Dave Mustaine and his Megadeth is back at the Sweden Rock Festival to finish the first festival day on the Rock Stage. Guitar player Kiko Loureiro has been replaced by Teemy Mäntysaari, a Finnish guitar slinger known for his services with bands like Wintersun, Imperanon, Induction and Smackdown. Is there a real difference musically with this new force? Not really! Megadeth always sounds like Megadeth because of the one and only Dave Mustaine.
What about the music. The setlist doesn’t hold any surprises. The first night back on their Crush The World Tour kicked ass as Dave said so himself. Two songs from the most recent release The Sick, The Dead And The Dying in the form of the title song and We’ll Be Back are mixed in nicely with the older and well known stuff. Sweating Bullets, Tornado Of Souls, Symphony Of Destruction, Peace Sells and all those other ‘hits’ are performed really tight and heavy so Mustaine and his boys receive an A minus. Why the minus? Only thirteen tracks and a gig time of one hour and ten minutes including the encore! Come on Dave. We know you’re getting older but as a headlining band you must take your responsability and perform at least one and a half hour. Maybe next time???
Meanwhile Five Finger Death Punch is doing their thing at the Festival Stage. This is a band that is somewhat new to the big festival headlining bunch. We see a shift because a lot of the classic headliners are no longer with us, are not touring anymore or are getting too old. So we have to get used to the fact that in the near future classic bands like Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Scorpions, Deep Purple and many more will not be top of the bill anymore. Does a band like 5FDP deserve a headlining spot or not? Everybody has to decide for themselves.
Anyways, the place is packed long before the band hits the stage. They seem to be the proud owners of a large fanbase. The American metal band was formed back in 2005 back in Las Vegas. Their first six albums all sold over one million copies, except for the first one and that makes them one of the most successful heavy metal bands of the decade. Their musical style has been described as heavy, groove, alternative, hard, nu, trash and even arena rock metal. Whatever one calls the music it’s a fact their fans just love everything they do. Seventeen songs from seven different albums and a cover The House Of The Rising Sun…what’s not to like!
Rival Sons is an American rock band from Long Beach California and one thing is for sure! They are on their way to the top. They are almost ready for a spot as a true headliner for festivals around the world and most certainly for the Sweden Rock Festival.
The firepower and musical style are simply electrifying and addictive and at the same time they all dress so elegant. The five of them have captured the music of the seventies and enhanced it to a 2024 musical standard and seem to establish a true connection with their audience. A roaring voice, lots of slide guitar and a steady rhythm section supported by a wonderful keyboard sound gives their music a somewhat carefree vibe. It’s just rock and roll in the rawest form possible.
The live set at Sweden Rock consist of songs from all albums released except for their first one and their latest 2023 release Lightbringer and that’s somewhat strange. Nevertheless Open My Eyes with a thunder and lightning groove, Pressure And Time with that Led Zep feel, a soulful Too Bad, a very heavy Feral Roots with a glorious interaction between guitar and keys and other great tracks turn this gig into a high standard musical feast. For many a more than succesful visit again!!!
If the name Winger doesn’t ring a bell you are either way too young or you have been living under a rock. This American institute started out in 1987 and gained popularity in the late eighties and early nineties. They released two platinum albums called Winger and In The Heart Of The Young but disbanded in 1994 just after the release of their third album Pull. They reunited in 2001 and in 2006 the fourth album in thirteen years saw the light of day. In 2009 the fifth called Karma was followed by Better Days Comin’. The most recent one Seven came out in 2023. Some time ago Winger announced their farewell after thirty plus years and so their passing at the Sweden Rock Festival will be the last one ever in Scandinavia.
The set is an overview of the band’s career spanning nearly every album. Highlights are Down Incognito from Pull, Miles Away from In The Heart Of The Young with special guest Jeff Scott Soto and Easy Come Easy Go from that same release. Kip Winger’s singing is superb as is Reb Beach his guitar escapades supported by a well oiled rhythm machine. Sad to see them go but as it goes with many bands saying goodbye…you never know what the future brings!!!
Michael Schenker is still on the road with his 50th Anniversary Tour. He is the iconic Flying V guitar axeman responsible for putting bands like Scorpions and UFO on the hardrock map. Playing gigs around the world under different names like Michael Schenker’s Temple Of Rock, McAuley Schenker Group, Michael Schenker Group, Michael Schenker and Michael Schenker Fest for over fifty years is quite extraordinary. At the age of nearly seventy years old Schenker is completely clean and does seem really fit for his age.
Today his band consists of the wonderful Robin McAuley with Dutch bass player Barend Courbois, Steve Mann on keys and guitar and the powerful Bobo Schopf on drums. No surprises in what the man himself serves us on a silver platter and that is almost all tracks from the most important MSG records. Attack Of The Mad Axeman, Let Sleeping Dogs Lie, Looking For Love and On And On from the 1981 release MSG showcase these tunes stand the test of time. Desert Song, Rock You To The Ground and the title song from Assault Attack from 1980 do the same thing as do the tracks Armed And Ready, Cry For The Nations and Into The Arena from the album The Michael Schenker Group.
Only strange thing is that when you hire someone like Robin McAuley you should let this vocalist extraordinaire sing some of the songs you recorded with him. Such a shame because altough he does a great job vocalising these tunes you never get the feel of the authentic singers. Maybe it would have been better to celebrate over fifty years in the music business with the Michael Schenker Fest with the likes of nearly all great Schenker vocalists.
Biohazard from Brooklyn New York is probably the first band mixing hardcore punk with hiphop and heavy metal. What the band brings this day and age is a perfect mix from their first three albums and it must be said that these raw sounding tracks stand the test of time and still are relevant. The performance is really intense, filled with many mosh pits and an avalanche of sound…even when you have seen the band before. Two deafening tracks from their first, three from their third release and five what have you from their most loved and second baby Urban Discipline are blasted out of the speakers at the Sweden Stage and there are more than a hundred people banging their heads if you know what I mean. An unforgettable performance from a band who truly adores their fans!
Swedish metal band Dream Evil are well known in Scandinavia but for many visitors from other European countries it’s the first time to experience this band live and what better place than the Sweden Rock Festival right?
They started out back in 1999 assembled by producer Frederik Nordström. The name as you might suspect comes from the fantastic Dio song and even had Gus G from Firewind and Ozzy Osbourne handling the guitar parts for five years. You can tell the band has some live experience the way they act on a stage and musically they tend to play classic hard rock with some influences from heavy metal. They seem to like what they do and are happy with a spot so early on the Blaklader Stage.
Talisman fronted by the amazing Jeff Scott Soto is paying tribute to the late Marcel Jacob, his good friend an bass wonder and former of Talisman. Jacob took his own life back in 2009 after many personal and health issues. Soto is well known for his collaborations with Yngwie Malmsteen, Journey, Sons Of Apollo, WET, Trans Siberean Orchestra, Art Of Anarchy, Axel Rudi Pell, Takara, Human Clay, Humanimal, Soul Sirkus, Ellefson and many more. Six stringer Pontus Norgren is handling the six strings, vJamie Borger is hitting the drumpieces and Johan Niemann from Evergrey had to take the weight of the bass parts which he did with excellence. As usual Soto did an excellent job concerning the vocal parts although he suffered some minor microphone problems in the beginning of the set and it seems they didn’t get enough time to rehearse but who cares. This is rock and roll and a hommage to a lost brother. As for the choice of songs to perform they brought an excellent selection of Talisman greats. Break Your Chains, Dangerous, Mysterious, All Or Nothing, If U Could Only Be My Friend, Tears In The Sky, I’ll Be Waiting and a few more gave you chills down your spine despite the minor mistakes and technical mishaps.
JOURNEY MANAGEMENT DID NOT ALLOW PHOTOGRAPHERS IN THE PIT TO CAPTURE THEIR 50TH ANNIVERSARY.
MY 63 YEARS OLD DANISH FRIEND AND PHOTOGRAPHER WORKED HIS WAY THROUGH THE HUGE CROWD TO SNAP SOME GREAT SHOTS AND WAS KIND ENOUGH TO PROVIDE ME WITH SOME OF HIS PICTURES SO THANKS A MILLION HENRIK HILDEBRANDT!!!