Written by:	Spyroid
Published:	August 02, 2007

(Warning! Contains some spoiling playlist information)
All pictures taken by me - please ask before using them.

This was the third time that I'd visited Sweden Rock Festival in the South East of Sweden, after a one-day ticket in 2005 and a full ticket in 2006. The line-up this year seemed a bit better than last year, but not as good as many previous years (especially some years when a lot of great Progressive Rock bands played there, something that appeals to me). The festival is not an ordinary metal festival - originally only regular rock bands played there, but the concept was changed about ten years ago, and the festival has grown ever since. Nowadays a great range of genres in rock take the stage there.

The three headliners are always famous, oldies hard rock bands (some previous headliners were Mötley Crüe, Judas Priest, Deep Purple, Def Leppard and Twisted Sister). This year, the headliners were Heaven & Hell, Aerosmith (said to be the biggest band that ever played at Sweden Rock Festival) and Scorpions. A world famous Pink Floyd tribute band played at the warm up. Otherwise the variation is great. There are well known rock, Hard Rock and old school progressive bands and metal bands of all genres. There even used to be about 3-4 extreme bands each year.

The festival broke all records this year, and it was with about 30,000 visitors that it became the biggest musical event in Sweden in 2007. It had an extra warm-up day, bigger headliners than ever and even more bands than ever before. My experience at this years festival was great, since I spent much more time watching bands than I usually do at festivals (even if it's a half-good band I used to leave after maybe 30 minutes for some reason), and that might have added to my overwhelming feelings. Not that I have been to many festivals, but this is my favourite so far. I am now going to review some of the best shows at the festival, so enjoy yourselves!


Day 1 - Wednesday, 6th of June.

The warm up day is a new feature at Sweden Rock Festival. The only reason for it is that this day is the national day in Sweden, so everybody is free from work anyway. The organizers saw it as an opportunity to give the visitors the extra treat of a warm up, which I think was a nice idea. The ticket became more expensive, but I think it was worth it.






The surprise of today was Andromeda, a band that I hadn't heard much from before, but with the taste I have I decided to check out everything marked with 'prog' in the program (although I had heard probably all the other prog bands but this). Andromeda had to perform at the Swedish Radio Stage, something new for this year, and also the smallest stage of all. With five members including keyboards, there wasn't much room for showing, but the band really did their best and I was really impressed! There seemed to be no flaws at all, everyone knew exactly what they were doing, especially the guitarist who impressed me a lot. Unfortunately, I almost couldn't hear the keyboards (always some problem with the sound in the very front I guess, at least on those really small stages), but the keyboard guy seemed to know what he was doing. I can't compare this show to any other effort by the band, but I was really impressed, and I look forward to see them at ProgPower Festival in November. Hope they play my favourite, "Chameleon Carneval" there!


Day 2 - Thursday 7th of June.

Thursday seemed to be the best day this year, since there were non-stop great bands from about six o'clock in the evening 'til the last band (Heaven & Hell). The first band of this marathon was Symphony X - one of my favourite Progressive Metal acts. Symphony X were going to come here last year, but cancelled due to Michael LePond's operation. Therefore I had been waiting for this show one entire year, and now the moment had finally come! This was also Symphony X's third show in Sweden ever, so fans from the whole country had gathered in front of the stage.

The band opened with their hit ;Of Sins And Shadows;, and the set was really satisfying. I don't remember all the songs, but they played 'Inferno', 'In The Dragons Den', and two songs from Paradise Lost - I think they might have been 'The Serpent's Kiss' and 'Seven'. That was basically it though, their set list wasn't very long. Because with about half an hour left of the 75 minutes, Russell Allen announces: "Now we're going to play our last song (everyone exclaims "What? Already?!"), a song from The Odyssey. It's not a very long song..." and everybody's dream comes true. The whole Odyssey performed live, the great epic magnum opus of Symphony X and certainly one of the best really long songs I've ever heard. That was no doubt the greatest 'moment' of the concert!






For some reason I was left with some sort of a not-very-satisfied feeling. Maybe it had to do with my place in the audience (a bit worse than other shows), or that so many other concerts blew my mind. This concert was just what I expected it to be - great, so I was not overwhelmed, it was just enough. It also might have had to do with the sound - it's almost never perfect at any festival, and it was maybe most important at this particular show. Or maybe I just thought there were many songs left - and the last one came up quickly... Not a bad show at all though! Totally worthy from a great band!

Fortunately I had the luck to know the right people, and before a great show with Meat Loaf (though he didn't play "Everything Louder Than Everything Else"), I had the possibility to meet the next band I'm going to review - Dimmu Borgir. Unfortunately there isn't enough room to show you, but you should know that they aren't as evil as they might seem - almost everyone is smiling in my pictures. They were all really nice guys. Maybe a little ignorant, but I wont blame them at all. I was not alone, and having 15 fans attacking you backstage is probably annoying even if they are nice (which I am, of course...).





When the show was about to start, it was almost dark. I had the luck of getting a really good place at the very front, almost in the middle. When the time had come, a great symphonic intro started to sound trough the speakers (oh what I sucker I am for symphonic intros). If you have read my review of Death Cult Armageddon you know that it's my favourite album by the band, and the opening couldn't have made me happier. 'Progenies Of The Great Apocalypse' followed by 'Vredesbyrd' and 'Cataclysm Children' - and then my all time favourite Dimmu Borgir song - 'Kings Of The Carnival Creation'. The set list was absolutely the best thing with this show - one of the most accurate set lists I've experienced. I had only heard one song from the new album at that time, 'The Serpentine Offering' (which they played) but it's still one of my favourites from the album, so that also satisfied me. It was also great to hear the really old 'Sorgens Kammer' live, and the finale with 'Spellbound' and 'Mourning Palace' was great of course. When Dimmu Borgir last played in Sweden, two summers ago, they got a lot of criticism for having bad sound. That really was a good, surprising feature. Not counting the first 5-10 minutes when they obviously had to set some controls, the sound was as great as you could expect, certainly one of the best performances at the festival. It really suited to me in the best of ways and if other people were disappointed it has to have to do with the set list.


Day 3 - Friday 8th of June

This seemed to be the weakest day of the festival. That was mostly because all the bands I looked forward to seeing were not long-time favourite bands that I know the lyrics to all songs with, but more surprises and exploring. The best performance this day was probably one of the best at the whole festival, and certainly the best 'surprise' I've ever had form a show. I had tried to prepare myself for the concert with Tiamat by buying 'Wildhoney', and I got my hands on some other songs (I tried to get the 'hits') as well. This seemed to be a good shot, because I recognised most of the set list, even though I was not very familiar at all with the band before. And I was stunned - the set list was great, the sound was brilliant (except in the first 10 minutes), the atmosphere was perfect - the show was put just before the headliners (last band). I don't remember the order at all - I was so stunned, but they opened with 'Vote For Love' and closed with 'Gaia', and some other songs played were 'Cain', 'Whatever That Hurts', 'I Am In Love With Myself', 'Wings Of Heaven', 'Love Is As Good As Soma', 'In A Dream', 'Cold Seed', 'Brighter Than The Sun', 'The Truth's For Sale' and a couple of other ones that I didn't recognise. Unfortunately my favourite 'Do You Dream Of Me?' wasn't featured, but I don't know if it's a frequent live song at all. I really recommend you to go and see Tiamat if they come to your country!







Day 4 - Saturday 9th of June

The last day was also packed with some favourite bands, and I also got to see the first giant Progressive band in my life (except Roger Waters). I'm talking about the Dutch band Focus, with main song writer, organ/flute player, 'singer' (strange noises) and front figure Thijs van Leer as the only original member left. Thijs entered the stage with a Hawaii shirt, a towel on his head and a large hat on top of it - not a common sight at a metal festival...
It was one of the more impressive concerts I've seen. They were all stunning musicians and they all had solo sessions (organ, flute, guitar, bass and drums). All musicians looked pretty young, maybe around 30 - compared to Thijs who I believe is in his 60's. Nothing to complain about at all - probably the best sound at the whole festival (I guess they had their own technicians). Well, not the most interesting show, but what can you expect from a genuine Prog band at 12 o'clock in the day? They finished of course with Hocus Pocus, known to all fans of Helloween. Impressive!




After a break for some hours without much interesting stuff I got to see my all-time favourite Power Metal band, the band who introduced me to the genre and a band which lyrics I've known since years back. One of my first favourite bands, and therefore they deserve some credit. Blind Guardian played at16:00, in the afternoon, which probably wasn't the best time for such a band. The audience looked pretty tired, and the sing along wasn't as good as it could have been. The opening with 'Into The Storm' was of course great, and I couldn't complain about the set list which was almost the same as when I saw them on the tour in September 2006. The only new song was from A Twist In The Myth - 'This Will Never End'. They also played 'Fly', 'Welcome To Dying', 'Nightfall', 'Imaginations From The Other Side', 'Born In A Mourning Hall' amongst others, and also a song which used to be my overall favourite song - 'And Then There Was Silence', which was of course great. Unfortunately they had skipped 'Lost In The Twilight Hall', but I guess you can't get everything. The show was good, but mostly because of the material and the sound. Hansi in his ten year old black pyjamas isn't the most entertaining thing in the world, and except from Frederic Emhke (who played with great energy), they didn't move much at all. Another flaw towards the end was that the sound of the guitars in 'The Bards Song - In The Forest' couldn't be heard at all in the audience - it wasn't only me, everyone noticed it. André's guitar came in after about half the song, but that was a pretty embarrassing failure from the technicians. Finishing of with 'Mirror Mirror', they did an above decent show, but they were better on the tour last autumn.




Too many great bands to review them all (and not enough space for my pictures), but I can ensure that Sweden Rock Festival is a great festival if you're a fan of all kinds of rock, blues, hard rock, prog rock and metal. There will be at least 2-3 bands from your favourite genre each year, and probably at least 10 bands you would like to see (about 20 in my case...), whoever you are. It might almost seem like advertisement - but I really recommend you all to go there if you have the money, or if you live near enough. The best four days of the year, for sure!