METAL ARCHIVIST & OLD SCHOOL METAL HEAD … OBSESSED WITH HEAVY * THRASH * DEATH * BLACK * DOOM * HARD ROCK *
Monday, March 31, 2025
STYRBJÖRN WAHLQUIST (HEAVY LOAD) (THE HAMMER #2, 1983) TRANSLATED
The Hammer was a Swedish fanzine, written in Swedish. Released between 1983-1984, focussing on traditional metal and hard rock. Here’s an article/interview translated to English for you. Music links added by me.
Exclusively in The Hammer: Special interview with Styrbjörn Wahlquist: meet one of the forefathers of Swedish hard rock, get to know one of the most interesting profiles of Swedish heavy metal!!!STYRBJÖRN WAHLQUIST
Styrbjörn Wahlquist, drummer in HEAVY LOAD, 23 years old, with a real, beautiful, long hard rock hair is one of the absolute biggest profiles of Swedish hard rock life.
Even in the more substantial scope he is big. And that is probably necessary, a good drummer should have a little to put behind the beats, just look at the powerful Bill Ward.
An artistic intellect, and a large portion of very special humor complete the picture of this young Stockholmer. So don't take EVERYTHING he says bloody seriously, sometimes the lines between jokes and seriousness are oh so narrow.
The Hammer: Why did it end up with drums?
Styrbjörn: Well, I was going to start playing the flute first, the piccolo flute. But they were so expensive, I went around the shops and looked. So then I chose another small instrument that was easy to take with me…
Honestly, I started playing the guitar, my parents wanted me to learn a real instrument, and they had initially thought of the piano. PIANO! No, no, no, I thought, I can’t play that, just a lot of notes and shit. Then I had to choose that and guitar, and at least the Beatles had guitars, so it seemed pretty fun. So I started with that. I lasted 2 years, it was terrible, my fingers are way too short and then there was the notes…
The worst thing I’ve ever experienced. Kind of like school, learning a lot of shit.
So finally I thought “Nah!” and started with drums instead.
I started going to a drum teacher on the condition that I didn’t have to learn notes, but they came there too, in the end.
“You have to know notes if you’re going to be a professional,” he said “because you will.”
Now I have fortunately managed to forget them all, sheet music is meaningless and completely useless.
BRUCE LEE
tH: Why did it become hard rock for you?
S: Why not, hard rock is not soft and full of a lot of inessentials, but it highlights the best in humans; strength, intelligence and power, in those who have it. Lower life forms like synthpop and disco because they themselves lack power.
tH: Do you ever think of starting to play commercially viable butter pop, and making lots of money?
S: The thing is that it is a question of what you are after. If I was looking to make a lot of money, I would not be doing music or art at all, I would be a drug dealer. They are the ones who make money. I want to play hard rock.
tH: What inspires your songwriting?
S: Bruce Lee… Of course, it’s not JUST music that inspires, but if we talk about other groups, first it was the Beatles, in the beginning you didn’t know much else, this was the end of the 60s. Then it was Deep Purple and Ian Paice.
tH: What do you like about recording in the studio?
S: An inspiring hell, it gives a lot but also takes a lot, gets on your nerves, for example playing the same song for 7 (seven) hours straight.
tH: Is Heavy Load a typical live band or a typical studio band?
S: We are just as much a live band as a studio band.
tH: What do you like about touring, being “on the road”, do you enjoy that in the group?
S: Not me. I don’t like it, not playing in the studio and I hate rehearsing, otherwise rock ‘n roll is fun!
It's clear that it's fun to be on tour, what gives you a lot is to meet your audience, meet them and hear what they say, which songs are the best, etc.
SEX SYMBOL
tH: How is it otherwise...?
S: Lots of girls, since I'm Heavy Load's sex symbol, there are some problems there...
Honestly, Anders Tengner throws himself at every girl who shows up (A.T. 5th wheel under Heavy Load's heavily loaded wagon.)
Otherwise it's often a struggle, hard to sleep, crappy food, in many places there are no showers and the lodges are as small as wardrobes. But we almost always draw full houses.
tH: What do you want with your music?
S: Glorify violence and show that drugs are delicious. (Styrbjörn's recurring comments about drugs are a sneer at all those who think that everyone with long hair shoots everything they can into their veins. ed. note.)
No kidding aside, it's different for different members, I want to give my listeners power, strength and morale.
tH: What do you think about other styles of music?
S: Disco is the worst thing I can think of, imagine a happy Negro in white gloves dancing and singing "Oh baby", Reggae is too damn good, but something better. Synth is music made by machines, for machines. Pop and 50s rock can be listened to, it's kind of roots that's what it's about. I respect jazz, but I can't listen to it. The blues are also roots, I've listened to a lot of blues before, but there are so many "feel sorry for yourself" lyrics and there aren't that many drums.
tH: Eddie's songs are a bit different from the other Heavy Load songs...?
A: That's because he writes them... Eddie listens to a bit different music than the rest of us.
NATIONAL ROMANTIC
tH: Why was there such a long gap between “Full speed at high level” and “Metal Conquest”?
S: The record company we recorded our first album with went bankrupt. We had recorded exactly two songs before it was over. After that, our bassist and our guitarist (backing guitarist) quit. His name was Leif Liljegren and he is weak and deceitful. He now plays in a Swedish version of The Boys, they have been the band for Noice, among other things. He quit just before a tour, he thought it was too hard to play in Heavy Load. And the bassist quit at the same time.
tH: Isn't it expensive to record an LP, how did you get the money?
S: We had to borrow from people who believed in us, including a bank. We showed the album to the bank manager (i.e. “Metal Conquest”) and he said; “Hm, hm, national romantic cover, this looks good”. Then when we wanted to release the album abroad, we talked to the Chamber of Commerce. We talked about having the album licensed abroad, and they said; "No, no, you absolutely shouldn't do that, it should be pressed up here and exported", (The positive trade balance and so on and so forth... ed. note)
tH: The next album?
S: Yes, we're writing songs, we're going to try to get a "hit" this time, the rest will be rubbish.
tH: What does the word brutal mean to you?
S: It's something positive, comes from sweet violence.
tH: Can it be sweet, do you like being beaten?
S: No, but you can't be so selfish, you have to do something for your fellow human beings too!
We've also made a video, recorded live, it took three days to make and will be available for purchase or rental in stores.
tH: How come you made it?
A: To suck out the fans and make as much money as possible! Well, but we hope to get it shown on TV, we've been half promised to have it on "Öresound" if it turned out well.
Then we sell a lot of records on import, and foreign fans never get to see us live and it's actually good.
It certainly is, and we at The Hammer wish the flagship of Swedish hard rock good luck on its further voyages around the world.
P.S. "Death or Glory" has been reviewed by the English rock magazine Sounds and they have given it 3 ½ stars and recommended it to those who like really heavy Heavy Metal.
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| Front cover of The Hammer #2 |
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JON NÖDVEIDT WITH DISSECTION (RÖHRE, GERMANY, APRIL 15, 1996)
Jon Nödtveidt & Dissection. Live in Röhre ,Stuttgart ,Germany 15.04.1996. A show together with Gorgoroth and Satyricon. From Martin Wickler personal archive.
Courtesy of Black Metal Pics From the Past
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BON SCOTT BACKSTAGE AT THE EMPIRE, LIVERPOOL, UK (NOVEMBER 1979)
Bon Scott backstage at the Empire in Liverpool. Not certain if it’s on the 5th or the 6th of November.
Down below you have an under average quality audience audio recording of the concert from November 6th 1979.
1) Live Wire
2) Shot Down in Flames 5:31
3) Hell Ain't a Bad Place to Be 8:59
4) Sin City 14:37
5) Problem Child 19:53
6) Bad Boy Boogie 24:11
7) The Jack 34:57
8) Highway to Hell 40:50
9) Girls Got Rhythm 44:30
10) Whole Lotta Rosie 47:51
11) Rocker 52:49
12) If You Want Blood 1:03:47
Sunday, March 30, 2025
THERION … THE EARLY DAYS
From the now defunct Therion forum, but you can find bits and pieces through the WayBackMachine. Christofer Johnsson replyied through an administrator to one of the questions about the early days.
Hello, I'm an Wikipedia editor (and of course a huge Therion fan) and I would gather some informations about band.
My question is about pre-Therion era: Why Blitzkrieg decided to break in early 1988?Christofer Johnsson replies:Blitzkrieg had problems with the drummer Oskar. We rehearsed at the school me and him was in (we were only 15 back then). Oskar was a bit of a wild child and we were only allowed to rehearse at the weekends in the schools music room when all of the members of the band had behaved good through the week. As he wasn't really behaving that well all the time (it was just small things, they were pretty strict at our school), we ended up not being able to rehearse very much and I begun to loose my patience with it and after doing our second concert (we only did two - both at the school) I had enough and split up the band. I think this must have been in March 1988. For 3-4 months I was writing songs and thinking what to do and in the end I decided to change to guitar and started to practise a lot at home. Early summer-88 I had become a huge Celtic Frost fans and was thinking weather to name the band Megatherion or Pandemonium and settled for the first. I called Peter and spoke about him being in that band as well, but having no drummer or rehearsal place it took a while before something happened. In July it was getting warmer and I got a drummer called Mika, who had played in a local thrash metal band (mainly playing Slayer covers if I remember it right - but they never left the rehearsal room). We started to jam in my parents garage (now when it was warm outside, we could use it as a temporary rehearsal room), but he seldomly showed up, so it was more me who played the drums and jammed with a new bassplayer I found called Johan "Joppe” Hansson (later in Crematory).
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| Lineup in early 1989. The band's very first picture ever taken according to Metal Wiki |
We would jam with me as a drummer and do Celtic Frost covers and Peter would join in as well. Johan got tired of not much happening and joined another band. Meanwhile I got this singer called Jan and I think we managed to rehearse once with me, Mika, Peter and Jan all together, but it didn't sound too well. Jan just dissapeared and Peter told me that I had become better at playing drums than Mika (no wonder, he was never there and I used to play on the all the time instead). I wasn't too much into the idea of changing instrument again, so in the end I just got tired of it, fired Mika and called Oskar if he would be interested in coming back to the band. At first I always saw Megatherion as a new band, but then in the end, it got back to being me, Peter and Oskar - with the only difference that we had a new name, somewhere to rehearse and I played guitar instead of bass (having no singer again, I was also once more having to do the vocals - something I always just did as a temporary thing, the idea was always to have another vocalist). We even had some material from the Blitzkrieg times left that we played (some of it even survived to the first Therion album, some riffs from "Morbid Reality" is from the Blitzkrieg times).
Then I was running into Erik Gustafsson at a guitar shop when he was still playing with Dismember. I asked if he knew any other bassplayers and we exchanged phone number and stayed in touch.Shortly after he was fired due to some personal reasons and as I still didn't have a new bassplayer, he joined in. Oskar had by then persuaded his parents to let us rehearse in their garage (which was heated winter time) and by suggestion from Erik, we changed shorted the name to Therion.
Regarding Blitzkrieg, it may also be mentioned that we had a girl singing for 2 songs, she did the second of the shows with us. The idea was to have her as a singer, but she had problems learning the stuff and one of the songs she sang sounded awful. The other song sounded a bit better and can be heard on the Bells of Doom CD. Her name was Regina, but I can't recall her surname.
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| "Beyond Sanctorum" line-up |
BLACK SABBATH ”SEVENTH STAR TOUR” PHOTO
Seventh star tour. Image of Ray Gillen Dave Spitz and Tony Iommi… along with Eric Singer and Geoff Nicholls. Rays first concert was on march 29th 1986 at New Haven with W.A.S.P. and Anthrax supporting. Zeno and Waysted supported on the UK leg of the tour. Ray did 24 shows on that tour, give or take. Loads in America were cancelled. This line up was also one way or another involved on the Eternal idol album. Its a bit ironic that the first concert after Glenn left was at a venue called Glen Falls, though it was cancelled.
Courtesy of Emerald Sabbath
Saturday, March 29, 2025
RUNNING WILD ”DEATH OR GLORY TOUR” (DÜSSELFORD, WEST GERMANY, OCTOBER 17, 1989)
GENRE: Heavy Metal
RECORDED WHERE: Düsseldorf, West Germany
DATE: October, 17th, 1989
RELEASED ON: VHS & DVD
STAND-OUT TRACK(S): Conquistadores & Prisoners of our Time
ABOUT: Filmed live at Tor 3, Düsseldorf, West Germany on October, 17th, 1989, it was released on VHS in the US and Europe in 1990, and not on DVD until 2007.
OPINION: In my opinion Running Wild deserved a much bigger spotlight in the 80’s than what they got. We get a lot of traditional metal and some in the vein of 1980’s Helloween. All there albums up until this point, Gates To Purgatory, Branded And Exiled, Under Jolly Roger, Port Royal and Death Or Glory are all really good. I wouldn’t rate any of them below GREAT. Personal favorites to me are Gates To Purgatory & Under Jolly Roger.
RECORDED WHERE: Düsseldorf, West Germany
DATE: October, 17th, 1989
RELEASED ON: VHS & DVD
STAND-OUT TRACK(S): Conquistadores & Prisoners of our Time
Please report dead links!
SETLIST:
Intro
Riding The Storm
Bad To The Bone
Raw Ride
Raging Fire
Tortuga Bay
Uaschitschun
Bass Solo
Final Gates
Conquistadores
Prisoner Of Our Time
ABOUT: Filmed live at Tor 3, Düsseldorf, West Germany on October, 17th, 1989, it was released on VHS in the US and Europe in 1990, and not on DVD until 2007.
The European VHS on the left, and the US version on the right side.
OPINION: In my opinion Running Wild deserved a much bigger spotlight in the 80’s than what they got. We get a lot of traditional metal and some in the vein of 1980’s Helloween. All there albums up until this point, Gates To Purgatory, Branded And Exiled, Under Jolly Roger, Port Royal and Death Or Glory are all really good. I wouldn’t rate any of them below GREAT. Personal favorites to me are Gates To Purgatory & Under Jolly Roger.
The concert as such is pretty entertaining, high energy and vocalist Rock 'n’ Rolf is charismatic. At around 15:50 we even get to see some Tipton/Downing "dancing”. Unfortunatly it’s cut down and several tracks is missing from what was played that night. Not sure why, but a guess is that it was supposed to fit on a 60 minute VHS tape.
As always I would wish for a 4k (or 2k) scan of the master for a blu-ray release, and the whole concert (if it’s available), but that will probably never happen. So I have to be satisfied with this great YouTube upload.
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