I’m pretty sure my Mom is clamoring for more photographs from Metaltown 2008 in Goteborg, Sweden. So, Mom, this post is for you.

Just kidding. Actually, my Mom, and anyone else who knows me (expect probably David, Eric, and John), should ignore this blog entry and come back tomorrow for something more to their tastes.

You’ll want to click on these images for a bigger view or right click on them and save them to your computer if you want to use them as desktop images. My wife is looking forward to seeing these on a daily basis as our home PC desktop background. 😉

Compared to concerts in the U.S. the Swedish crowd was well behaved on average. I unintentionally ended up in the mosh pit for Dark Tranquility before fading into a more enjoyable position. Some bands had no mosh pit and others only had a small one develop for certain songs. This was a welcome change as you could be up front without being uncomfortable. That’s not to say the crowd wasn’t enthusiastic. Near the stage the crowd was very engaged without being rude to their neighbors–something some U.S. concert goers have failed to learn.

I always imagined that of the Gothenburg scene bands Dark Tranquility and In Flames would be about equally popular in their hometown. It turns out that In Flames is far more popular.

Most bands started and finished within a minute of their scheduled start and end times. For some unknown reason DT left the stage with more than 5 minutes available to them.

Just before landing in Copenhagen last week, DT’s “The Wonders at Your Feet” came on my ipod. Needless to say a large smile crossed my face at the poignancy of the timing. They did play that song at Metaltown too (although not as the opener as they did when I saw them in Eugene, Oregon).

As you can tell from this shot of Finntroll, the wind was extreme on this day. 😉 (not really–sometimes one must make their own extreme wind)

Soilwork actually played between Dark Tranquility and Finntroll, but I wasn’t very close to the stage so the pictures are nothing special; I am not posting them here.

Few things in life are quite as fun as men in skirts. Finntroll, like Amon Amarth later, seemed to be having a great time. Finnish metal, or at least Finntroll’s version of it, is quite different than the Swedish variety.

Had Opeth been playing next, as scheduled, I would have vacated my prime Finntroll position to get a good spot for Opeth. As it was I stuck it out to the end of their set which was enjoyable from beginning to end. If you like heavy, melodic music and haven’t listened to Finntroll before I strongly encourage you to check them out.

This was the time slot I was waiting for since Opeth was due to play. I suppose as fill-in bands go you can’t do too much better than Satyricon. Satyricon, hailing from Norway, made the balance of acts go to 2 from Norway, 2 from Finland, and 5 from Sweden.

The only band that spoke in English between songs was Dimmu Borgir (from Norway). All the songs were in English (except a couple of songs by Satyricon and Finntroll who have lyrics in Swedish even though they are from Finland). Some of the bands spoke a lot between songs (like Opeth does and which is rare for non-Scandinavian metal bands). However, it was all in Swedish (I think) so I couldn’t understand a word.

Satyricon had a few really good songs (near the beginning and at then again to wrap up their set with “Mother North”). The rest seemed a little too similar and needed more variety in sound, but maybe I would feel differently if I were more familiar with them. I don’t have any of their CDs but do have a few of their songs on my ipod. I also hear them pop up on Pandora.

I have recently gotten into Amon Amarth. They did not disappoint at Metaltown. In fact, they jumped into my top 10 favorite bands with their performance.

Another interesting thing about Swedish fans in comparison to fans in the U.S. are the number that wear ear protection. In the U.S. I’d guess less than 10% of the audience wear ear protection. At Metaltown 2008 I’d guess that percentage at over 50%. Even after I made it back across the river I could hear Nightwish fine once I pulled my plugs out.

I thought my camera ran out of batteries after the above picture. Lucky for you, I tried it later, and it still worked.

The Dimmu Borgir t-shirts people were wearing had some interesting slogans on them. Just in case my Mom is still reading this, I will not post them here. 😉

Last, and least in my opinion, was Nightwish. Actually, In Flames was last, but see yesterday’s post for information on that.

Tomorrow we will resume our regularly scheduled program. Sorry Mom.

Posted on July 2nd, 2008 under Denmark, Other. Tags: amon amarth, concert photography, dark tranquillity, goteborg, gothenburg, metal, metaltown 2008, opeth, pictures, satyricon. Comments: 1