A big annual metal festival was held this weekend in Göteborg, headlined by Slipknot and Marilyn Manson, with Disturbed, Opeth and the likes as backup. We couldn't have asked for better weather, the tickets were sold out since a while, and the beer and cider and wine flowed freely. All the makings of a success!



There was an after party at Sticky Fingers last night, and a KISS tribute band was performing, KYSS (means kiss in Swedish). Absolutely fantastic show, Fredrik and I - and everyone else! - were singing and jumping up and down all the time. Fantastic ending to a fantastic festival weekend!

One song from the incredible evening that was April 10th, in Sofia, Bulgaria.

Waking up a Sunday morning a Barcelona bathing in sunlight and 17-18°C in the air is a wonderful feeling! Joacim, Anders and I walked down to the beach for a bit of summer feeling.



I tried to win some more money from Anders - who now owes me £50 after losing a bet that I couldn't stay away from alcohol for a week - but this time he raised the stakes a little: I had to take off all my clothes and streak across the beach and throw myself in the ocean. It was Sunday, for god's sake, and the place was swarming with people! Besides, the ticket I most likely would get for indecent exposure would probably cost me more than I would make on the bet. Perhaps if I had been in my early twenties, when you didn't think so much about the consequences? We skipped the bet, I kept my underwear on and went in on my own. It wasn't as cold as I had anticipated, and the sun warmed me up quickly afterwards!

The venue in Madrid, La Riviera, is a place we have frequented many times over the years. When we woke up this morning, we were greeted with the message that it had been closed and the new venue was Sala Groove, 45 minutes outside of the city. Wonderful...



They have a weird tradition here in Spain, which I don't think I have seen anywhere else. On weekends, everybody involved in the metal show has to clear out of the building as quickly as possible when we're finished playing, so they can get the next batch of customers in, usually for a disco of some kind. Today it seemed to be a porno party of some kind, because the last thing we saw before leaving the venue were guys hanging up huge, pink styrofoam penises! : P



The venue itself was strange and a little unusual, but the audience was so unbelievable we didn't even notice come showtime. Thank you Madrid!

Joacim and Pontus took a walk down to Lyon and Fredrik answered e-mail interviews, while Anders and I practiced taekwon-do. He is a red-black belt and I'm a green-blue (the colors are white, yellow, green, blue, red, black). We excercised punching and kicking on pads I have brought.





For every promotion test, I have to learn a new pattern - tul in Korean, same thing as a kata in karate - which is a series of predetermined techniques to be performed with power and dynamic movement. Anders is working on a tul called Kwang-gae, and mine is Joon-Gun. It takes a lot of practicing to get the tuls right, and each one contains new things to learn and (hopefully someday) perfect.



We also did a lot of Tornado kicks, which is something we have done a bit at my school. Anders have never really done it, so I got to teach him something for a change.

Not much happened during our second day in Paris, and the gig went well as usual. A little less people than we normally have here, which is strange considering "No Sacrifice, No Victory" entered the French charts for the first time. Weird. Great audience, anyway! When we came off stage, there was no warm water left in the most likely minimal heating tank. And it wasn't just cold, it was fucking freezing! My hand was numb after only a few seconds under it. We took a Heineken from the fridge and poured it on the hand, and the beer was a lot warmer than the water coming out of the shower nozzle. When I tried to throw away the empty bottle I somehow missed the trash can and hit the edge of it, so the bottle exploded on the floor. A huge shard of green glass hit managed to hit me between two toes, causing a bit of bleeding. It wasn't bad at all, but fingers and toes have a probensity for bleeding, as you can see.

Woke up in Paris and got our rooms, then went out in search for food. Pontus stayed in London at his good friend Doogie White and Fredrik was indisposable after last night's partying, so Anders, Joacim and I had pizza at an Italian restaurant (...). Our merchandiser Corinna accompanied us on a sightseeing along Seine, where we strolled in the sunshine towards Notre Dame. We took a break at a café and ordered coffes and coke, four drinks for an unreasonable €22.





When we had seen the church (from the outside), we decided to continue to the catacombs (les carrières de Paris) on foot. They are a network of underground tunnels underneath the entire city, 300 km of them! Six million skeletons lies buried in the walls of the tunnels, which were used extensively by the French resistance during the world wars. On our way over there we joked about how the catacombs probably would be closed on Mondays, since we had spent so many hours getting there. Somehow we jinxed it, because that's exactly what they were! We had dinner and took le Métro back to the hotel.

We've played the O13 in Tilburg many times before, and have had a steady audience increase over the years. Usually, we release an album and then wait a couple of months before we go on tour. This time, it was only a matter of days between release and concert, so we didn't really know if the new songs would have had time to sink in with the fans. Needen't have worried, it would appear, as the response we got on stage was nothing short of fantastic!



The discharge was enormous tonight, the tour has begun and it seems to be a success (you never know until you're here, do you?), and we have proved we can deliver another great show! The audience was amazing, and that of course infects us on stage. And vice versa, obviously. We celebrated with wine and beer afterwards, and the relief was palpable. The HammerFall train is rolling once again, and we all feel we've got something big going. A great feeling!

The day before the first show of a tour, we always do a pre production, where the stage gets built for the first time and all the equipment and effects gets tested properly. Today was that day. Part of the crew had arrived yesterday, to begin setting up the lights and trusses. The rest arrived with us this morning. The pre production day is always very slow for us and extremely hectic for the crew, so after saying hi to everyone and going through our equipment with our respective techs, we went out in the small town in search for alco-gel (perhaps the most important ingredient in any tour!), slippers for the shower and food. We succeeded on every point in this mission.

Back at the venue - which is Hafenhan in Geleen, the Netherlands - things were progressing slowly but steadily. The special effects we have planned were coming along, and after they were in place the music equiment could be brought up as well. Eventually, around ten or so, we finally got to try our hand at playing and setting a sound, ending a long but productive day with some music.