Tonight’s bill consisted completely of Swedish bands and with all the available tickets sold, it promised to be another high day for the fans of melodic metal.

Up first were Bullet and during their 25 minutes on stage they acquitted themselves perfectly of their “warming up the crowd” task. Within the combo’s musical exploits I detected a lot of NWOBHM influences and the show they brought was also filled with numerous clichés from that very period in the history of music. But that didn’t seem to bother the mainly young crowd at hand as they enthusiastically sang along to the band’s tunes. All in all a fine performance by a relatively new name on the scene.

The main reason for tonight’s gig being sold out lies with the rise in popularity of Sabaton. They succeeded in setting the place on fire with their brand of melodic power metal and the combo’s front man knew exactly how to have the punters eating out of his hand. Each and everyone present was either jumping up and down, clapping his/her hands or singing along and when the guys went off stage for a little while the crowd started screaming and yelling the band’s name. I’ve been to numerous gigs but I have only rarely seen anything like that for a support act. Proof enough that Sabaton have a bright future ahead of them and if they had been tonight’s main act nobody would have had a single doubt about that.

But tonight’s headliners were HammerFall and having to take the stage after such a strong performance by Sabaton no doubt put a lot of pressure on them. On thing that struck me was the fact that after the gig by the gentlemen of Sabaton, one third of the crowd had left the building. But I must say that those who had already left were wrong since HammerFall still are the undisputed masters of Swedish melodic power metal.
Former The Poodles guitarist Pontus Norgren recently joined the outfit’s ranks so the current tour is also the man’s first with the band. Mister Norgren played a fine piece of guitar but that hasn’t changed the fact that long, tall and mean Oscar is still HammerFall’s focal point.
This time around the show element consisted of a water curtain on which laser beams were projected and this resulted in some spectacular effects. They also used these means to announce an extra show on April 22 at the same venue!
Tonight’s set was mainly in support of the new album “No Sacrifice, No Victory” of which 5 tracks were giving an airing, namely “Legion”, “Hollowed By My Name”, the beautiful “Any Means Necessary”, “Something For The Ages” and “ Between Two Worlds.
The voice of vocalist Joacim Cans was in fine shape and exactly how good a singer he really is could be heard on “Carved In Stone” and “ Lore Of The Arcane”.
But no HammerFall gig is complete without a few classic tracks so “Renegade”, “Glory Of The Brave”, “Last Man Standing”, “Keep The Flame Burning”, “Blood Bound”, “ Heeding The Call” en “ Ryders Of The Storm” were also given an airing.
The band ended their very strong set with “Let The Hammer Fall” and their trade mark cut “Hearts On Fire”.