It was nice to be back in London again, sure it has been too few visits the last couple of years. But the rockscene seem to have died totally though. Saturday night and alright for fighting and there were no live-rock what so ever in that huge city. Sunday had more to offer.

I was actually a bit surprised with the first band on the bill GORILLA MONSOON from Germany. They varied from being a doomy version of PANTERA to an ordinary punk-rock outfit. I must say I liked the PANTERA-influenced songs a lot more than the punk though. But the most important, they were not the boring Stoner-band I expected. It's always nice to be pleasantly surprised by the opening act and they surely did. Riffs, groove and attitude; if only they could have been as tight as the guitarplayer's pants...

If a band hails from Norway, then you can almost always trust some good musicianship. SAHG is no exception from that but it's easy to question the dedication of these bands, knowing from where the musicians coming from. Judging on their releases the last couple of years it seems like all the old-school Blackmetal-musicians needed a rock'n'roll side-project, like I, CHROME DIVISION and of course SAHG. This BLACK SABBATH-styled fuzz-rock comes straight from the heart, doubtless. And with two cool albums in the bag, Sahg I and Sahg II they have a nice batch of songs to choose from. It's tight, dynamic and oozes of 70's rock and doom. It is damn good but it gets a little boring to watch after a while, there was not enough action going on at Dingwalls stage this Sunday night.

What would TROUBLE be up to then? Twin-guitars, manic frustration and running to the light? Mmm, pretty much so! I was glad to see that they were back into their old style of delivering doom in a high-class way. With intensity and determination! Sometimes, I wonder why they never got any recognition. Ok, they have a cult-status in the underworld but they deserve so much more than that. Rick Wartell and Bruce Franklin look like night and day but play together as they've never done anything else in their lives. I love to see two great guitarplayers having fun together and complement each other perfectly.

Why is always JUDAS PRIEST or IRON MAIDEN mentioned as soon as it talks about twin guitars and never TROUBLE? Their songwriting, performance and talent are absolutely in the ranks of the giants! Take an album like Manic Frustration, is there a bad song on that one? Not in my world! And we got a lot from that one together with parts from Trouble and Plastic Green Head and some new songs in a very nice mix but I do lack some of the older material. Of course, they played some old stuff, The Tempter for example but they have so much more to choose from.

And that's what took the edge of this concert a little, it feeled like they're playing it a little too safe. It would have been so nice to get some really odd material, something I haven't heard live before. But perhaps that's just me, I've seen them a couple of times and might be spoilt. I count on a treatment of high-quality doom and don't get me wrong, we got that but it would have been so nice with just a little surprise.

Compared to the performance at 'SwedenRock Festival' last year this was miles ahead, nothing tired or stale about this. And this being the last gig on the tour, still energetic, still groovy, that means TROUBLE is back and hopefully to stay too!

(photos by Erika Wallberg)

GORILLA MONSOON

SAHG

TROUBLE