farmers. The CD is great and we hope they can deliver. Not a lot of people yet.

20:00 Wow! Blood Farmers, the 30mins or so we saw were fucking great. This was my favourite band so far and the guitar player played monster guitar riff, far out solos and the new song 1000 yard stare was really great. As good or better than the new songs.

20:10 Now was time for a classic band from the 70’s Pentagram. I had never heard them live before and was looking forward tothis. Nils and I were just to the right for the sound mixer. Victor Griffin was super loud. He was not really on top at this show. His solos got better and better. He did not know which leg to stand on because he was not on drugs anymore. We need him to do drugs again, to give the music a bit more edge. The first new song they played was really not good at all. The 2^nd was pretty cool and the 3^rd one so. I saw the entire set and left during the last song and ran over to catch what I could of Circle at the Midi Theatre. I ended up near the front with Ole and Tom. Ole said that the band carried the singer onto the stage and everything with the show started in slow motion. They were still in slow motion when I came in and this last for like 10 mins before they really took off and played a very cool show. I only did not recognize one song but it was high energy, intense, madness.

21:45 I was getting tired. Needed a red bull and to sit down. I went up to the top of the 013 and sat down to rest my legs while Godflesh set up and started. The intro was spaced out and they filled the whole hall with smoke but once the crushing volume and dark screaming metallic monotony started, it was not for me I left after like 10 mins and headed over to the midi theatre and spoke with Silvana and Roxanne while we sat in the balcony and waited for Wardruma.

22:30 Wardruma started off the show really cool. I liked the music and the vibe a lot but the visuals were not that cool but when the music started getting to heavy and electronic, then the visuals were looking great but I needed to run off so I could get into the bat cave room for Carlton Melton. I bought their record, 7” and split 12” earlier in the day, just thinking this would be cool.

23:15 Nils, Nanna, ole, Christian, Jacob, I saw a lot of the Danes at Carlton Melton. It started off with a two guitar space out and then the 2^ndguitar player switched to drums and the drummer switched to bass and then they really played some cool psychedelic rock with some great guitar. The main guitar player he also had a small keyboard set up that he would trigger some sounds now and then to add to the space out. They were really cool. This was probably my favourite show on this day. They had the bass player from Acid King play lead guitar for a monster dual soloing space out at the end of the show and then the main guitar player, he gave his guitar to another guy, who I am not sure who it was. Great show.

Nils and I ran off to catch a few minutes of Count Raven on the balcony and we caught the end of Destruction of the Void but thesound was terrible and his voice, he just can’t really sing the way he does on the record so it was not good, and a major disappointment as I love their records but back to see the end of Carlton Melton.

Solient Green was still playing on the big stage and the room was not that full when we left to go outside for some air. It was a long and intense day and there was no time for food. I did not drink so many beers as I had not eaten hardly anything yesterday. This is a huge problem at Roadburn, no time to eat!

Day 2

We are all sitting out in the garden having some food and beers and chips and everyone is in a great mood and no one seems to be suffering from yesterday’s abuses. The sun has been out and it was great and now it has clouded up but still pretty nice. Not sure when we will go into the town today or when the busses leave. People are not sure whether to go for Kenji Haino or Vampyr soundtrack played by Year of no Light from France.

13:30 We are on the bus back to Tilburg and everyone is in a great mood. I will go and get my train ticket for tomorrow and then meet up with the guys.

15:30 I got my train ticket for 9:14 on Sunday and just had a nice lunch with Sara and Benny and Ralph. Ralph was just sitting in a café having a smoke and coffee when I walked by. Nice people.

16:30 Nils, Martin, Nanna and some others, we are all watching Kenji Haino freakout. He is loud, crazy and very expressive. He is doing very different stuff than he did two nights ago which is good but it is music for the extreme. I am surprised so many people hang in here.

17:00 It was announced by Walter that Earth’s van broke down so they have switched with Circle-Pharaoh Overlord, who will play next on the mainstage and Earth will be later at the midi-theatre. Perfect. We will just hang out here for 15 mins more.

18:45 Wow! That was very cool and totally different. 5 guitar players in this line up and they had Mr. Duffy over from Jesters of Destiny so they could perform some of theHollywoodrecord (?, Sacrifice, Madman) and also Earthworm. They performed two Jesters of Destiny songs as well and the 2^nd one was fantastic and they played a really cool space end to it as well. A huge surprise was the singer from the LA band, Night Horse, he came out and sang two numbers with them, one called Out of the Darkness. This was good rocking stuff but not the hypnotic stuff that people thought they were going to get. This was Finnish NWOFHM version of Circle. I dug it but I know a lot of people could not get into it, it was too 80s metal, somehow.

19:15 I saw the beginning of Winter but it was too slow, doomy, depressive stuff. I had enough of that with Cough last week. I went over to check out Beaver. They said this was their first show in 9 years. I hung out with Silvana and later Tom, who was totally digging it. They opened with a really bad song and Jens and Christina split, which is a pity as the rest of the show and songs were really cool. They were not totally tight sometimes but that was ok. The female drummer was really great. She really pounded the drums. Private Stash was a killer track. They seem to play numbers from all their records and the crowd was into it.

20:30 Corrosion of Conformity on the big stage. That was also really fun and it was not just all short fast songs, they really mixed it up well with heavy slower stuff and played damn cool and very tight. I enjoyed this a lot more than I thought I would. I even had my Technocracy 1987 tour shirt with me. I never did get to see the band live though as the gig in El Paso that we went to was cancelled due to the venue change, collapsing stage, etc. So we ended up taking the band down to Mexico and we partied with them down there. They were super cool people. They probably would not remember this.

21:45 I caught the end of Earth and it was a great sound and really melodic slow spacey music. I just wish the guitar player would do a bit more. He has a cool band laying down a great sound but he plays pretty unexciting guitar sometimes, I feel like he should push the boundaries a bit more, at least some times. Incredible Hog is next and I am very excited for this one.

23:15 WOW! What can I say, me, Nils, Martin, Nanna, most of the whole gang was here to see this band from 1973 that only released one record! It will be rereleased on Rise Above Records later this year with some unreleased stuff. Anyway, they played a lot of the songs from the record and some stuff that was never released and a great version of the Willie Dixon song, Going Down. The guitar player and the whole band were really into jamming so it was excellent. Lots of cool guitar. They pretty much blew us away. Best band of the day for me.

1:00 Wow! Another killer concert. VoiVod was really killer today and very powerful and a great set of songs from nearly all thealbums and they even tried out a totally new song that they had never played live before. The replacement for Piggy he is just an excellent fit and Piggy was a very unique guitar player so this is really hard stuff to learn to play like this. Crowd was totally into it and they had killer sound. They dedicated Astronomy Dominie to Piggy as their encore song. After the show we talked a lot with the drummer and guitar player from Incredible Hog and I also spoke to Away and the new guitar player a bit. Such nice people. All the bands were just hanging out. What a killer day.

2:00 We are finally back at the hotel and I am really tired. Magnus will show up tomorrow for the last day and the Afterburner. Tom, Jens and Martin were totally blasted and Nils had to make sure they all got back. I went back with Martin, his girlfriend and Ole.

Day 3

9:30 I am up early, nothing to do about that. Today I will perform with Dragontears at the Midi Theatre. This is going to be really fun. They arrived last night but I did not see any of them. I will also go see this special showcase at the Café Cul De Sac with a brand new band called Gingerpig with the guitar player from Gorefest. It should be some sort of 70s rock.

11:30 I did not see many of them this morning and am on the bus to Tilburg. The showcase starts at 01:30 and I will get something to eat. They will give away a free 7” record as well. I am feeling a little out of it today after a hard day yesterday, not enough sleep and no real good meals.

1:00 I had an excellent meal. A huge salad with fresh mozzarella and chicken. Feel better now. I am off to the venue soon.

1:30 I just had a nice chat with Jussi from Circle and he filled me in on some of the details of Pharaoh Overlord, Circle, etc. They are very active with releases and stuff. I also met the folks from Earth. Very nice people. They are off to play in Malmo and then Finland today. I will meet the Dragontears guys at 15 to get the wristband.

14:30 Gingerpig are an excellent band, wow. That really caught me by surprise. The singer he has a great voice and they write some excellent 70s style songs and the keyboard player who had a Hammond with Leslie, Fender Rhodes, and a Moog Prodigy. He played in a really cool spacey style. Anyway, the songs sometimes had a bit of a stoner riff and a great groove. I was very impressed and enjoyed the show a lot. I will for sure want to get their record. I look forward to hearing the 7” record.

15:30 I have my wristband and food and drink tokens and have met up with Nils and the others and am ready for Candlemass. This should be great!

18:30 Candlemass had a great sound and some cool visuals and put on a very solid show. They started with some old songs like Mirror Mirror, Bells of Achelon, Samara Thin, and then If I ever Die and Hammer of Doom, the best songs from the latest record. Then the first singer came out and performed the entire 1^st record with the band, including the acoustic guitar intro. This was great. He still sounds fantastic and has an amazing voice. I really like the new guy from Solitude Aeternus but I am pretty surprised he has to read the lyrics for every song from a book, even songs he has probably sung 200 times! I left after the classic record and caught the first 3 songs of Lonely Kamel from Norway. I was surprised they were so much like stoner rock. Their latest record was more bluesy. I still enjoyed it.  Then I ran into see White Hills. IT was very very packed and super hot. They were really cool and the lady from Aqua Nebula Oscillator was playing with them but you could hardly hear anything she played. They played On and On and Dead and a few others I recognized but they were spacing out as well. I did not see the whole show as I needed to rest a bit for later. Pity as I was really loving this one.

19:15 I met up with the others and saw a few songs of Weedeater. That was really intense stuff, very sludgy, dirty, heavy riff rock.The bass player he was totally crazy but having a good time as well. He even played a bit laying on his back with his feet in the air. He plays in  and actually stayed at my apartment some years ago and was a very nice person despite coming across as quite mad! Heavy shit and I loved it.

22:15 After Weedeater I headed over to the Midi Theatre and just rested my mind and legs and listened to Pharaoh Overlord’s set. They started with an old Spaceman 3 song, in a like 10 min version. Very repetitive stuff. Their was a decent crowd but it was not filled up. They played a very special set up extremely repetitive hypnotic stuff with 3 guitar (one who sang all the songs) and Mika standing like a statue playing some drones on a small Roland synth. The crowd was into it. It is pretty far out and totally different than the other two shows the band played.

The Dragontears show was very cool and I had a totally amazing time. We played a long space out jam at the beginning, Time of no Time, My friend, Two Tongue Talk, Neonheaded Demon, Masters of War (Special spaced version) and ended with Gensigntig Mænd. The crowd was loving it and the visuals looked cool but I thought there was too much light on the stage, it should have been darker. I feel like most of the time I played quite well and cool stuff. My stage sound was great and I could hear everyone but Guf seem to not enjoy the show too much, sadly. It was a great crowd response and several people said it was one of the highlights of the festival. Wow… I packed up my gear and am running off to see Stone Axe. There is a lot of videos of Dragontears here is one cool one.

1:00 I managed to catch the last 30 mins of Stone Axe and Martin and Jens were there and we totally rock out. They were really excellent and have cool songs but they do not jam at all. All the songs are like 3-4mins max. They played mostly songs I knew from their records, which I have all of them, even the 7” releases!  I left and headed over to see the rest of Ufomammut and I ran into Walter who was also going over there and he was in a great mood and the festival had been running nearly perfect this year so he was satisfied. The venue was packed and we could not even get in for a few mins so I only caught the end of Eve and the rest of the show. Eve was amazing and spacey stuff and my fave record by this band. They played a few ok songs after but the last track was really great. They had a massive sound and this was probably the loudest concert of the festival.

2:00 I was able to catch 2 songs by Gates of Slumber and the end of the Wolf People. I really liked Wolf People from the UK. Very cool rock music. They apparently had a lot of sound issues during their gig but it was great what I was able to catch. I will have to try to hear some more of their music. Roadburn is over for me and Magnus is totally blasted so I help him into a taxi and we head back to the hotel.

Day 4 Going Home

Sadly I had to leave the festival and go home for my daughter’s birthday which always falls on the Roadburn weekend the last 4 years, of which I have missed it two years and yes, I feel guilty. This year I had to go home even though the Afterburner just looks amazing with Blood Farmers, Black Mountain, Black Pyramid, The Machine, Samsara Blues Experiment, Dragontears, etc. Wow!

It was a great festival and if I have to say which bands that I enjoyed the most it would be Incredible Hog, VoiVod, Carlton Melton, White Hills, Weedeater and Ufomammut but nearly ever band was really excellent and only very few were below the standard I had hope they would be (Pentagram, Naam). Thanks Walter and the others for another amazing festival.

http://www.roadburn.com

Nick Riff – The Universe is Mental

Nick is back with another record. I really liked his 2009 Photon Shift record but here he has made a mostly instrumental and really psychedelic electronic record. There are 9 tracks in 58 minutes and Nick plays all the instruments except some saxophone (on Forever) and woodwinds (on Heaven) by Jhaz Sigeret (what a cool name- Jazz Cigarette!).

The opening track starts with a very repetitive kick drum that does not change the whole track but is not also tribal enough for me and layers of spacey synths and nice delay guitars. Ok track but it did not evolve much.

Paled Vision is nearly 7mins long and starts with some synths looping and Nick comes in with some vocals here and there and a very spacey synth also goes in and out. Spacey stuff.

Where are we Now has some drums but they are not adding a whole lot as they are pretty uninteresting and is mostly synthesizer based as well and very spacey. There is some very cool guitar in this track or at least I am pretty sure it is guitar that is highly effected.

The limits of Perception starts with a repetitive synth loop from which the track develops and he has some piano like playing as well but again, it is very similar to the other tracks.

Forever is a short 4 min track that Nick plays on the piano and vocals and features some percussion (which kind of disrupts the track) and saxophone.

Sumerian Spacefort has some basic drum percussion and multiple layers of spacey keyboards and the lead keyboard has a sort of eastern flute like sound to it which is cool.

Snake Charmers Ritual has some pretty cool synths and a totally different type of percussion-drum sound than the other tracks. Some of the synth sounds are really panned out to the sides and it sounds cool.

Implant Procedure Explained starts with some very spaced out stuff and an highly effected vocal, maybe suppose to simulate an alien speaking to you about being implanted. Trippy stuff.

The track Heaven, ends your hour long journey into nickriff world with another piano track with Nick singing.

Nick describes the record like this, “it is a collection of vibrations and frequencies arranged to connect on a quantum level with the omni-energy field, entering into the infinite mind, transcending the illusion of time.” Enjoy…

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