Once more it was time for a freak show at Sandbacka Bryggeri. This time featured local the Death Metal legends SORCERY and the Finnish Speed metallers SOLITAIRE fought for the crowd's attention that evening. I can't even imagine what bands think when they walk into a venue and see what it looks like and how damn small the stage is. Especially bands who are used to play at least normal sized clubs, but SOLITAIRE took on the place just as this was what they were doing every day.

Guitar player Waqquu, as tall as he is could hardly move on his edge; the drainpipes running right through the hall and the slightest move in the wrong direction would have made him see stars. Nothing like that happened though, lucky enough. SOLITAIRE didn't have it very easy that Saturday evening. They got some support but most of it was people having nowhere to move and applauding and screaming politely between the songs. I'm sure that they would have gotten better response any other night. It was quite clear that almost everyone was there to see the headliners. Still, SOLITAIRE did really good, the music being quite special. Sort of late 80's Speed Metal with a very high pitched vocals which unfortunately didn't come through at all. Normally the sound is very good at Sandbacka Bryggeri but this time, something had happened to the installed speakers and frankly, it doesn't matter how good the sound is if the speakers is on the floor behind a massive wall of metalheads. But apart from that everything sounded they way it should and the words about them afterwards was undivided positive. So next time the support from the crowd will be a little more than a few (who really packed the first line anyway) will show up and make Bryggeriet boiling like it normally is.

There's no doubt though that A LOT of people were excited to see SORCERY again. For me, this is a band I grew up with, old friends really. The flashbacks of youth mischief's was massive this night, both by talking to people I haven't seen since that time, about two decades ago and of course the music. The Swedish late 80's, early 90's Death Metal scene was amazing, perhaps SORCERY wasn't one of the biggest bands of it but they sure earned a cult status which makes them create a buzz even today, perhaps even more now than 20 years ago. Today's version of SORCERY is a bit renewed. Ola Malmstrom (vocals) and Peo Johansson (bass) remains from the original line-up, new features are Henka Lindemo (OUTREMER, ISOLE, EREB ALTOR) on bass and Jocke Olofsson (OUTREMER, ex-IN AETERNUM) on drums. It perhaps is hard for me to make an objective judgment of this since SORCERY had a lot of influence on me when I first started listening to brutal music. But I must say, SORCERY sounded better than ever. Henka who normally abuses a Rickenbacker with his Doom-fellows did an impressive job on the guitar.

Sure, this type of music gets a little weak with only one guitar but Henka absolutely pulled it off by himself. The most amazing though was to hear that the song has survived 20 years very well. Legacy Of Blood from SORCERY's only full length release Bloodchilling Tales opened the set and then we got served the rest of the album. Ola dedicated Lucifer's Legions to us, who were there 20 years ago and still remains the same today. Also Immortality Given and The Rite Of Sacrifice remains strong today and the 7-inch release Rivers Of The Dead was even better than I remembered. The set also featured two unreleased songs. Maculated Life was recorded after the full length but never released, Master Of The Chains was brand new and showed that SORCERY still can deliver classic Death Metal. What about the rest of the performance then? Well, as I've said, there's no place to perform at Bryggeriet.

Bands should be satisfied if they get off stage without any injuries and SORCERY did even if they served a huge doze of headbanging and stirred up the crowd to the max. By These Words ended the evening (just as it ended the album) and I'm not sure anyone could have taken any more. The band was soaked in sweat and the crowd sure had done a hard work supporting SORCERY for the last hour. All in all, it was another very pleasant evening at Sandbacka Bryggeri I must say.

(photos by the Dragon of the Burning Twilight Erika)

SOLITAIRE

SORCERY