A new town and a new venue; that isn't common for me in Sweden anymore. Blacksmith is really a Motorcycle Club that arranges concerts at their own place. So it's sort of a dirty club, a bar without a real license. The place is shared with Southern Streeters, an American Car Club with all what that means. Even if the place is quite big the feeling of private party hangs over it.

First up, were CALIBER 666 from Stockholm, a little misplaced on the bill with their Florida Death Metal and I can understand if they weren't too inspired to play. When they started the place was empty, no real soundcheck was done and the stage was anything but airy. They looked a bit cramped up there and the sound coming out of the monitors was a massive wall of sound. There was no way they could have heard anything at all up there. Still it's a real turn-off when bands don't give a shit when they do get gigs, I don't think anyone present at Club Blacksmith will talk good about CALIBER 666 because of their performance. Some, had to do with the sound sure, but most because of the band. The sound was sorted out quite fast but apart from th guitar player Tony Riggo the rest were dead. He saved the night and raised my impression several levels. Well, that's unfair to say because the two last songs sounded great and it felt like a completely different band on stage, unfortunately the crowd had given up on them long ago by then.

Second band up, SWORN AMONGST were also a questionable choice for an opener at a first glance. They looked like any impersonal Metalcore band. Musically it was a little harder to decide what the hell they were. Parts fitted right into the bill, Old School Bay Area thrash but it flipped over to High School punk a little too many times. Add a real Death Metal voice to that and the confusion is total. But SWORN AMONGST did something right because I never wanted to walk away from the stage, they were fun to watch and when they finally cut the High School Punk influences it all turned over to a unity. The music and their style fitted together, basic Old School Bay Area with a little touch of more modern, perhaps a little Gothenburg influenced Thrash. Very nice! Both No Turning Back and Rejection from their latest release And So It Begins is really catchy and I think this is a band that we can count on for the future.

Steal with pride, or just borrow a little. First the name, BONDED BY BLOOD. No one that's the slightest into this type of music can miss the name-connection with a classic band in the same genre. Then the music, it's like a really good Whiskey. You always want a little more and those scents and flavors that you can almost sort out. They are so familiar but so hard to place and almost impossible to identify. It's the same with BONDED BY BLOOD's music, there are small touches of most every Old-School Bay Area band in there. All in a very tasteful mish-mash and nothing really stolen. I could absolutely feel the influences and recognize parts from all the big bands but that was all. So, as well as they were a really fresh breeze in the scene an they brought out a lot of nostalgia for us who were in it from the start. Another thing that really stood out here was that the stage, the nature of the venue and the not very numerous audience didn't matter. The only thing that mattered was to play and have a good time and damn, they're good at that. Just on the verge of being hysteric, or at least super energetic they were and the Old School bands need to watch out because BONDED BY BLOOD have the songs to give them a match. Latest release Feed The Beast shows off talent, musical skills and a really creative energy and I'm sure this album will be a classic in a few years.

Could GAMMA BOMB match that? It's more common that bands from outside the Bay Area feel like a plagiarism of the original rather than something new and creative. GAMMA BOMB are not one of those bands, they rock! They have managed to create their own path, doing it all the Irish way. Just as BONDED BY BLOOD they were a lot of fun to watch but musically I prefer BONDED BY BLOOD over GAMMA BOMB. Still, GAMMA BOMB are high quality Thrash Metal and musically there's nothing to complain about here either. Performance-wise BONDED BY BLOOD felt more dynamic and professional, on the other hand GAMMA BOMB got a lot more personal. Conversations with the crowd are always a boost for a concert and the Swedish Alcohol Policy got a nasty stab in the side since it's not possible to get real bear when Alcohol shop (Systembolaget) closed, just barely alcoholic ones... Also, GAMMA BOMB gave their support to DR LIVINGDEATH, claiming them to be their favorite Swedish band. The Siamese twins in the front, guitar player Domo Dixon and vocalist Philly Byrne shared the microphone duties. There's nothing wrong with that, it's only that they had one microphone so the lead vocals got lost from time to time and the whole thing suffered from that. Sure it's fun to watch but it was a little too much of it. Second guitar player Luke Graham sat comfortably on a chair on his side of the stage. Now that's not especially cool but in his defense he fell off the tour bus in BILBAO (perhaps it's possible to get real beer around the hours in SPAIN?) and broke his leg. And now he sat down to not break it again, fair enough. Cancel some gigs? No way! Philly mumbled something, apparently he'd asked the crowd to choose from two songs but that Irish accent was really wide and no one really got it. It was completely impossible to understand what the hell he was talking about but when he switched to Swedish it was flawless. That the nature of the sentence spoken was highly adult oriented wasn't such a big surprise, that's always the things learned first. Another try with the songs got him better response and Zombie Brew got the loudest screams. Over all this was a superb night, cool place with a fair enough setup stage-wise for an arrangement of this size. Four high quality bands for a ridiculously low fee, all very convenient arranged with the Suburban Rail stopping right outside the venue. So why the hell didn't more people show up?

(photos by neutron bomb Erika)

CALIBER 666

SWORN AMONGST

BONDED BY BLOOD

GAMMA BOMB