Adrenaline Mob
Mike Portnoy’s exit from Dream Theater quickly turned into an embarrassing soap opera. One year later, Portnoy is out promoting Adrenaline Mob’s debut album.
And fronted by Symphony X singer, Russell Allen, Adrenaline Mob is a hard-hitting and riff-oriented Metal band. Even though both Portnoy and Allen come from Progressive Metal bands, Adrenaline Mob is straight-through in-your-face Metal.
“Psychosane,” “Freight Train” and “Undaunted” woke the Sweden Rock crowd, and Russell Allen thanked the crowd for “having breakfast with the mob.” This was the best breakfast for quite some time on the festival site; maybe the best one since Stone Sour hit the same spot two years ago.
The last song was a cover, and they couldn’t have chosen a better one than “The Mob Rules.” Because that’s exactly what they did; Adrenaline Mob ruled big time.
Michael Schenker
You just don’t know when it comes to Michael Schenker. What will he do next?
And after reuniting with Gary Barden and Chris Glen on Sweden Rock Festival in 2010, this year saw him with the old drum section from Scorpions, Francis Bucholz and Herman Rarebell, along with his long-time sidekick Wayne Findlay and singer Doogie White (Rainbow, Yngwie Malmsteen).
While White was a bit uncertain on a few songs and Rarebell seemed out of shape, Michael Schenker was on fire, even if he appeared extremely thin and pale. Out of his Flying V-guitar came Scorpions hits like “Lovedrive,” “Another Piece Of Meat” and “Rock You Like A Hurricane” … also his own songs like “Armed And Ready” and “Into The Arena” … along with UFO-classics “Shoot Shoot,” “Lights Out” and “Rock Bottom.”
An inspired set, of course, and even though it was good to see Bucholz and Rarebell back in the game, the set was a bit weird, however, still joyful.
Motörhead
After playing the Festival almost every second year, the 2012-performance was their first since 2009.
Motörhead have seen better days. Lemmy is 66 now, and their shows get shorter and shorter every year, and the energy put in each song is also on the decline.
Their show at Sweden Rock Festival was a sad performance. Lemmy fell out of the 12 bar on “Going To Brazil” before he butchered “Bomber.” Then he said, “We’ll do a couple more for you. If we remember them.”
It was an unfocused and tired Motörhead that lumped their way through the 14 songs on the setlist. He’s probably gonna play in this band until he drops, but the best thing to do is to put the band to sleep long before.
Twisted Sister
Beforehand, the booking of yet another Twisted Sister show on Sweden Rock Festival seemed a bit off. The band headlined in both 2003 and 2009, and there will never be new material from the band.
Nevertheless, the band is as always on fire when it comes to playing shows. And, the wildest of them all is of course leading man Dee Snider. He’s 57 now, but he looks like a 35-year old, at least from a distance.
He also has his voice intact, and it still screams out “I Wanna Rock,” “We’re Not Gonna Take It,” “Burn In Hell,” “Stay Hungry” and “You Can’t Stop Rock ‘n’ Roll” like it was 1985 all over again.
One huge surprise was to be unveiled from the setlist, and that was a song from an album that the band almost doesn’t recognize as a Twisted Sister album at all; Love Is For Suckers from 1987. But “Wake Up (The Sleeping Giant)” was indeed a giant, and a very welcome surprise.
Well, “You Can’t Stop Rock ‘n’ Roll” and you can’t seem to stop Twisted Sister either.
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