Without waiting to get into the venue I thought this would be like any other Gothenburg concert with a few metalheads drinking beer in the bar looking bored, and not that many watching the concert. The beer-consumption was ridiculously high, I give you that, but I was pleasantly surprised by the crowd.

DRONE from Germany kicked off the evening; sort of cross-over-aggre-Thrash. It was quite impossible to set their style in the beginning, since the guitars were drowned by the triggered kick-drums and bass. It all felt pretty tight and well played but it's hard to judge when you can't hear the guitars. It took four songs before the sound got sorted out and it actually got quite good. Heavy groove with some sort of catchiness, perhaps a little too modern for this event though. But even then, the sound wasn't at their benefit; the music was dynamic but not the sound, it felt like everything was in the same frequencies and the bass killed the guitars completely. Two songs later I lost interest again and that is a not a good sign. I like the new breed of Thrash as well as the old-school but it takes more than just look cool to get me started.

Up next, my old Aussie heroes MORTAL SIN! I've been listening to them since the first album, Mayhemic Destruction. And then I ended up in some trouble with my teachers because I ran away from a school-trip back in 1989 to get Face Of Despair (anything for some good Metal, you know!!!).

The venue started to get really crowded and I was starting to get nervous. I had such high expectations on this concert, I love MORTAL SIN's old stuff as well as their latest album, An Absence Of Faith, but what if they didn't and just ignored it? It's not in that old-school vein like the old material, more Rock'n'Roll-groove-Thrash.

They kicked off their set with some old-school material. The sound was great from the start and the tiny stage at Sticky Fingers was boiling with life. I looked around a bit and saw an ocean of hair, everyone was headbanging. It wasn't just me that was kick-started with the first note. It's so nice to see these old bands being able to keep the music alive. Not just playing the songs because they're asked to. This sure as hell came straight from the heart!

The new material works extremely well live, too, and was received the same way as the old stuff by the crowd. I mean, if you manage to stand still too Out Of The Darkness, you're not a real metalhead, period. The set was a good mixture of new and old songs. They served classics like Lebanon and I Am Immortal and new stuff, Tears Of Redemption but not my favorite from An Absence Of Faith though, When The Bough Begins To Break. I'm so glad my gut-feeling was all wrong, this was awesome. A little too short but awesome! And Mike should have some extra cred too, I've never seen a singer bang his head and sing at the same time!

Could OVERKILL top this? I had my doubts...1 hour and 45 minutes later I was proven wrong (again) but let's call it a draw because MORTAL SIN was so great and if they've had more time they probably would have beaten OVERKILL.
I actually find it quite strange with OVERKILL. They keep spitting out records that are good, it's OVERKILL as straight as it can be, but no 10 points in my world! And if they can't keep my interest on record how come I feel pretty surprised it's already over after almost 2 hours of live OVERKILL? Well, OVERKILL is a well-oiled 'live machine', tight as hell, huge selection of songs to choose from, experience and Bobby Blitz Ellsworth. God damn that man is fit! And a great singer/frontman too...

The venue was packed now, should have been something around 300 people I guess. While waiting for it to start I overheard a conversation between this old fart claiming he had more right to be there than the kid standing in front of him, just because he had been a fan for 20 years...WHAT? Who will keep the metal alive if new blood doesn't have the right to be there just because they weren't in from the start? Bullshit, Metal is for everyone! And this concert made that clear, old-school Thrash is the new breed! A big part of the crowd couldn't have been born when OVERKILL released their first albums. Still they were absolute into it and knew every song. THE HAUNTED and IN FLAMES have to watch their backs now, OVERKILL and the old-school are really coming back big time. I love that!

The instant OVERKILL starts playing, 2/3 of the floor turns in to a mosh-pit. Great, it's fun to watch and it keep people going but I admit it got boring after a while. It was too big and quite empty most of the time and made it impossible to just relax and enjoy the concert since people came flying across the room every now and then. OVERKILL knows what works live, no doubt about that. They pick a good variation of songs from new and old records, mixing new and old stuff perfectly in the set. And even if I like OVERKILL live more than on record it gave me an urge to go home and listen to all their records after the concert.

I guess everyone except the security had a good time this night, I find it impossible to be still listening to songs like The Wrecking Crew, Hello From The Gutter, Rotten To The Core and Hammerhead (just to mention a few) and I wasn't the only one. Security gave up and people started climbing up on stage and diving off again, if someone was standing too long on stage DD Verni gave them a kick in the butt to get them going. All good, friendly, violent fun! They ended the set with Old School, a punk-ish new classic that brought MORTAL SIN back on stage and just boosting the audience a little more. By this time the entire room was stir crazy and AC_DC's classic Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap did not calm people down. Need I say it got even crazier with the last song, Fuck You?

It all was a really good night! High spirit, the beer was flooding, celebrity present (people from THE HAUNTED, DARK TRANQUILLITY, NIFELHEIM, PORTRAIT, NOMINON etc) and of course great bands. I'm really surprised by the Gothenburg audience, they're normally really boring but I'm glad I was wrong, more than once this night. OVERKILL and MORTAL SIN surely deserved the recognition they got.

(photos by Erika Wallberg)

DRONE

MORTAL SIN

OVERKILL