I guess the hype around Metal have its ups and downs. It's great that bands with original material get the chance to play but why the hell aren't people more interested in watching them? Maybe the organizers killed their own arrangement when they put PAUL DIANNO and THUNDERBOLT on the first day of this weekend. Going out both Friday and Saturday is often too much and that was clear here.

The battle of the local heroes started with EGONAUT but there wasn't much of a fight. PSYCHO FOX didn't stand a chance. I wouldn't be surprised if they break it big any second. All they really need is some luck, the rest they do have. Their attitude is right, their style is both modern and retro and they rock. Perhaps they don't have as much hit potential or sticky chorus lines in their music as VOLBEAT, yet.

Raw, straight forward Rock 'n' Roll is always a winning concept and when you can back it up with a good show it's bound to succeed. They were also named demo of the month in one of Sweden's major Metal magazines, Close-Up, and that must be worth something. But ok, it's hard to reach people if there's no crowd there to see it all, of course. But EGONAUT were a lot of fun to watch, much thanks to keyboard player Dennis who's been creative enough and turned his instrument around. At first it felt a little strange that he almost had his back towards the crowd. Realizing why it felt genius. The set-up gave him access to the stage and he really used it. The synchronized stage outfits felt natural too, black shirt and a red tie for the color sort of set the finishing touches to the whole picture.

Sometimes I wonder what the cat drags in. PSYCHO FOX sure qualify in that category. I say it again, no matter what style of Hard Rock and Metal you play, you need to have some power in it. Even if it's the cheesiest version of Hair Metal, you still need to have some drive to it. PSYCHO FOX was styled to their teeth with all attributes you can even thing of for a band in the Hair_Sleaze genre. They had the moves, the way to vary their positions on stage like any Arena Rock band and I give them that. The show was good, it was fun to watch. But to do something like that you really need to have the music to back it up too. It's not enough to steal a little from every GUNS'N'ROSES or BON JOVI song and try to make it your own, that will shine through and when the thefts are too obvious it just gets pathetic.

It's not many bands that can serve high quality Melodic Metal year after year at M.ILL.ION's standard. I can't do anything but admire M.ILL.ION. It can't be fun to travel over half the country just to realize you'll be playing in front of a 30-headed crowd. With 6 and a half records in the baggage you're allowed to expect a lot more. Ok, M.ILL.ION hasn't been very visible in media but Metal Heads normally dig up information about good bands anyway. The thing that was really amazing was that they just kicked off and rocked out like the place would have been packed with screaming fans. They sure as hell didn't save any energy. To see a band at full capacity gives at least me a boost. Hard work pays off most of the time and with the attitude M.ILL.ION had they really deserve all credits they can get. The few that had found their way to Militorpalatset seemed to enjoy this as much as I did. But I sure hope they're used to better treatment than this. It was also fascinating to see the attribute used both by PSYCHO FOX and M.ILL.ION. The fan at stage right was so pathetic for the first band but with M.ILL.ION it was all natural. It's hard to nail exactly why it felt this way. It must be more than 20 years in the business. Perhaps the feeling of being genuine and stable that M.ILL.ION had makes a band get away with almost anything. It might even make them look cool.

(photos by 'where are the metalheads?' Erika)

EGONAUT

PSYCHO FOX

M.ILL.ION