You're never too old for hårdrock
Review of 'Muskelrock' festival held in Alvesta (Sweden) from June 3 to 5, 2022.
Special report for La Caja de Pandora 96.9FM Underground Metal Radio Show.
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Words and images: Juan Sabbath (www.bsabbath.com)
In my last review of Muskelrock (“A Heavy Metal Bacchanal”) I left a record of the atmosphere in this peculiar underground heavy metal festival. It was so excellent that I made it a point to attend every year without fail. In fact, most of the public has religiously attended this event since its creation in 2009. Because of a pandemic, we waited three years for this version of the festival.
The summer was one of the hottest in Europe's history, so two of the three festival days were sunny. The “Mad Max III” vibe I described in 2019 was gone. This year the Muskelrock was like a family outing. A Swedish friend told me that it feels strange to see the same attendees every year, only a little older. Perhaps that is the reason for such a homely feeling. Muskelrock is like a timelapse of the cycle of life and we're all maturing more than we'd like. But nobody is too old for rock and roll and we are too young to die, that's why heavy metal is the secret of eternal youth.
In Tyrolen, nobody felt old and on the contrary, people of all ages could be seen, as well as entire families.
Do you want to know Sweden in a single visit? Muskelrock is the answer. Here, you feel the essence of Swedish culture and its people. Heavy metal is mixed with identity marks and the activities revolve around local customs: knitting competitions or the auction of traditional collectibles. Within such a cosy atmosphere, nobody feels like a stranger at Muskelrock.
Let's go to the bands. I will highlight the ones I could enjoy: The Night Eternal, Riders of Rohan, Cobra Spell, Asomvel, Century, Girlschool, Nekromant, Bullet, Eternal Champion, Freeways, Alien Force, Jameson Raid, Kate's Acid, Mindless Sinner, Helvetets Port, and Omen. I missed the last day, since I went to present my book at the International Congress of Metal Music Studies in Mexico.
The Night Eternal are a new band that hit the scene with their “Moonlit Cross” (2021). They have all the power of traditional heavy metal and an active vocalist on stage who easily hooks the audience. A good way to break the ice.
Riders of Rohan wield an engaging paraphernalia that draws from Tolkien's legends. They storm the stage with cape and hood, presenting a forceful sound of epic heavy metal from their first album.
With Cobra Spell, instead, we saw a more dynamic and modern heavy metal thanks to their new vocalist Kris Vega.
Asomvel are a band that compose their songs but at the same time it is a tribute to Motörhead, which generates the rejection of many. In my opinion, they were superb, you feel the strength of Motörhead in new songs that are not easy to write and perform on stage.
Century were not a band to discover but one of the reasons to attend Muskelrock. A forceful classic heavy metal with a Swedish sound, a new group tied to the past (fortunately). That is what one hopes to see at these festivals.
I had seen Girlschool at Wacken 2019 and it was one of the high points there. Here, they once again demonstrated a powerful heavy rock, only dispatching classics like “Demolition boys”, “Hit and run”, “Action” and two powerful versions: one by the sixties band The Gun (“Race with the devil ”), also covered by Judas Priest and Black Oak Arkansas. The other, the "Bomber" of Motörhead. Tyrolen burned.
Nekromant contributed a heavy doom metal with psychedelic touches to contrast a little the sounds listened so far. That slowed-down, deliciously repetitive sound doesn't feel bad.
Bullet are the guests of the Muskelrock and as such their staging on stage is spectacular. The Venedig, the wooden stage supported by a mound of bushes and rocks, had to withstand the pyrotechnic arsenal of Bullet. Fire adds more toughness to Bullet's hard rock.
Eternal Champion delivered pure epic strength, living up to the name of the festival with a genre that prospers in the United States. A good way to close my first day of the festival with the fists up.
The next day, the Canadians Freeways presented a street heavy/speed of great performance, commanded by the vocalist and guitarist Jacob Montgomery. Without any desire to sound original, they fit nicely on any stage.
Next, Alien Force: What a band! I saw them at Keep It True years ago and here they sounded like always, that is, spectacular. This band is highly underrated. Their heavy metal is an unusual mixture of speed with heavy lite and heavy sharpness at the same time. Fortunately, these gentlemen decided to return to the stage and they looked pleased. Music deserves this kind of bands. They have recently released their latest album “We Meet Again” (2021), so they will be active. Promoters: don't miss this opportunity and bring Alien Force to South America!
At noon on Saturday, waiting outside the hotel for the shuttle to Tyrolen, a white van pulled up in front of the small group of metalheads I was in. An elegant English gentleman got out and approached us to say hello, he wanted to get up close to those metalheads who persist in heavy metal 45 years later. His name: Terry Dark, vocalist and leader of Jameson Raid, a band from the first wave of British heavy metal, highly valued among collectors for being truly pioneering. But hitting first is not always a guarantee of success and unfortunately Jameson Raid is a hidden gem for most metalheads today. Formed in 1975, Jameson Raid were proving that even for a festival as specialised as Muskelrock they were unknown and only a few fans were in front of the stage. But the metal ethics that I explained so much in the book “Bienvenidos al Sabbath” made the band perform as if they were in front of a thousand lifted fists, where those who enjoyed the most were themselves. That's true heavy metal ethics.
Then, Kate's Acid arrived and everything exploded at Muskelrock.
Kate's backup musicians did their job at perfection and that, added to Kate's scenic and vocal power plus the band's classic songs, results in one of the best performances in Muskelrock history. Heavy/Speed in its purest form, Kate's Acid is irresistible headbanging, an overdose of heavy metal. What an original and powerful sound and how great that the Metal Gods allowed us to see Kate on stage again.
Mindless Sinner shared a traditional heavy metal from Sweden with a sound created in 1983. After a period of inactivity, they reunited in 2015 to continue being part of metal history. With a new album (“Poltergeist”, 2020), the band is vital and I really wanted to see what their live performance was like. Positive balance: heavy metal lives forever.
Helvetets Port are a 100% Swedish heavy metal band: in the concept, in the staging and in the quality. Their compositional structure is very original and it is accentuated when they sing full songs in Swedish or combining Swedish and English. Pure mighty heavy metal vanguard drawn from the past. A massive attack of metal music.
The last band I could see was Omen. Their performance was the best I have seen. Kenny Powell was like in his prime and the set list included the whiplash “Teeth of the hydra”, “Death rider”, “Don’t fear the night”, “The Axeman” and of course “Battle cry”.
In this way, I enjoyed two days of a heavy metal celebration.
Any critique? Simulating a heavy metal attitude is easier and therefore common. Festivals as underground as Muskelrock cannot avoid some posers. Evidence? After Omen's performance finished, someone in the audience was shouting for an autograph from the band in a randomly caught setlist paper. This person eagerly asked for it.
The bass player approached the fence to try to explain they are almost a support band and the founder legend was Kenny Powell. Meanwhile, Kenny Powell himself ran off the stage and stood right next to the person in question for tapping on its shoulder. Even then, that person could not recognize him and continued asking for an autograph to the rest of the group members. This poser anecdote was only at the level of the day we received the group Rotting Christ at El Dorado airport in Bogotá. After their arrival and the respective photos, a couple of people who were passing by also asked for photos with the band and then said: "and those…Who were they?" That level of superficial consumerism was Muskelrock's only funny downside.
Lund (Sweden), September 20, 2022
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