Postojnska is Slovenia’s biggest tourist attraction and as well as being spectacularly beautiful, it also has an electric train running through it! When we saw the admission price of €19 we very nearly got back in the car and drove on, but in the end we relented and coughed up the cash. It was fortunate for us that we did…

Postojnska turned out to be by far the most intricate and wonderful cave system either of  us has ever seen. After boarding the train we were whisked through tunnels that were filled with hundreds of beautiful formations, most of which were amazing enough in themselves to be considered the highlights of lesser caves.

The train dropped us off deep inside the cave, where we were taken on a guided tour of its vast central chamber. The paths and stairways were lined with seemingly endless stalactites, stalagmites and other formations, their ages numbering in the tens of thousands of years. Enough to impress even the most experienced spelunker!

The Postojnska cave was breathtaking, and heartily recommended to anyone visiting Slovenia, (or Europe for that matter). But with tourism out of the way, it was time to continue north to the usually sleepy town of Tolmin for the more serious business of Metal Camp!

We arrived at the festival ground, parked the Sunny and unpacked as much stuff as we could carry. Being experienced Metal Campers we headed past the open fields and down into the forest by the river to find a campsite. We’d arrived a little later than planned and at first it looked like we were out of luck. But Sarah spied a spot that, (with a bit of creative landscaping) would have just enough space for our gazebo and tent as well as tents for Lynda and her mate Ange who were arriving the following day.

Setting up camp ıs a good way to work up a thirst, so we wandered up into the town in search of cold beer and wireless Internet. We found both at one of the fırst bars we came across and so settled in to the serious business of beer drinking and news/email/Facebook reading. Before long we got chatting to a group of Manchester folk who had stopped for a drink on their way in to town. They continued on afterward, only to return several hours later to fınd us still there! We had another drink together and when we discovered that they’d only seen the main campground, we invited them back to our hideaway in the forest for beer and Bathory.

The next day the rain began ın earnest. Lynda and Ange managed to find us, arrivıng at the campsite utterly soaked. After hanging everything out to dry we had a beer and waited for a break in the weather. Eventually the Sun came out, so we loaded up a bag with beers and made for the river. Sadly it seems the Metal Camp organisers have tried to cash in on riverside drinking by trying to stop anything but beer from their own bar being consumed there. Very poor form, but like alcoholic ninjas we managed to stealthily slip past the security guard undetected and mosey on down to the water’s edge, joining the numerous other beer smugglers.

And so began a lovely afternoon by the river swimmıng, drinking and making new friends. In the background here ıs Stefan, a French guy we met who had floated down the river with his parasol and blow-up chair, (Lynda’s having a go of ıt).

But the good weather wasn’t to last and as afternoon turned to evening another storm blew in. The rain was to continue off and on for the rest of the week, occasionally punctuated by some of the loudest thunderclaps any of us had ever heard. The fesival truly earned its ‘Hell Over Paradise’ moniker!

This sadly limited our time swimming at the river, but fortunately the storms tended to die down in the evenings when the headliners took the stage. This wasn’t true for Nightwish – the rain and their new singer combined were too much to bear. But on the following day the clouds (mostly) parted for Hollenthon – one of the few bands that we hadn’t yet seen in our travels. They sounded great, though relying a great deal on samples rather than live keys for their trademark eastern sound. There were a few blokes down the front wrestling in the mud and hay who seemed to enjoy it too.

We missed Sodom due to a rare moment of swimming-friendly weather, but made it up to the stage later for Testament – and band that seem incapable of a bad performance. Metal Camp was no exception, a typically energetic set taken from their lengthy career, including quite a few from their most recent album ‘The Formatıon of Damnation’. Blind Guardian followed wıth some great crowd singalongs and the night was rounded out by Satyricon, coming on (perhaps appropriately?) after midnight. They blasting tightly through newer tracks like ‘KING’ and ‘Now, Dıabolıcal’ and eventually finished with the rousing and anthemic ‘Mother North’. Brilliant.

Yet more rain the following day so we ended up taking a look at the shops. Thinking I could do a festival season without a drinking horn I’d foolishly sent mine home to OZ from London. With Amon Amarth coming up it soon became clear that a metal festival without a horn just isn’t the same, so I ended up buying another one. Turned out being a good thing too as Amon Amarth were mighty as ever, a bit of rain just adding to the vikıng flavour. Waaarrrrgghhh!

Dimmu Borgir were also late due to transport problems and gear not turning up – there must’ve been some problem with the flights from deepest, darkest Scandinavia. They made it on eventually and despite it being the wee hours and although the last few of their performances that we’d seen had been sub-par, we thought we’d check them out anyway . Good thing too because they sounded a lot better. The epic sounds of ‘Kings of the Carnival Creation’ and their usual closer of  ‘Mournıng Palace’ sounded bloody excellent.

Another day, another shedload of rain. Napalm Death, (‘From Bırmıngham, England!’) got some good weather though and were entertaining as always. Barney is a great frontman and always has some cool stuff to say in between their blasting bouts of death/grind. Finished on a statement with DK’s ‘Nazı Punks Fuck Off’. Hear, hear!

But the highlight of the day and probably the whole festival was to come later in the evening with DOWN. They’d been in reasonably good form at Hellfest, but the warm evening and relaxed surrounds of Metal Camp seemed to fit them better and this time round they were utterly amazing. Just about all of their crowd favourites were given an airing, including a very groovy ‘Stone the Crow’, ‘Lifer’ and ‘New Orleans…’. Tracks from ‘Over the Under’ sounded just as killer and the band seemed to be having a great time too. The finale of ‘Bury Me ın Smoke’ turned into an extended jam that saw a guitar tech playing Kırk’s guitar while he took over on drums and finished with the band throwing handfuls of guitar picks and Phil coming out to sing some solo Led Zep to say goodbye. Awesome.

We were on a high after DOWN and so headed riverside to Metal Camp’s famous Beach Bar to rock the night away. It was packed out as usual, with the booze flowing and the metal classics blasting. Met plenty of people and bumped into our friends Mike, Dave, Rebecca and Matt from Manchester. We proceeded to party on with them until the Sun came up, bathing the river in a beautiful light.

You may think that the Gods would be merciful on our final day of Metal Campıng but you’d be wrong. It kept raining, but we remained resilient and reasonably dry as we drank under our gazebo in the forest. But rain or shine there was to be no missing My Dying Bride and the light showers were actually the perfect accompanyment to their sombre symphonic doom. Atmosphere to die for…

We hung back at the beer tent out of the rain for a while before the big finale of Kreator. Another band that don’t seem to be capable of a bad show, they rounded out the festival with their tried-and-true festival set list of crowd-pleasing classic thrash. With tracks like ‘Violent Revolution’, ‘Flag of Hate’, and ‘Betrayer’ to bang your head to, what red-blooded metalhead could complain?

A sign on the video screens had announced that there were to be a few hundered free beers at the bar in the beer tent after Kreator. But these predictably went in seconds to the huge crowd assembled. Having thought we’d missed out, we were pleasantly surprısed when we tried to buy beer at the smaller beer stand only to be told to take as many as we could carry! It turns out we didn’t really need 4 beers each before bed, so we drank a few and donated the others to some pleasantly surprised random people before calling it a night.

Of course in the morning after the last day of bands, there was nothing but perfect sunshine. It was too late for Metal Camp 2009 though and certainly too late to save the main camping/parking ground, which was by now an utter mudbath. Ange had left the night before to catch a flight to Norway and so with Lynda we packed up and hauled our gear back to the car.

The main exit road had been reduced to a river of muddy slop a few feet deep and the local farmers and 4×4 owners were making a killing hauling people out.

Despite several farmers tempting us with offers of a tow behind their vehicles, we weren’t just going to take the easy option without giving it the old college try. So we hung around until the field was all but empty of cars and then plotted an alternate route through the flotsam and jetsam of tents, gazebos, beer bottles and rubbish bags. The mighty Sunny roared and spun its wheels and with a bit of luck we slipped and scrambled out through the mud, cheered on by a few remaining Metal Campers.

We were on the tarmac and headed north once again! More pictures of Slovenia and Mudtal Camp are here.

                          

With so much to do before embarking on our journey, our last few weeks in London went by incredibly quickly.

Before we knew it the whirlwind of house clearing, leaving parties, box packing, and general loose end tying was over. It was time to go.

We hurriedly packed the last of our belongings into the Sunny, newly outfitted with a roof box for this its final and most epic road trip. A quick check of  the oil & water, (honest Dad!) and we were off, rolling out of the quiet Luton cul-de-sac our friends Alex & Peta call home and onto the M25, bound for Portsmouth.

The first stop on our journey was to be the Hellfest Festival in Clisson, France. So from Portsmouth we caught the same overnight ferry to the French port of Le Havre as we did the previous year, arriving fresh and relaxed after a good night’s sleep. When we eventually stopped for breakfast in the Sunshine of a French motorway rest area, it finally began to sink in that this time there would be no return journey to Blighty. For us it was Australia or bust!

Just as it had when we attended in 2008, Hellfest once more offered arguably the most outstanding lineup of the European Summer metal festivals. The big names were a bit uninspiring, (Motley Crue? Marylin Manson?? Manowar???) but further down the bill, Hellfest laid on a veritable smorgasbord of tasty metal goodness.

We stocked up on supplies at the local branch if LIDL and set up camp amongst the wheat fields and grape vines, ready to begin European festival season 2009.

As it turned out, Hellfest was even better this year than last, the Sun beaming down for 3 fantastic days on a noticeably larger crowd than 2008, (possibly due to the utterly atrocious lineup at Graspop).

There were some awesome performances in the Rock Hard tent by Samael, Cathedral, Napalm Death, Moonspell and the mighty Grand Magus.

Entombed were in especially good form and appeared to have as much fun as the crowd as they tore through tracks old and new.

Outside in the sunshine were Down, who sounded great despite Phil Anselmo accusing the crowd of being drunk, (pot? kettle?). Also bringing the groove from the USA were Clutch. We were seeing them for the first time and they went down very well with the cold beer and afternoon Sun. Bringing out Wino from Saint Vitus for a guest appearance was very cool too…

Anthrax sounded fantastic with their new singer  – a real shame they were to split with him only a few weeks later. But it’s not just the ridiculously good lineup that makes Hellfest the great show that it is. The French give their festival touches of ambience that are truly superb, especially when the Sun goes down…

As we wandered back to the tent, Manowar’s fireworks signalling Hellfest’s conclusion, it was good to know we still had more festival goodness on the way before the Summer was done.

After the craziness that was our final weeks in London and then 3 days of partying at Hellfest, it was time for some much-needed downtime. We made our way toward the coast near Bordeaux in search of a campground, wary to avoid Camping La Pressoir after our last visit, (we and our then travelling companions Reb, Al and Jess were forced to make an early-morning escape in the Sunny along an improvised garden road after discovering the gate was locked until reception opened a few hours later).

As it turned out we found another, much nicer location…

The campground we ended up at was on the Dune of Pyla, Europe’s largest sand dune about 60km south of Bordeaux. It was a beautiul spot so we stopped for a couple of days to drink Champagne, take in the beautiful sunsets and organise all the crap we’d haphazardly thrown into the car shortly before our departure from Mother England.

We also started doing a little planning and soon realised that we had a week less than we thought to get to Slovenia for Metal Camp. So we bid the west coast of France adieu and high tailed it across the south to Cannes to have a beer with some former workmates…

and marvel at how disgustingly rich some people in this world are…

Ah well, it’s only money right? The next day we climbed back aboard the humble Sunny and plotted a course eastward – to Italy!

Some more photos of Hellfest 2009 and our French adventures are here.

                          

Every year, the sleepy town of Wacken in the north of Germany becomes temporary home to tens of thousands of metalheads who travel from the four corners of the globe for a few glorious days of German beer, sunshine (hopefully) and of course, heavy metal.

This year we were once more sailing the good ship Sunny from London, heavily laden with a cargo of camping gear and leather boots. This time on board we had Lynda, (now firmly ensconched as an ex-pat in London) and Gareth, who was back over from Oz for his first taste of European festival lovin’.

After one night-time ferry, 10 hours and several hundred kms of autobahn, we arrived at the Wacken campground. We’d been directed to a spot miles from the main festival area, but being experienced Wackeners we knew better than to camp where we were told.

We loaded our gear on our backs and made our way to what has become our traditional camping spot. There we found Tanja and Leo, who’d saved ample room for us and a few others that were on the way. Soon enough we were settled in nicely.

Sarah and I caught up on some sleep and then headed back into Hamburg by train to see Jeff Martin. Getting back at 3:30am we caught some more Z’s and woke up on day 1 of the festival proper. Since we’d left, Gav had arrived from London and Eric, (bassist in Leo’s band Deus.exe) had also set up camp with his girlfriend Anja. Our campsite was complete!

After a camp breakfast and a beer or two to get the ball rolling, Leo and I went forth on another the great Wacken tradition – finding a suitable pole on which to raise the Australian flag. The search was hard and long, but the final result was most excellent.

Wacken tradition #263 – head into town to stock up on cheap food and beer. We managed to enlist the help of an enterprising young local girl with a cart who helped us wheel our purchases back to the campground for a very reasonable fee.

We got back to camp and put some beer on ice – yep, thanks to our eskies and the Wacken shop now selling ice the days of warm campground beer are over! Then it was in for our first band of the festival, Australia’s very own Airbourne!

After their outstanding show at Hellfest earlier this year we knew we were in for a great show. We also knew that with their AC/DC-like sound, the Germans would be out in force and we weren’t wrong. The band got a huge reaction and singer Joel O’Keeffe shined once again as the perfect rock ‘n’ roll frontman, belting out, (amongst others) Runnin’ Wild, Black Jack, and the anthemic Too Much, Too Young, Too Fast as the crowd screamed along.

The excitement was all a bit too much for this bloke, who just couldn’t resist the urge to get naked.

After Airbourne it was straight over to the party stage for one of our personal favourites, Leaves’ Eyes. They were bringing along their viking longboat stage setup that we’d seen at the Metal Female Voices festival and a big show was promised.

Of course they delivered in spades, Liv’s trademark voice in fine form as it melded with the powerful twin guitars of Mathias and Thorsten. The band’s new rhythm section of bassist Alla Fedynitch and drummer Peter Hornung seem to have slotted in perfectly too, with Peter’s use of acoustic drums adding substantially to the band’s live sound.

It wasn’t long before Alex Krull joined the band on stage, bringing his heavy vocals to bear for a rendition of the always excellent Ocean’s Way. He did a great job of riling the substantial crowd, (the biggest we’ve seen Leaves’ Eyes play for) and as with the Metal Female Voices show, there were plenty of pyrotechnics!

The set was made up of plenty of favourites, including Solemn Sea, Norweigian Lovesong and Temptation

and finished up with usual closer Elegy. After the set, Thorsten and Mathias came down to the front barrier to say hi to the fans, and we grabbed them for a couple of shots.

Iron Maiden’s first ever appearance at Wacken was always going to be huge and with 72,000 in attendance this was to be the biggest crowd of their Somewhere Back in Time World Tour. In fact we were to find out afterward that security eventually had to shut the gates to the festival ground, leaving many to watch the show from the beer garden or the big screen by the campground.

After seeing them at Twickenham Stadium a few weeks earlier we knew what we were in for, and so did the rest of the crowd the moment Churchill’s speech began to echo from the PA. The band burst onto the stage with Aces High and then went straight into 2 Minutes to Midnight, Bruce running around the stage like a hyperactive kid and the rest of the band clearly loving the response from the massive crowd of metal faithful.

The True Metal Stage had been kept clear for the whole day to accomodate Maiden’s beautifully over-the-top stage show, it’s Egytian theme taken from their Powerslave album. There were a few items missing from the extravagence that was the Twickenham gig but most of the show was intact, including a huge sphynx that opened to reveal a mummified Eddie!

The setlist was more-or-less the same as Twickenham, with just about every song a highlight. One standout was Rime of the Ancient Mariner, a track that’s rarely heard live due to it’s epic length of 14 mins. The Trooper was also a favourite with it’s requisite singalong chorus and it was great to hear some tracks from the Seventh Son… album in the shape of Can I Play With Madness and then Moonchild and The Clairvoyant during the encore.

The set and Wacken’s first night were rounded out with personal favourite, Hallowed Be They Name and with that, Iron Maiden had finally conquered Wacken in a big way. We made our way back to the campground and kicked on into the night with a few random Aussies that came by to visit.

The next morning I’d planned on catching Aussie stalwarts Mortal Sin, but ended up missing them due to their 11:55am timeslot and sheer laziness on my part. Cynic were up next and while I’d not heard them previously, Gareth played me their Focus album in the car on the way to Wacken. I was intrigued by their unique sound and determined to check them out.

In the end I was glad I’d made the effort. I found Gareth and we settled in to listen to Cynic’s unique take on technical prog/death metal under a refreshing patter of light rain. Their music was a perfect start to the day, employing a lot of dynamics and varying smoothly between clean and mellow parts. The musicianship on display was awesome to behold as well and by the end of their set I’d put Focus

on my “albums to buy” list.

Not long after Cynic’s set was done, the heavens opened over Wacken with a vengeance. I took refuge in a surprisingly clean toilet cubicle and waited out the storm, killing two birds with one stone. My rendezvous with Gareth at the merchandise stand was temporarily put on hold but eventually we found each other and went back to meet the others at the campground.

When we went back in an hour or so later for soilwork, the ground was a little damp. We’d come prepared with boots, but other festival-goers were forced to improvise…

Soilwork weren’t too bad, though not as powerful live as they have been in the past. It was good to hear old classic Bastard Chain

live though.

We ducked up to the Metal Market for some shopping and then made it back inside in time for Opeth. They played a solid set and being Wacken they focussed on their heavier tracks. Masters Apprentice had the huge crowd banging away and Drapery Falls sounded great as a closer.

Children of Bodom were the big draw of the evening and the ground was all but full as they took the stage. Frontman Alexi was as charismatic as ever and in front of their urban stage setup complete with the beat-up old car, the band put on a typically excellent show.

The final band of the night was Corvus Corax, though calling them a band is something of an understatement. They came out with a choir, orchestra, (complete with conductor), 5 blokes with strange bagtypes and all manner of enormous drums and other instruments. The music itself sounded like the soundtrack from Conan the Barbarian – very epic.

We gave Gareth a brief introduction to the Wacken beer garden and then turned in for the night.

After breakfast on day three we ended up with quite a crowd in camp Aussie. A couple of Gav’s mates from up north came along as well as some Swedes who were camped near us and we also met Ed, a Californian who now lives in New Zealand. He was looking for some other Aussies and spied our flag, but ended up hanging out and drinking beer with us instead. Being a Linux sysadmin, it wasn’t long before Ed and I were talking geek.

The death metal groove of Obituary provided a solid start to the day’s music, the band in much better form than when we watched them play Wacken in the rain a few years back.

Then after an hour or so it was time for the first half of Wacken 2008’s 1-2 punch. The reactivated death/grindcore legends Carcass took to the stage for a gig many never expected to see. After Hellfest we knew that we wouldn’t be disappointed…

The setlist focussed heavily on the Necroticism and Heartwork albums, from opener Buried Dreams through to Corporeal Jigsore Quandry, Death Certificate and a truly awesome rendition of Heartwork to round things off. There were also a few surprises in there too – Reek of Putrefaction

sounded great live and Keep on Rotting from not-so-critically-acclaimed release Swansong. “C’mon, that album wasn’t so bad” joked Walker after the song was done.

Bill Steer wasn’t quite as tight on the guitars as he used to be, not having had as much practice playing metal as his bandmate and Arch Enemy guitarist Mike Amott. But he held things together for the most part, and all of his old solos still sounded great live. Amott’s bandmate and partner Angela Gossow also joined the band on for Incarnate Solvent Abuse, which was quite cool.

As the band left the stage the crowd cheered until well after they’d gone – Carcass are a band that won’t be forgotten. Back at the campsite to avoid Killswitch Engage and then it was time for the other big reformation of 2008 – Sweden’s At the Gates.

Like Carcass we’d been lucky enough for a preview of this gig at Hellfest and so this time we could just sit back and enjoy the ride. The Swedes were played as if the12 years since their breakup had never happened, playing their unique brand of melodic death to an enormous crowd who lapped up every sweeping riff and howling solo.

I’d lost Leo during Carcass but this time we were in the same spot so it was good to reminisce with some of the old favourites from back in the day. After a thundering opening of Slaughter of the Soul they played just about everything we could’ve wanted to hear, including most of that record and a few choice cuts form their earlier releases.

Terminal Spirit Disease sounded particularly epic and it’s hard to express in words how amazing the grooves of Suicide Nation and World of Lies come across live. Truly a band that will never be equalled. The encore of Blinded by Fear and Kingdom Gone was enough to leave any fan witha  smile on their face.

We’d bumped into Ed again before At the Gates, (something of a lesson in Swedish melodic death metal for him) and so we joined him at the True Metal stage to check out Nightwish with new singer Anette Olzon. She has rather big shoes to fill and on the last night of Wacken, she wasn’t quite up to the task. The band sounded ok, but Anette’s voice just didn’t have the power of her operatically-trained predecessor.

And so we headed back to the beer garden for the, (almost) final hurrah…

After a quick beer, Gareth and I went back inside for Kreator, who kicked arse as always. Mille and Co. can always be relied upon to deliver a thrashin’ good time and tonight on home turf they were firing on all cylinders. The same old favourites were aired but at the end of 3 days of music festival tracks like Tormentor, Extreme Aggression and Flag of Hate are always gonna go down well. The huge number of assembled Germans certainly thought so.

I returned with the now famous knobbi (garlic) bread for all and we shelted from the patchy rain and drank into the night. A nice german bloke called Sebastian joined us, bringing with him a bottle of Jagermeister which was shared around. It was the last night but we were celebrating what had been a great 3 days, rather than mourning their loss.

The next morning of course was the dreaded pack up, made worse by the mammoth trek back to the car. We dropped Gareth, Lynda and Gav off in Hamburg but due to the atrocious traffic the normally 40-min drive took almost 3 hours and by then we gave up all hope of catching our 9:30pm ferry. We had a last supper at MacDonalds before leaving the intrepid travellers behind to plot their own course.

After many more hours of slow traffic and a few sleeps in German truck stops, we ended up catching a Eurotunnel at 4:45am. We made it home just in time to shower and head off for work – what a productive Monday that was. The things you do in the name of Heavy Metal eh? More pics from our adventures at Wacken 2008 are here. See you next year W.O.A! \m/

                          

Jeff’s solo gigs in county Cork last year were fantastic and with Hamburg only an hour’s train ride from Wacken the timing was perfect – we weren’t gonna miss this one!

Once we’d arrived at the Wacken festival ground and set up camp, we celebrated the Sunny’s safe night-time traversal of the roughly 1000 kilometres from London with a couple of well-earned Becks. Then it was time to settle in for a rejuvinating daytime nap.

Waking up refreshed, we took a bus into the nearby town of Itzehoe and caught a train back into Hamburg for the show. LOGO was reasonably easy to find and after sorting out our tickets we stopped for a quick photo for posterity.

Yep, that’s Jeff in the background having a ciggie break during soundcheck…;-)

With a little time to kill, we went into town to try to find some reasonably healthy food in anticipation of the comparitively unhealthy few days that lay ahead. We found a pub with a lovely beer garden – perfect for dinner on a balmy German Summer’s eve!

We could’ve sat in that beer garden all night long, but soon enough it was time to go. We got back to LOGO in time to catch most of opening act Indian Tea Company, a local 3-piece who obviously draw some influence from Jeff’s previous band The Tea Party.

Their songs were a little less intricate but nevertheless they sounded pretty good. Their vocalist in particular had a very powerful voice, and they rounded off their set with an excellent cover of The Rolling Stones’ “Paint it Black”.

Following The Indian Tea Company’s set, Just about everybody in the club, (ourselves included) headed outside to either escape the heat or to smoke. Not long after we all piled back in, Jeff took the stage with percussionist Wayne Sheehy to rapturous cheers and applause from the German crowd.

After so many years as a live performer it seems that almost impossible for Jeff to put on a bad show. Tonight was no exception, with his unique voice as haunting and soulful as ever, ringing out over his trademark eastern-tinged melodies.

This time around the set focussed less on covers, with an almost even mix of Martin’s solo tracks and those from his Tea Party years. Jeff chatted between songs, thanking the crowd and saying how happy he was to be back in Hamburg. Judging from the extremely positive response after every song, the crowd were happy to have him back too!

Wayne’s percussion-work was similarly well-received. His vast array of different drums and cymbals makes him a very unique performer and tonight he was playing with gusto, even breaking a few sticks in the process. Not something you normally see at a totally acoustic show!

Requiem sounded beautiful as ever and was introduced as a song that was originally written for a friend, but interestingly turned out being for Jeff himself. Save Me

was a crowd-pleaser as always, with the whole room singing along.

We were also treated to a new song, a ballad called Line in the Sand. Apparently from Jeff’s forthcoming album, the track was similar in style to the music on Exile and The Kingdom

and sounded quite cool.

Jeff’s love of segueing continues unabated from the last time we saw him. Nearly all of the tracks he performed, (most notably the brilliant Fire in the Head) drifted off into other songs at one stage or another and to great effect.

Towards the end of set we heard The Kingdom, which Jeff described as the best explanation that he could give for his disbanding the Tea Party, and then the show proper finished on an incredible high with the

always amazing Black Snake Blue

s. The energy of this song live is utter phenomenal, and the crowd loved it – probably the closest most of us will ever get to a southern gospel church singalong methinks.

We’d been told curfew was a strict 12 midnight so after Jeff left the stage I was ready to head off, happy that I’d seen another amazing show. Fortunately the normally strict German rules seemed to be a little more flexible tonight, and Jeff and Wayne returned for one of The Tea Party’s finest – Sister Awake

. Then as we’d seen previously in Ireland the night was rounded off with a Drum Jam – Jeff swapping his guitar for a goblet drum and following Wayne’s outstanding percussion work.

We made it back to the station in time to catch the last train back to Itzehoe which left on time but ended up being quite uncharacteristically delayed due to a police incident somewhere between Hamburg and our destination. I guess this wasn’t the best night for the Germans’ legendary timekeeping.

We eventually wandered into the Wacken campground at around 3:30am, both bleary-eyed but on a high and feeling a little surreal after seeing one of our favourite performers right before the biggest festival on the heavy metal calender. Sometimes life is just too good.

There’s a few more photos from the gig here.

                          

Katatonia were on the bill, as were Opeth who would be playing their first gig with their new, revamped lineup. Other prog bands of interest were Anekdoten and Leafhound, however the biggest surprise of the lineup was the inclusion of cult British folk/prog group Comus, who last played together way back in 1973!

After another painfully early Ryanair flight we arrived in a little airfield 100km outside Stockholm. There we met an Aussie guy Adam and his girlfriend Jen who were also there for the cruise, as well as a group of English guys who were held up by their mate who’d somehow lost his passport between getting on the plane and getting off again. The following day he found it stashed in a "secret" pocket of his jacket, but that’s another story…

The bus into Stockholm was full before us Melloboaters could get on, so we scored a complimentary maxi-taxi for the 1 1/2 hour journey into town. After a quick bite to eat in a Mexican restaurant, (Swedes seem quite keen on Mexican food – there were Mexican restaurants all over Stockholm!) we made our way down to the ferry port and onto the massive Silja Symphony. We found our cabin overlooking the boat’s promenade and settled in to catch up on a couple of hours sleep.

Feeling refreshed after our nap, we made our way down to the main auditorium where the gig was getting underway. The venue itself was quite surreal – every bit the cruise ship lounge bar, but with prog rock!

We got ourselves some cider and settled in to watch the second half of Anekdoten’s set. I’d only recently started listening to their music but was glad to hear a number of tunes that I recognised. Their live sound was great, especially the mellotron which really filled the room with sound – a great way to begin proceedings.

After Anekdoten we secured ourselves a perfect spot for Opeth, even though they weren’t on for quite a while. We knocked back another cider or two from our comfy lounge on the first balcony as the room gradually filled with people eager for Michael Akerfeldt and Co’s first gig in a long time.

Of course they didn’t disappoint, the finalised new lineup sounded quite tight and clearly enjoyed being on stage again. Even though the festival had a prog leaning they didn’t shy away from very heavy tracks like Master’s Apprentices, Serenity Painted Death and Demon of the Fall, which all sounded fantastic.

We got a few special tracks too. A reworked, trippy version of Harvest was very appropriate for the prog vibe of the gig and new song "Heir Apparent" featured some extremely cool riffs that everyone seemed to dig a lot.

After Opeth we got some food and then went down to the bar stage with Adam and Jen to see Qomph. They sounded cool enough – I won’t be rushing out to buy their albums but they made a good accompaniment to a few more drinks before heading back to the main auditorium for the Mats Morgan all-star team.

This super group of various Swedish musicians jammed away on all sorts of stuff, from free-form jazz to Frank Zappa. The music was quite cool, more from a skill and musicianship perspective than as memorable songs. After another drink or two hanging out with the English blokes from the plane we hit the hay sometime in the wee hours of the morning.

The next day the ship had arrived in Helsinki, so we ventured out on foot to see the city. We’d read that snow was expected in Finland and it was nice to see white winter landscapes once more…

We walked around town and eventually found a nice little bar/restaurant where we had some lunch. Afterwards we saw the ice rink in the town square and the enormous Helsinki Cathedral before it was time to set sail once more.

The journey out of Helsinki made for a relaxing start to the evening. We found some seats by the window and had a drink while we watched the many islands of the archipelago float past, in particular the very impressive fortress of Suomenlinna. This chilled-out mood continued as we went to watch legendary keyboardist Bo Hansson. Kicking back with a cider in the cruise lounge watching Bo’s funky hammond organ stylings was a very nice way to get the musical ball rolling.

After a quick meal it was time for the most important part of the festival – the reunion of Comus! The auditorium filled to capacity – Opeth frontman and renowned Comus fan Mikael Akerfeldt was standing just by our vantage point on the stairs. Many people on the Melloboat had come from all over the world just for this moment, and so there was a great deal of anticipation in the air.

Fortunately the group of English psychadelic/prog/folk musicians that took the stage to wild applause sounded like they hadn’t been apart for 1 year, let alone 35! At first we were sure that somebody was standing in for Bobbie Watson as she looked no older than in the Comus publicity shots from 1972, but once she started to sing there was no question it was her – exactly the same as on the record!

As they broke into "Song to Comus" there was a tangible magic in the room – to hear this music live was beyond belief. Roger Wooton delivered an admirable vocal performance, using all of the crazy animalistic voices and noises that give the First Utterance album it’s utterly unique and disquietening vibe. The music was tight and Glenn Goring was simply mindblowing on his 12-string acoustic.

We were lucky enough to hear just about the entirety of First Utterance, standouts being Drip Drip

, (a personal favourite and the song from which Opeth’s My Arms Your Hearse is quoted) and The Herald, which I’d really been hoping they’d play. It’s an amazing piece of music and seeing/hearing it live was a very emotional experience.

The gig was rounded out with The Prisoner and then what was introduced as the only cover the band ever played – Shiny Boots of Leather by the Velvet Underground. Throughout the set several of the band members expressed how amazing it was for them to be back together again, especially to such a reception. They all seemed quite blown away by it all and genuinely thrilled to be back.

Just as it looked like the set was done, Glenn asked the crowd if it would be ok to reprise Song to Comus. It was almost unbelievable – we were going to get to hear it again! After this final song they left the stage, the crowd yelling for more long after the house lights were back on.

Truly an honour and a privilege to be present for such a historic occasion.

I was in something of a daze after Comus – it was such an amazing spectacle that afterwards we just sat down with a couple of ciders and let it all sink in. After a visit to the merchandise and the bar stage, we ended up back at the auditorium for the next highlight of the evening – Katatonia!

It’s worth noting at this point that since before Comus played the sea had been getting rougher and by the time Katatonia took the stage the boat was rocking quite a bit. I thought it was great fun – it reminded me that I was actually out at sea watching awesome bands, but there were one or two green-faced land lubbers about who hadn’t quite found their sea legs and may also have been feeling the combined affects of seasickness and excessive alcohol consumption.

Katatonia played a typically awesome set, especially after they got warmed up and used to the fact that the stage was rocking from side to side! Plenty of tracks from their entire career, rounded off with Mikael Akerfeldt taking the stage for a rendition of Murder - very cool indeed.

We’d hooked up with Adam and Jen again and so we kicked back for the last band of the Melloboat – Leaf Hound. This was my first time hearing their music and I later found that the band, (originally active back in the 70’s) was actually a group of new musicians with original singer Pete French. They had some great grooves and musically they were outstanding.

French’s voice was really powerful and in another cool Melloboat one-off, Per Lindgren of Opeth joined the band on keyboards. Special mention must also go to guitarist Luke Rayner – Adam and I looked/listened on in disbelief as he effortlessly pulled off perfect rhythm sections indispersed  with intricate solos and all with a guitar tone that was nothing short of phenomenal.

And so the Melloboat proper came to a close. We hung around drinking and chatting for a while longer but given that we had to vacate our cabins reasonably early when the boat reached Stockholm the next morning, we decided to get at least a couple of hours sleep.

The next day was spent slightly bleary-eyed in Stockholm waiting for our late evening flight. The old town was as beautiful as we remembered it from our last visit and we were pleased to see that the shop where we bought our viking helmet punch bowl is still there and still selling them at extortionate prices!

Back in London in the wee hours of the morning the whole thing seemed like it had been an amazing dream. A really special experience and one we won’t forget – thanks Stefan and all at Mellotronen records for making it possible. There’s a few more photos here.

                          

After touring their "United Abominations" album as recently as last June, Megadeth returned to the UK as headliners of Dave Mustaine’s "Gigantour".

Last time the band’s London show was a relatively intimate one in the famous Astoria theatre but this time they were playing to a packed out Brixton Academy.

With a few beers for the road in hand to get us through the journey on ropey public transport, (the Victoria Line was down for planned engineering works) Sarah, Lynda and myself left our cozy NW-London abode and headed south to Brixton.

We got inside the sold-out venue and by the time we’d bought a beer and gone into the auditorium proper, support act Job For a Cowboy had thankfully finished. This was a night for classic thrash, not half-baked deathcore! The Megadeth banner was unfurled and as the crowd grew larger, tracks by Pantera, Iron Maiden, Ozzy and Machine Head played over the PA. The huge mass of people punching the air while singing along to the chorus of "Walk" certainly set the right mood.

Finally the lights dropped and to a huge roar from the audience, Mustaine & Co took the stage…

Having seen the ‘Deth quite a few times before I knew what to expect: no-nonsense, technically perfect, thrashing renditions of Megadeth classics both old and new. As usual I wasn’t disappointed. Opening with "Sleepwalker" from the latest album, the band played through a set perfectly balanced between past and present:

01. Sleepwalker
02. Wake Up Dead
03. Take No Prisoners
04. Skin O’ My Teeth

05. Washington Is Next!
06. Kick The Chair

07. In My Darkest Hour

08. Hangar 18

09. Gears Of War

10. A Tout Le Monde
11. Tornado Of Souls

12. Ashes In Your Mouth
13. Burnt Ice

14. Symphony Of Destruction
15. Trust
16. Peace Sells

———————–

17. Never Walk Alone… A Call To Arms
18. Holy Wars… The Punishment Due

This was the first time I’d seen the band with new guitarist Chris Broderick, though I have seen him play a couple of times previously with Nevermore. The guy’s skill as a guitarist is phenomenal, (check his YouTube videos) and it was great to see him busting out perfect renditions of Megadeth solos, particularly Marty Friedman’s classics from the Rust in Peace and Countdown to Extinction albums.

It was also brilliant to hear a few of the less common tracks from the Friedman-era records. The intro riff of "Tornado of Souls" was met with a huge cheer and with Dave’s voice in fine form it sounded better than ever. The "Hangar 18"/"Return to Hangar" combination still remains one of the greatest moments of any Megadeth gig and watching Mustaine and Broderick trading off solos would been humbling to just about anyone who’s ever picked up a guitar.

Finishing up with "Peace Sells", the band returned to the stage for an encore that bizarrely started with "Never Walk Alone". The gig was concluded triumphantly though with the mandatory "Holy Wars… the Punishment Due" and all was well with the world.

Went out into the cold winter night envigorated and not even the long and convoluted journey back to the top end of London could dampen my spirits. Megadeth don’t do gigs by halves and tonight was no exception.

Check out a few more photos here.

                          

Witchcraft are one of my favourite bands to emerge in recent years. Their style harks back to early Black Sabbath but also draws on enough other influences to give the band their own distinctive sound, rounded off by the unique howling vocals of front man Magnus Pelander.

Last time Witchcraft were in London was as a support and that was when they first caught my ear. Since then I’ve become a big fan so I was very excited to get the chance to see them live once more.

After a few warm-up beers in the Intrepid Fox and then the Cro-bar, Sarah, Lynda and myself headed in to the gig. The Borderline is apparently a venue of some renown but this was the first time we’d been there. Descending the stairs into the crowded underground venue it struck me as the perfect, intimate setting to see a band like Witchcraft.

Before Witchcraft though, we were greeted by the grooves of Leeds band Gentleman’s Pistol’s.  Apparently they state their influences as simply "1968 – 1973" which could only be a good thing. They rocked out in style with an energetic stage presence backed up by instantly memorable tunes like "Heavy Petting", "Widowmaker" and "The Lady"  and much grooving was to be had by all. Awesome stuff and more than enough to convince me to pick up their album from the merch stand after their set.

After such a great start there was only one way things could get better and that was with the mighty Witchcraft. The Swedes took the stage nonchalantly and went straight into "Walk Between the Lines", from new album "The Alchemist".

The vintage sound was spot-on and the assembled throng cheered enthusiastically for such greats as "Wooden Cross", "Queen of Bees", "No Angel or Demon" and the band’s title track, introduced with Pelander’s now obligatory line "Witchcraft, Take One".

After an hour the Wednesday-night curfew began to draw in and so the gig was rounded off with the epic "Her Sisters, They Were Weak". This haunting track sounded all the more moving in a live setting and was a fitting end to a great night of music.

After the gig I picked up "The Alchemist" on white vinyl and chatted with bassist Ola Henriksson who was manning the merch stand. We hung around to finish off our beers and I got the rest of the band to sign my new vinyl – another one for the collection!

Apparently the band are trying to line up some festival appearances in the Summer and there’s also talk of touring Australia in early 2008 so if it happens, make sure you lot back home get along to see them or you’ll be missing out big time! To whet your appetite, check out the rest of the photos here.

                          

Sarah bravely stepped up to the challenge and recruited friends, family etc to sign up for tickets on our behalf, but when the first ballot was held and we heard nothing, we figured we hadn’t been one of the lucky ones. Then, a week or two later a casual email arrives from Sarah’s ex-workmate Scott with no less than a ticket code valid to buy two seats at the gig!!!

I still have a couple of very large bottles of alcohol waiting at home with Scott’s name on them. Thanks to him, (and despite the promoter’s warnings about exchanging ticket codes) we found ourselves amongst the throng of eager Zeppelin fans queuing for our wristbands at London’s O2 Arena, (formerly the Millennium Dome).

There was still a hint of nervousness until we had our wristbands but once they were on the reality set in that we were going to be there when the Led Zeppelin mothership landed!

We enjoyed a couple of beers in the bar while waiting for a table at one of the O2’s many restaurants. A couple more pints and some very tasty steaks later, (does life get any better???) and it was time to enter the Arena…

Of course the place was packed to the rafters and as the lights dimmed, the huge crowd erupted as the band took the stage, breaking straight into "Good times, Bad Times".

To actually be witnessing Led Zeppelin live was completely surreal and the whole thing took a while to sink in. There were a few precarious moments of feedback early in the piece but after that the sound was flawless for the entire night. The setlist is well documented on the ‘net but I’ll add it for good measure:

“Good Times, Bad Times”
“Ramble On”

“Black Dog”
“In My Time of Dying”
“For Your Life”
“Trampled Under Foot”
“Nobody’s Fault But Mine”
“No Quarter”
“Since I’ve Been Lovin’ You”
“Dazed and Confused”
“Stairway To Heaven”

“The Song Remains the Same”
“Misty Mountain Hop”

“Kashmir”

Encore:

“Whole Lotta Love”
“Rock and Roll”

There were plenty of hits in there that I’d been expecting to hear but also a few personal faves that I hadn’t. Absolutely stoked to finally hear Zeppelin themselves playing "In My Time of Dying" and "No Quarter"! Plant had the whole crowd wailing along to "Nobody’s Fault But Mine" and I was very impressed to see Page break out the twin-neck SG for "Stairway to Heaven".

We had to wait until the very end of the set for "Kashmir" but when it came it sounded every bit as epic as one would expect – another one of those moments when it was hard to take in exactly what one was witnessing! Special mention goes to John-Paul Jones’ work on keyboards. I’d fully expected a ton of overdubbed synth but from what I could see he was doing most of it himself. Talented guy.

The encore of “Whole Lotta Love” and “Rock and Roll” rounded things off on an upbeat high and there were nothing but smiles as elated fans of all ages and walks of life poured out of the O2 Arena.

Before this gig there had been much speculation as to whether these 4 blokes would be still be able to do justice to the music that has meant so much to so many. But after more than 2 hours on stage tonight, there was no doubt in anybody’s mind that Led Zeppelin can still rock ‘n’ roll with the best of ‘em.

There’s a few more pictures from the gig here.

                          

We arrived in Wieze and after some confusion over where to park the Sunny we caught up on some sleep before catching the bus to the Oktoberhallen. The place itself looked to be an old aircraft hanger and inside the smoky hall a pretty huge crowd was taking in the Female-fronted metal goodness.

We’d really only come to see Leaves’ Eyes, but there were a few hours before they were due on and so we passed the time with a few beers watching the other bands. We came in half way through Delain, who had a fairly unique sound that the crowd seemed to enjoy. They were followed by Elis who were a little more generic and then Flowing Tears, who have been around for a lot longer than most of the other bands on the bill. Their music was heavier with more powerful vocals which made a nice change.

Having listened to Tristania a bit in the past I was interested to see Sirenia, (they were splintered off from Tristania some time ago). Their music wasn’t too bad but their performance could only be be described as half "live" – half of the female vocals as well as keyboards and the bass track were coming from tape! While watching them we bumped into Mattias from Leaves’ Eyes who we’d been out drinking with a few times. We caught up and he kindly posed for a photo.

 Afterwards were Epica. We’ve seen them at festivals before and they are hugely popular in Europe these days. Again not a band that I love but they seemed to keep the ever-growing crowd happy. While watching them we met Rachel and her husband Gunter from Holland so we had fun chatting with them, learning some Flemish and trying to speak German.

Finally it was time for Leaves’ Eyes. We found ourselves a place up the front and waited while the stage was set. When the curtain finally dropped we could see why things had taken a while – a massive viking ship had been assembled on the stage with the drum kit on top. Needless to say it looked awesome, especially as the band took their places, bathed in light as the "Vinland Saga" intro boomed over the PA. The last of them to walk out was Liv, who of course came out to huge cheers.

One by one they walked down from the ship and took their places. Vinland Saga trailed off and in a flash of fireworks they broke in to "Farewell Proud Men".

The sound was amazing and the band were in fine form, blasting through song after fantastic song. Alex came out to a great reception for "Ocean’s Way"…

…and we were treated to some of Mattias and Thorstein’s acoustic work as well. The coolest of the acoustic numbers had to be "Leaves’ Eyes", the already very cool atmosphere added to by "snow" fluttering down over the stage and crowd.

As usual with Leaves’ Eyes live show every song was a highlight, though Tale of the Sea Maid, New Found Land and Solemn Sea were standouts as always.

There were plenty more pyrotechnics and the show ended on a high with crowd-pleaser Elegy. The band took a big bow and they all looked like they’d had a great time. An outstanding performance that should make for an equally outstanding DVD.

Ever the fan-friendly band, the guys did a signing session after the show and despite it being quite late hundreds of people hung around to say hi and get some signatures. Mattias had managed to pass Sarah a set list after the show, so we went about getting it signed.

We finally left the Oktoberhallen, hoping to get a taxi back to Wieze where we’d been told there would be late-night drinking to be done at a certain hotel bar. After waiting in the cold for what seemed like hours for a taxi, Sarah convinced some very helpful Belgians to give us a lift. They wouldn’t even take any petrol money, so we owe them a beer or two at next year’s festival. Thanks guys!

We ended up in the bar where we met Colin, Nick, Scott and Rich – some English guys from Bristol who we’d met at the after-show signing. Being English and Aussies abroad we felt it our duty to indulge in quite a bit of Belgium’s finest export.

Quite a few people turned up in the end, including the guys from Leaves’ Eyes so we managed to get a few missing signatures and photos.

As the night wore on a couple of blokes made the mistake of falling into a drunken slumber, so we spent the next hour or two taking photos after arranging them in compromising positions. Oh how we laughed…

Around 6am we finally had to call it a night as people started coming down for breakfast. The end of a fine evening of great music, great people and of course great Belgium beer.

We slept until midday and then hit the road back towards Calais. On the way we stopped in the beautiful city of Brugge where we enjoyed a huge traditional Belgian meal of mussels and chips by the canal side.

Then off we went, back to London. Not a bad way to spend the weekend! We took a ridiculous number of pictures of Leaves’ Eyes so if the ones in this post aren’t enough for you, check the rest out here. Enjoy!

                          

After finding a good camping spot close to the river, we got up bright and early to pick up Lynda from Bled. After a bit of sightseeing we returned to Tolmin and settled in for another week of music and sunshine.

Fortunately the weather was outstanding, with Eastern Europe experiencing a mini heatwave that brought temperatures in the high 30’s. We met up with plenty of Aussies – Lynda’s mates Nigel and Nadia, Simon who we’d met at Metal Camp 2006 and Jan & John who’d been with our Aussie crew at Wacken 2004.

Days were once more spent drinking down by/in the river or at the beach bar – we managed to salvage an old windsurfer board from a wrecked raft that served as a boat and a bar. Nights of course were spent watching bands, with Motorhead, Blind Guardian, Satyricon and Immortal the highlights.

It was a fantastic week and by the end we we all had considerably darker skin than when we started. The pictures give a pretty good idea of just how much fun Metal Camp was – take a look here.