7th June 2018
(
Although exactly the middle of the day, Battle Beast played like headliners, giving all they have got. A great beginning of the first full day of the festival.
At the same time with Battle Beast, the representatives of the prominent Gothenburg metal scene were this year Dark Tranquillity. At that time of the day, it was neither dark, nor tranquil…
Buckcherry. How can you not say anythin about the outfit?…
Hard to imagine Nazareth without McCafferty, but Sentance did the job. Pete Agnew represented the originals.
Let’s ignore the huge poster where Glenn Hughes is unrecognisable. Let’s focus on the great voice and performance of this rock legend. One of the (personal) highlights of this Sweden Rock; his voice is still amazing as ever.
The only negative of this performance was the long monologues, mostly about love, and how, although English, he’s now American, but we are all the same nevertheless. To prove his point on love, there was a big hug at the end of the show with the rest of the band (below).
Rotting Christ were the Greek ambassadors in this year’s Sweden Rock and gathered quite a crowd during their show.
Singing with a smile, Rose Tattoo’s Angry Anderson was not so angry… Maybe backstage…
The playful Helloween proved that what you did with one singer, you can also do with two, in a harmonic way.
Body count in their first appearance at Sweden Rock. Not familiar with their music, I only went there to see Ice-T, familiar from Law and Order.
Iron Maiden’s show started with that fighter entering the stage. The tattooed guy on the right was cheering for five minutes like that.
I would say that this show was dedicated to the activities of Bruce Dickinson. Pilot (above)…
Fencing…
Ehm, carrier of the cross?….
8th June 2018
Two guys giving their (free) show outside the Sweden Rock area. Maybe next year they get a proper slot.
The Darkness’ Juston Hawkins outfit artwork, from both sides.
Bernie Tormé. For the little time I managed to see him, I didn’t hear any Gillan songs
When Uriah Heep are playing, it’s like watching my uncles on stage for the 1000th time.
So familiar. And a guarantee for a good time.
Although the moves don’t change much.
Now, that was a surprise. Rumour said that Ozzy’s voice was in an awefully bad condition (and kind of justified this being a farewell show).
But this guy was totally amazing and he delivered a fantastic performance (considering the circumstances). I think the voice was better than the last time I heard him.
This time he also reunited with Zakk Wylde, here hiding his face with his guitar (above) or his hair (below).
9th June 2018
Doc Holliday gave us a great show, partly thanks to the songs, partly thanks to Eddie Stone’s unlimited energy…
… and partly due to what a good time the band itself had on stage.
One of the pioneering groups in New Wave of British Heavy Metal, Girlschool had a great time on stage, and when this happens, people have a great time off stage too. The next couple hours, I was just band-crawling. While Girlschool were playing…
so were Steelheart…
… followed by Stratovarius…
and Lacuna Coil.
YES former members Jon Anderson on vocals, Trevor Rabin on guitar, and Rick Wakeman on keyboards are now ARW. We got our prog shot for this year again.
The peak of the career for both Tarja and Nightwish seems logn gone. But Tarja has definitely shown that with hard work, you can rebrand yourself and and find your own niche in music (something current Nightwish have not done).
Judas Priest are kind of a standard in their live performances. This one was also special for most of us that were present, as Glenn Tipton, diagnosed with Parkinson’s ten years ago, came on stage for “Metal Gods”, “Breaking The Law” and “Living After Midnight”.
One of my favourites Swedish bands, the Backyard Babies, were the “closing ceremony” of Sweden Rock Festival 2018. What else could I have asked?
