Final "Death Infernal Tour" blog entry!

Rosenkeller - Jena, GER - 20/5 2011:
Back in Jena, after 2 years! In fact, when getting to the venue in the day, our cool host of the evening informed us that it was actually on the 20th of May 2009 that we played here last time. Interesting coincidence (?).

After gearin-up with strings and stuff in the day, we did a very good soundcheck, and everything felt promising. The organizers fired up the grill and the day was complete!

BBQ photo by Narstrand.

To our surprise, our former merch-guy Jack showed up again (having been dropped off in Prague the day before). Needless to say, it turns out that PRO-PAIN followed us all the way from Prague to Jena, and Jack went with them. PP will play a concert 200m from Rosenkeller - kind of ironic (and too bad for them!)

The evening turns out great. A lot of ppl showed up, just like when we played here 2 yrs ago. Fans of ARROGANZ had traveled to Jena for the show, and they got a good response for their show, and the feedback for FERAL was awesome too. When we entered the stage it was already after 11, and the concert room was packed. We delivered our entire set of Death Metal classics until we had no more material to play, and the response was awesome.

Feral guys and Leif Edling backstage!

After-show duties at the Rosenkeller, until they finally closed the place... Then off to the classic Titty Twister of course to check some other great performances, and to some kind of weird club at 'Wagners' (which didn't seem to have much in common with Wagner) where our great sound guy changed profession and served the drinks while the local promotor showed where the cabinet should stand.

Total lack of order and orientation, and epic bus call at "07:00" (yeah, right).
See you great Jena-people again - May 20, 2013!

TreibsAND - Lübeck, GER - 21/5 2011:
Lübeck was our last destination of the tour before going home to Sweden, and we had no idea what to expect since we never played here before. Being experienced in this business, we knew that nobody would wake up for the "border-shopping" the morning after, so we did that shit during the day in Lübeck instead (and suddenly the bus weights an extra ton).

The venue is actually part of some kind of "alternative" trailer camp, a big camp full of old trailers surrounded by bushes and trees, only 5 minutes walk from the city centre. The inhabitants seemed cool, some of them probably was here since the place opened in 1978.

Soundcheck photo by Narstrand.

Soundcheck went good, turns out the in-house guy knows Swedish and he made a good job. The whole venue and stage is very good in general and everything seems promising. We are served unlimited amounts of great catering (it just keeps coming) and there is even an "office opens" note backstage, which we followed strictly.

To our big surprise neither HATE ETERNAL nor PRO-PAIN plays in Lübeck tonight! There are three other concerts in the city though, but this turns out to be no problem either, a lot of people shows up, and the evening turns out great. People are banging through the whole concert and when we play "Death Metal Darkness", the ruthless FERAL guys shows up on stage banging and screaming with us. When the audience wants more, we play the classic "Bow to the Monolith", and as the final track for this tour we do "Götter des Nordens" with Kai from ARROGANZ on the lead vokills from hell.

The office is open...

This was surely a good ending of a great tour, but sometime after 03:00 we have to end post-show duties and say goodbye to our friend in ARROGANZ, to head towards Sweden!

Death Infernal Tour-package 2011 - Cheers!!

Back on Swedish soil - 22/5 2011:
A long trip back to Stockholm, first with ferry to Trelleborg from Sassnitz and then to the mighty Avesta dropping off the backline and parts of the band and management. Around 02:00 in the night we finally arrived at Arlanda airport where FERAL says bye, and then the last dudes are dropped off in Stockholm city in the night before the tour bus can head back to the Land of a Thousand Lakes.

It has been a truly awesome tour, thanks to the great guys in FERAL, ARROGANZ and GLORIA MORTI, and our great crew Markus and Chris, but most important: all you great people who came to the shows and banged and moshed and showed your support to real old-school Metal ov Death! Thanks for a truly memorable crusade and many awesome concerts!

It is now time to re-charge our batteries for a while and return with full force in late August at the Summer Breeze Festival! More tours and concerts may also be announced, so see you people in the pit!!

Joy in the sun...

Tirish Pub - Banská Bystrica, SLO - 18/5 2011:
Woke up in Banka Bysten dying in the heat (around 150 degrees today). In Eastern European style, the owner of the club had moved another gig in last minute from another venue to Tirish, so when we were about to load in, we were informed that there would be a Pink Floyd cover band playing until 7 (at the same stage, eh?). The owner surely knew how to use the club to its full potential!

So we spent the day in the city waiting for food most of the day and checking out the local weapon and porn stores.

Arroganz makes people go berserk!

At 7 we did the fastest stage set-up in history of Death Metal, and got things going. The Banka fans are truly dedicated and all bands got a good response from the audience. During ARROGANZ' performance four cops stormed in with automatic guns, and we thought the party was over... Fortunately, it turned out that since the club had no security themselves, they called the cops when a guy in the audience spilled beer over the merch-table and then did some private moshing during the gig, smashing bottles and cutting up his arms (the merch aside, that's fuckin dedicated!).

After-show duties at the venue lasted til 04, and then we said ciao to our former merch-guy, and took off to Prague...

Modrá Vopice - Prague, CZ - 19/5 2011:
Today around 200 degrees warm and joy in the shade. We played at Modra Vopice some 2 years ago, on the open-air stage. But now there was no open-air stage anymore, and we did the gigs inside the club.

The band BRUTALLY DECEASED from Prague opened the concert with some very good old-school DM. These are dudes we played with before, and they always do well. Also Curby showed up with Obscene ads, and we did a couple of interviews for Cz and Polish magazines who really knew their stuff, which is always cool.

It was nice to have the concert inside the club, and the atmosphere was very good. Our gig was satisfying, we feared a no-show from the audience since PRO-PAIN played at a club just 200m away, but a lot of people showed up and the place was packed with old-school DM fans.

The night was spent at Modra Vopice with the most wasted bartender in history of Bartending (who eventually passed out on the bar, and drinks were free...). Horns up loyal Prague people, looking forward to be back!!

Out of order and service!

Ljubljana and Vienna - win/win!

Channel Zero - Ljubljana, SLO - 15/5 2011:
Is it true, or are we dreaming? After almost 2 weeks on the road, suddenly it's happening; we wake up in Ljubljana and it's RAINING! In fact, it's a little... cold...

Day and evening spent at a hotel near the venue. Sweden played a game of ice hockey vs Finland that we watched in the evening. Unfortunately it was only a preparation game for the next olympic games so it was nothing we really cared about (don't even remember the result).

This was actually the 4th DEMONICAL-gig in Slovenia in 2 yrs (3 in Ljubljana and 1 at Metal Camp), and we have always had a great support here. Unfortunately some American DM band we don't remember the name of (with some ex member of MORBID ANGEL) played at the same venue the day before (Saturday), so this evening the audience was unfortunately smaller than it has been before.

Anyway, it was a cool evening, and once AGAIN the "Death Infernal" CD's were sold out. And we still have five gigs left on the tour...?

The post-concert duties are already legendary, and lasted at Ch0 until the cleaning lady showed up around 05. It then moved to the Box Bar, with the management going out the window, while the driver spent the night in jail.

Markus & Martin celebrating Finlands hockey gold!

Day-off - Ljubljana, SLO - 16/5 2011:
Day-offs suck. Total lack of management, and nothing to do. But at least we got something done... the awesome promotors at Ch0 let us use the venue in the day to record some photage for a video that will be out in some months (maybe).

Jalla-Jalla dominated as usual, and our friend Ljubljana-Bengtsson also had some kind of dub (?) club in the evening at Ch0. This event was probably the weirdest of the tour so far, and looked like a in-door parody of 1970's Gärdesfest. Common... nothing got better in 40 years, wake up and smell the demise, hippies...

Breakfast in Vienna

Escape Metalcorner - Vienna, AUT - 17/5 2011:
Ok, weather is back to normal again... Warm as hell. It's been two years since we played in Vienna last time, so it was cool to be back. Unfortunately we had some technical problems this evening; to begin with the local support band had filled the power outlets with water, causing short-circuits all the time until they were replaced, and as soon as we got going, Pablo's guitar rig fucked up. But that's life, and the crowd this evening was very supportive... As soon as Pablo got his guitar going, the gig was really great.

The venue before it was packed!

Thanks to all the cool people showing up this evening. Unfortunately Escape closed early, and we had to leave already around 02, with Jackie, our former merch-guy, on board as well. Lets go to Slovakia...

Viva Italia!!

Rock It - Aalen, GER - 12/5 2011:
It's a long road to get to Analen (around 8 hours under normal conditions). But finally there, it's worth it.

Sometime around 14 we got breakfast served at the venue by the organizers. Of the two guys organizing the show, one turns out to be very familiar to Swedish traditions such as SNUS, being the singer of FLESHCRAWL who recorded in Sweden many times in the past. After breakfast, panic sets in. The back-up stash of vodka disappeared yesterday. Luckily we found an OK supermarket here too, and can gear-up again.

The soundcheck went good, the PA system was really good at this venue, and the mixing dude had a digital mixing console here too so he would save all settings... (no problem).

The tour so far has been above expectations as far as merch sales are concerned and all the LP's and almost all CD's that we planned to have on the tour was sold out already after five gigs (in Belgium). But today our friends from the record label showed up and saved us with some new boxes of records.

Cyclone madness...

After dinner people started coming, and it was time for GLORIA MORTI to do their last show of this tour (they only joined us the first half of this crusade). They did a good gig as usual. As ARROGANZ performed it was time for us to say bye to our Finnish friends for this time, and off they went... FERAL did a great gig too with a good response from the audience, before it was time for us...

The concert was awesome for us this night, the crowd was truly into our stuff and banged like crazy through the whole gig. People already seemed to be very familiar with the new material from "Death Infernal" and we had to do extra numbers once again before we were allowed to go off stage. The other organizer mr Ralf said afterwards it was the best response he could remember here, so what more can you ask for.

Needless to say the sampler and other stuff didn't work today either ("no problem"-guy came afterwards and said he was sorry, but he forgot to put the channels on) but once again it didn't matter to us, thanks to the awesome response of the audience!

Decimo Secolo - Brescia, ITA - 13/5 2011:
Hot, hot, hot... The story continues, it feels like we're doing this tour in July or something. The Decimo Secolo is located a bit weird, the venue is actually in a big shopping mall building... which is kind of good because the AC is top notch... Less top notch is fact that as the shopping mall closes, the light in the "backstage" also goes off (we had the same experience when playing here with other bands last year, but they are working on it...)

The Arroganz dudes outside the venue.

The PA system is a bit smaller than we're used to from our rehearsal room and the in-house engineer don't seem to be best friend with the equipment... But after a mega-long soundcheck, at least we got both speakers in front working, and some of the monitors as well, so lets go...

The owner had placed a couple of spooky looking dudes to take care of the security and prevent the audience from moshing, so needless to say we demanded the audience to mosh like crazy already from the first song... and they did! As the audience got going, the security guys eventually gave up. Mission complete!

Widda celebrating! Hadderajjan deluxe!!

This was actually the youngster of the band's (Sverker's) 30th birthday, so after some celebration on stage, the evening continued in traditional fashion with party at the Decimo Secolo with the cool organizers and some other guys, and the bus didn't leave Brescia until after 05... Ciao!

Pieffe Factory - Gorizia,  ITA - 14/5 2011:
Most people woke up around early in a boiling bus in Gorizia. 30 degrees in the shade + no bus electricity (meaning no AC) + hangover from hell = life on the road.

David Feral and Pablo.

Gorizia is actually in Northern Italy (on the border to Slovenia) but according to some locals this is one of the warmest parts of Italy... didn't get any explanation really, but we do not doubt their words. Walking in the city during the day you feel like Corleone checking out Sicily... No people are out, except for some random dogs and two bums having a ball at the stairs to the city church.

But it's a cool place, and of course in true Southern European tradition we do a late show tonight (first band 22.30...). DEMONICAL on stage sometime after midnight, with some parts of the band (mainly the vocalist) looking real hot with pink sun-burned viking-skin. The venue Pieffe Factory is very good, with a cool stage and a PA (and engineer) that is really top-notch. All bands had a killer sound and the gigs are very appreciated by the crowd. Much respect!

Soundcheck

But as the venue closes there is of course nothing to do but to say ciao to our italian friends, and head towards Slovenia... looking forward to another morning in the sun...

The fucking grill is on...11!!

Purple Turtle - London, UK - 9/5 2011:
Had to go up early to get off the tour bus at the boat. Unfortunately our dear English authorities didn't like the idea of our session guitarist Pablo playing in DEMONICAL. So, he got deported. At 08.30 they took him to a room where he had to wait to be deported back to France by some french officers. But the boat was gonna departure at 09 and the bus must roll, so the rest of the band took off...

Ronnie B in Camden town.

Meanwhile, Johan decided to take a hangover-nap in the bunk while crossing the border, ignoring the signs saying something like "trying to avoid the passport control will cause a fine of 3.000 pounds". But what the hell. We are richer than we look.

The boat offered the first shower since Hamburg for some of us and was followed by some interesting left-traffic driving in a very busy London. Suicide Throne in the UK.

The Purple Turtle turned out to be a very cool little 250 ppl capacity venue located in the Camden area of London (where almost all concert takes place). Some of us spent the day checking out the area. We also tried to reach mr Pablo during the day without any response on either sms or calls...

But finally in the evening Martin reached Pablo. "Everything is great - I'm a free man!". It turned out he have had to sit in some room for four hours to wait for the authorities to get their shit together, but after that he got a coffee and a bag of chips as compensation, lucky guy. And an English stamp in his passport with a big "X" over it.

Pablo Corleone.

Anyway, being professionals since birth, we did the show in London as a four piece. For some reason we have never played in England before, but it turned out to be a great show. The audience seemed to be really into our shit, and we even met a guy who said he traveled all the way from Russia to see us. Props!

Deathking666 equipment backstage.

After we had drank all the english beer, we spent the evening drinking belgian vodka (well, russian vodka bought in Belgium) and smoking belgian cigarettes and ripping it up Stockholm style, before getting back on the suicide roads of London heading towards France again to save Private Pablo...

Ronnie B & Thomas Arroganz.

Peniche Igelrock - Valenciennes, FRA - 10/5 2011:
Back in France, we picked up "Packan" at some hotel; the lucky guy have had a good day-off checking out the locals, while the other four members had to work hard. We got to Valenciennes in the middle of the day, and guess what? The weather was ripping today again. It turned out that the venue was located on a big boat in a river passing the city (this river didn't have much in common with the mighty Ljungan, but rather looked like a bigger version of Selångersån in 1962).

Under Jolly Roger

Spent the day on deck, trying to avoid getting inside the boat as much as possible (it was hot outside, but even hotter inside). Some guys from the other bands found some kind of gym on the other side of the street where they cleaned their bodies, while the veterans (that would be us) spent the day drinking warm beer in the sun instead (cold food, warm beer, that's the good life the road offers).

As the bands began playing it looked like the audience was missing, but it turned out that the frenchmen just didnt like coming too early because when it finally was time for us to go on stage the atmosphere was just great. The crowd was ripping, and we really enjoyed rumbling this Titanic Sauna. Mr Soundguy forgot most of the instructions he got on the soundcheck, so intros and stuff like that disappeared into anti-cosmos, but it didnt really matter with the good response we had this evening.

Ripping it up French style

Mr Organizer won the Gold Medal of the evening, and when leaving France it was definitely in a good mood. Looking forward to come back. But first: towards Germania again...

Das Haus - Neuss, GER - 11/5 2011:
Neuss is a rather small city, but very close to the Eurovision Song Contest (Düsseldorf). DEMONICAL played here once before, and it was a very good evening, so we knew that the people in Neuss knows how to bang and mosh.

At soundcheck the sound engineer as usual thinks that we are "too louuud" (this isn't Death Metal you know?!) and thinks the solution to too high cymbals is to lower the guitars (euhm?). Anyway, we tried to find some kind of compromise with the dude, but then we could suddenly feel the smell of MEAT, and soundcheck was over. The Grill was on, finally! The engineer had a digital mixing console, so we told him to save the exact setting for us. "No problem".

The BBQ-meister!!

After a good very male meal, people started to show up at the venue. Considering that we soon were gonna spend some days in Italy, we went to a super market to bulk up with back-up vodka and other necessities before the concert.

GLORIA MORTI, ARROGANZ and FERAL all got very good response for their shows, and finally it was time for us to do our shit. Needless to say, mr Soundengineer fucked up everything we prepared on soundcheck (sampler channel muted the whole gig, etc...) but once again, it didnt really bother us too much, the concert was one of the best of the tour so far, with people banging like crazy through the whole gig.

We met people from previous concerts and among others longtime friends from DELLAMORTE's EU tour in 1997. The evening is ended with many chilling drinks, the tour manager passes out and faceplants in the bus, and the rest is history...