Some snapshots from the Haunt Fest Halloween Party with DJ Jonas "Skinny Disco" Kangur (Deathstars / The Heard) at "Mammut Bar" in Stockholm / Sweden on 31st October 2025. The four-hour set included "Black No. 1 (Little Miss Scare-All)" (Type O Negative), "Sonne" (Rammstein), "Lost Boys" (The 69 Eyes) and "Brighter Than The Sun" (Tiamat), amongst other songs.
Some snippets from the Haunt Fest Halloween Party with DJ Jonas "Skinny Disco" Kangur (Deathstars / The Heard) at "Mammut Bar" in Stockholm / Sweden on 31st October 2025. The set included "Black No. 1 (Little Miss Scare-All)" (Type O Negative), "Sonne" (Rammstein), "Lost Boys" (The 69 Eyes) and "Brighter Than The Sun" (Tiamat), amongst other songs.
Further pictures of the event can be found here: https://sound-kitchen-archives.blogspot.com/2025/11/photo-gallery-haunt-fest-halloween.html
There is also good news for those who had stayed away from events in Sweden because of the nationwide "väskförbud" ["ban of bags"]: The ban was lifted on 11 June 2025. Attendees can once again bring bags to bigger events or leave them in the paid cloakroom. Due to the increased risk of terror attacks in Sweden, neither had been allowed since 1 November 2023, though some smaller venues made exceptions, allowing one small bag per person. We don't know whether "Patricia" was one of these venues, as we are visiting the moored ship for the first time tonight.
After DJ Stasi (Anastasia Karlova) has the crowd dancing to her set, Johan Eckerström and Markus Majdalani alias Hatif enter the stage, now pitch black except for a black-and-white video projection. Said video installation shines on a white piece of fabric behind the band and on the black-clad duo themselves, making them practically part of it. Hatif describe themselves as "a Swedish electronic music group", but there is more to it, as the opener "Direction" quickly makes clear: Oriental influences, added to the soundscape by vocalist Markus Majdalani via a red melodica. While the crowd up on the balcony remains reserved, those on the floor are dancing from the get-go. After the second song, "Take The Bait", Markus Majdalani causes some amusement in the audience when he responds to the warm welcome with a reserved "Tack!" [Swedish for: "Thanks!"]. It seems clear that the duo, founded in 2020, is unpretentious, preferring to focus on the music rather than waste words.
There is a change of pace with the melancholic "Driven", with Markus Majdalani sitting at the keyboard. When the visualiser for "Broken Bucket" starts, a girl in the audience exclaims in delight: "Oh, horses!" And, indeed, "Broken Bucket" with its vocal hook is not only more powerful live than on record but also the highlight of tonight's set. The final track, "As If You Were Sworn", is also impressive, with a similarly strong vocal hook and Middle Eastern sounds. Those who were already familiar with Hatif's music before tonight's performance - or who are here tonight because of them - might be particularly pleased that the setlist is dominated by songs from their second studio album "Small States", which was released in May 2025. Adele Sinnamon from Onyx Music Reviews once described Hatif as "a really exotic reincarnation of fellow Swedes, Covenant", and, in my opinion, this description hits the nail on the head. These gentlemen, who modestly leave the stage amid loud applause, would make a valuable addition to goth festivals like M'era Luna.
While preparations are under way for Priest's set, the stage is bathed in dim red light. As Sulfur starts the intro and Salt enters the stage amid loud cheers from the crowd, the red light gradually fades until only the tiny white lights attached to Salt's fingers and the glowing emergency exit sign behind him remain visible. When "The Pit" begins, vocalist Mercury appears, his ruby-red Terminator eye casting a dim red glow once again. Otherwise, it's pitch black on the ship, presumably like in the "bottomless pit". And, yes: Unlike last time, "The Pit" is back in the setlist! I'm delighted because I really missed their debut single when Priest played at "Kollektivet Livet". As I wrote back then, I understand the band's desire to update their repertoire, but I'm also very tempted to say "never change a winning team", as the order of intro, "The Pit" and "Neuromancer" works so perfectly. And, indeed, "The Pit" is followed by "Neuromancer", and with the "dark dancer", the dim red light returns to the stage.
Like last time, keyboardist Salt plays his first keytar solo at the edge of the stage during "Blacklisted", while Mercury sweeps across the stage, supported by programmer and keyboardist Sulfur, who often acts as the animator of the audience. After "Black Venom", "Demon's Call", "Just A Game", "A Signal In The Noise" and "The Cross", the set continues with the two singles from "Chaos EP", which was released in June 2025: "World On A Wire" and "My Lonely Heart". Two live premieres, at least for the Swedish audience. During "Burning Love", the lighting changes from red to green just for this song, and Salt also surprises with another keytar solo.
There is a little heartwarming déjà vu from Priest's Stockholm show in March 2024 when Mercury mentions that Deathstars bassist Skinny Disco is in the audience, dedicating "Keep On Burning" to him once again. By the time "Let Your Body Go" and "Beacon Of Light" are played, one realises that tonight's setlist covers tracks from all studio albums ("New Flesh", "Cyberhead", "Body Machine" and "Dark Pulse") and EPs ("Obey", "Dead Ringer EP" and "Chaos EP") that Priest have released so far. During the latter and the following "Obey", Mercury disappears into the crowd. Before the encores, "History In Black" and "Vaudeville", a very amusing moment occurs when a male fan gets the idea that now would be the right time to have Mercury sign his Priest poster. The frontman tries his best, but with a microphone in one hand and a beer bottle in the other, he suggests taking care of it later. When a female fan asks him if he promises to do it, he responds with a kiss on her hand, leaving her in awe. Not long after the band has taken its bow, Mercury can indeed be found at the merchandise booth - chatting with fans, signing autographs, and posing for pictures - while DJ Stasi once again takes charge of the music.
Seeing Priest perform a sold-out headline show comes as no surprise. Back in December 2023 - when we first discovered them as main support for the masters of death glam, Deathstars, in Stockholm - we already predicted that the trio was destined for bigger things. The fact that this was the second to last show before the mysterious reboot, and that "Chaos EP" has already introduced Priest's sonic shift from the 80s to the 90s, wasn't made a big deal of. Instead, the comprehensive setlist and the high-energy performance spoke for themselves. It was also refreshing that only two acts performed tonight, instead of the three or more one usually gets these days, which allowed for correspondingly longer sets. Especially for Priest, whose previous two Stockholm shows had been rushed due to time constraints. Maybe it was thanks to "Patricia", one of the few venues in Stockholm that is allowed to stay open until 5 AM, or maybe it was thanks to "Klubb DÖD", under whose banner tonight's event was presented. In any case, Priest did not promise too much when they announced that it would be "the synth gig of the year", leaving everyone over the moon as they went home. So much so that one almost forgot to mourn "the end of an era".
Author: Stefanie Nysand
Some live snippets from the gig of Priest at "Patricia" in Stockholm / Sweden on 29th August 2025, featuring "Neuromancer", "Black Venom", "Demon's Call", "A Signal In The Noise", "The Cross", "World On A Wire", "Burning Love", "Keep On Burning", "Let Your Body Go", "Obey" and "Vaudeville".
The corresponding LIVE review [in English] can be found here: https://sound-kitchen-archives.blogspot.com/2025/09/live-review-synth-on-pitch-black-ship.html
Some live snippets from the gig of Hatif at "Patricia" in Stockholm / Sweden on 29th August 2025, featuring "Direction", "Driven", "Broken Bucket" and "As If You Were Sworn".
The corresponding LIVE review [in English] can be found here: https://sound-kitchen-archives.blogspot.com/2025/09/live-review-synth-on-pitch-black-ship.html
Some live snippets from Motylki's record release show for "Chrysalis" at "Rosetta's" in Stockholm / Sweden on 24th April 2025, featuring "Mirror Mirror", "Just A Tear", "You Make Me Happy" and "Rosary".
Some live snippets from the gig of Henric de la Cour at "Debaser Strand" in Stockholm / Sweden on 8th March 2025, featuring "Bones, Ashes", "Dread Forever", "Interlude" and "Dracula".
The album review of Henric de la Cour's current fourth studio album "My Bones, Your Ashes" [in English] can be found here: https://chaoszine.net/the-darkness-remains-his-strength-review-of-henric-de-la-cours-fourth-studio-album-my-bones-your-ashes/
Queens Of The Stone Age's "Gonna Leave You", covered by Klotty at "Rökbacken" in Falun / Sweden on 19th April 2025 (plus an Easter surprise).
Bishop Briggs' "River", covered by Ceci Noir at "Rökbacken" in Falun / Sweden on 19th April 2025.
Some live snippets from the gig of Mia Karlsson at "Rökbacken" in Falun / Sweden on 19th April 2025, featuring "I'm Not The One" and "Breathe Now".
Some live snippets from Mia Karlsson's record release show for "Coming Home" at "Gamla Enskede Bryggeri" in Stockholm / Sweden on 12th April 2025, featuring "Quiet", "I'm Not The One", "Nothing In My Heart" [John Hiatt cover], "Would You", "Coming Home", "Embrace", "Save Me Now", "Breathe Now", "Safe", "Something On My Mind" and the original version of "Would You".
Some snippets from the signing session with Dregen (Backyard Babies / The Hellacopters / Michael Monroe) at the record store "Sound Pollution" in Stockholm / Sweden on 12th April 2025. There, he signed his latest vinyl releases, "Så mycke Dregen" and "Strange Ways (feat. Danko Jones) / Snow Blind".
Further pictures of the event can be found here: https://sound-kitchen-archives.blogspot.com/2025/04/photo-gallery-signing-session-with.html
Some snapshots from the signing session with Dregen (Backyard Babies / The Hellacopters / Michael Monroe) at the record store "Sound Pollution" in Stockholm / Sweden on 12th April 2025. There, he signed his latest vinyl releases, "Så mycke Dregen" and "Strange Ways (feat. Danko Jones) / Snow Blind". The signing session took place as part of Record Store Day 2025.
Some live snippets from the gig of Isak Benjamin at "Bengans Record Store" in Stockholm / Sweden on 12th April 2025, featuring "Tailored By Design", "Never Look Down", "The Prettiest Face" and "What My Heart Needs".
Further pictures of the event can be found here: https://sound-kitchen-archives.blogspot.com/2025/04/photo-gallery-isak-benjamin-live-in.html
Some snapshots of Isak Benjamin performing live at "Bengans Record Store" in Stockholm / Sweden on 12th April 2025. The gig took place as part of Record Store Day 2025.
Some live snippets from the gig of
Sister Sin at "Musikhuset" ("Sjömanskyrkan") in
Gävle / Sweden on 1st March 2025, featuring "Desert Queen"
and "Fight Song".
The corresponding LIVE review [in English] can be found here: https://sound-kitchen-archives.blogspot.com/2025/03/live-review-rocking-until-barriers.html
S.O.R.M performing "Gypsy
Queen" at "Musikhuset" ("Sjömanskyrkan") in
Gävle / Sweden on 1st March 2025.
The corresponding LIVE review [in English] can be found here: https://sound-kitchen-archives.blogspot.com/2025/03/live-review-rocking-until-barriers.html
Some live snippets from the gig of Searching For Serenity at "Musikhuset" ("Sjömanskyrkan") in Gävle / Sweden on 1st March 2025, featuring "Shadow In The Dark" and "Rose".
The corresponding LIVE review [in English] can be found here: https://sound-kitchen-archives.blogspot.com/2025/03/live-review-rocking-until-barriers.html
After supporting Accept on the Scandinavian leg of their "Humanoid" tour in November 2024, Sister Sin, the Swedish heavy metallers around frontwoman Liv Jagrell, announced a club tour for spring 2025 with four dates across their home country. They want to "raze Borås, Trollhättan, Gävle and Linköping to the ground" and, above all, "make rock and metal great again". That the latter is sorely needed will once again become evident tonight at "Musikhuset" in Gävle.
The conditions for a great rock and metal experience couldn't be more perfect tonight: It's a Saturday, the venue in the former Seamen's Church is impressive not only from the outside, but also from the inside, and on top of that, "Musikhuset" is located right next to Gävle's central railway station, so even people from outside Gävle, like us, can easily reach the venue. Not to mention that Sister Sin also bring along guitar-heavy reinforcement: Searching For Serenity and S.O.R.M. And yet, it's pretty empty when Searching For Serenity, the first act on stage tonight, start their set with the stand-alone single "3:03".
Vocalist Fredrik Vintlöw, guitarist Christian Hagel, bassist Tommy Mellgren and drummer Christian Morales describe themselves as "four guys from Sweden playing rock with a modern punk vibe", and it's safe to say that the sound of Searching For Serenity is more mainstream compared to the two following tougher bands, especially on their current third studio album "Yesterdays". It will be interesting to see how their respective careers develop in the future. Tonight, the quartet from Vänersborg, which has been "playing together since 2015", wins the attendees over with an entertaining show and songs from their three studio albums "Demise" ("Bumpy Ride (Here We Go)", "Shadow In The Dark"), "Human Disgrace" ("Stuck In The Mud", "We Are") and "Yesterdays" ("Always Late", "Directions", "Yesterdays"), as well as the stand-alone singles "Lost" and "Rose" and the yet-to-be-released track "BlackRock".
Just in time for the second act of the evening, S.O.R.M, a few more attendees arrive at the venue, some of them specifically for S.O.R.M. To the sounds of Ronja Rövardotter's "Rövarsången" and amid loud cheers from the crowd, Micke Holm (vocals and guitar), Patrik Sandström (lead guitar), Johan Östman (bass) and Robin Wernebratt (drums) enter the stage and start their set with "Hellride", which is also the opener of their 2023 debut album "Under My Skin".
S.O.R.M were founded in the small Swedish town of Lidköping (Not to be confused with Linköping, one of Sweden's biggest cities) in 2017 and have since released two versions of their EP "Hellraiser" as well as the aforementioned debut album. Accordingly, the setlist is dominated by songs from "Hellraiser" ("Hellraiser", "Gypsy Queen") and "Under My Skin" ("Shot Gun Johnny", "Crazy", "Too Hot For Love", "Demon Child", "Under My Skin", "I Die For My Rock N Roll"). It's amusing how heavily influenced S.O.R.M are by the American heavy metal legends W.A.S.P., starting with the stylisation of the band name and the fact that neither W.A.S.P. nor S.O.R.M want to reveal what their respective band names stand for. At some point in between their own songs, S.O.R.M even encourage the audience to sing the chorus of W.A.S.P.'s "I Wanna Be Somebody". Then, the intro to W.A.S.P.'s "Wild Child" is played before S.O.R.M actually perform a W.A.S.P. cover, namely "Sleeping (In The Fire)". Towards the end of the set, the current single "Scream" is played, a first taste of the quartet's upcoming second studio album.
Overall, S.O.R.M deliver a solid
hard rock / heavy metal show, interacting a lot with the audience and
effortlessly getting the crowd to clap and sing along. Live, S.O.R.M
also sound heavier than on record, which, in my humble opinion, is
almost always a good thing. And if you like W.A.S.P., you can't go
wrong with attending a S.O.R.M show. If you happen to be in Gävle on
5th April 2025, you can look forward to seeing S.O.R.M
frontman Micke Holm again soon when he returns to "Musikhuset"
for a solo performance, alongside Crucified Barbara frontwoman Mia
"Coldheart" Karlsson.
Contrary to expectations, the venue doesn't really fill up either as the stage time of tonight's headliner, Sister Sin, approaches, so it can now be concluded that a) the audience is almost exclusively male and b) it consists mostly of middle-aged people. The latter is something I have already noticed in the past few years, even before the Covid-19 pandemic, at various rock, metal and goth events. One wonders where the next generation of the subcultural scenes is, especially in front of the stage. And where is the scene as a whole tonight? At the concert of the Iron Maiden cover band Made In Iron at "Järnvägskrogen", just 90 metres away from "Musikhuset"? The city is not to blame, because in Gävle, scene-relevant events are regularly organised, so there must also be an audience for them in Gävle. Be that as it may, when Liv Jagrell (vocals), Jimmy Hiltula (guitar), Sebastian Svedlund (rhythm guitar), Andreas Strandh (bass) and Dave Sundberg (drums) enter the stage and start their set with "Sound Of The Underground" from their third studio album "True Sound Of The Underground", all those thoughts vanish... Wow, what energy!
It's not the first time I see Liv Jagrell live on stage, but my first Sister Sin show - in Finland's capital Helsinki in December 2010 - was just over fourteen years ago, and over time, the memories of it seem to have faded. Not that long ago, in December 2023, I saw Liv Jagrell perform with Liv Sin in Sweden's capital Stockholm. Already back then, she jumped and headbanged from the get-go like there was no tomorrow, yet tonight's show feels somehow different. More straightforward and rock'n'roll, especially when songs like the U.D.O. cover "24/7" are played, with Liv Jagrell and the string instrumentalists all headbanging in unison. It's easily the most impressive performance I've seen from her so far.
The setlist includes songs from Sister Sin's latest four studio albums "Switchblade Serenades" ("Death Will Greet Us"), "True Sound Of The Underground" ("Outrage", "Heading For Hell", "Better Than Them"), "Now And Forever" ("Hearts Of Cold", "Fight Song") and "Black Lotus" ("Chaos Royale", "Desert Queen", "Sail North"), as well as the Cinderella cover "Somebody Save Me". At some point, the small crowd is rocking so hard that they manage to push apart the two barriers in front of the stage. Yes, sometimes it's not about how many people are rocking in front of the stage, but how hard. Jimmy Hiltula himself once said that while rock might only exist "on a smaller scale" in the future, "we still want to be right there playing".
To make one thing clear: Tonight's emptiness is a rare sight for Sister Sin. Just last night, the band, which was founded in Gothenburg nearly a quarter of a century ago, played a completely sold-out show in Trollhättan, and the kick-off show of this club tour in Borås was packed as well, with "people flying in from Switzerland, Germany etc.". Perhaps people on the Swedish east coast simply haven't realised that Sister Sin, who had suddenly disbanded in November 2015, reunited in December 2019? The timing of the reunion was, of course, incredibly unfortunate, with the unexpected years-long Covid-19 pandemic just around the corner. Accordingly, Sister Sin recently stated that "2024 was a year of resurrection" and "2025 will be the year of retribution". You'd better take the quintet at their word, because tonight, they kept all their promises. They came, they saw, and they delivered.
Author: Stefanie Nysand
Some visual impressions of the event "Kasai Art" at "Restaurang Kasai" in Stockholm / Sweden on 28th February 2025, hosted by Andy Huber (World Of Music And Arts) and featuring the artworks of Dregen (Backyard Babies / The Hellacopters / Michael Monroe), Eric Bäckman alias Cat Casino (Deathstars / Hank Von Hell), Camilla Thilander alias Millan Rouge, Hans Erkendal (The Mobile Homes / Sapporo 72), Dennis Duolee and designer and TV host Maria Westerberg.
Further pictures of the event can be found here: https://sound-kitchen-archives.blogspot.com/2025/03/photo-gallery-kasai-art-featuring.html
On 28th February 2025, Andy Huber, chairman of World Of Music And Arts, hosted the event "Kasai Art" at the Japanese restaurant "Kasai" in Sweden's capital Stockholm. Announced as a "unique pop up vernissage featuring six of the most exciting artists in today's art world", attendees were not only able to admire the artworks of Dregen (Backyard Babies / The Hellacopters / Michael Monroe), Eric Bäckman alias Cat Casino (Deathstars / Hank Von Hell), Camilla Thilander alias Millan Rouge, Hans Erkendal (The Mobile Homes / Sapporo 72), Dennis Duolee and designer and TV host Maria Westerberg, but also enjoy "tasty cocktails and a lively atmosphere". "A memorable experience" indeed, with a host who continuously made sure that all guests felt comfortable and welcome. Below, you can check out pictures from the well-attended event. As Cat Casino noted before the two-hour exhibition, his works are "apparently too explicit for social media". To avoid any inconvenience, only the "censored" versions of his works can be seen here.
