METAL  NEWS  1999

BOBFEST 99 (19-21 March) in Stockholm, Sweden

Alright here we go... Woah, what a weekend!! Although many things went wrong it was my best weekend, ever! So much happened so this will be kinda long.... but please take the time and read it, I'm sure you will enjoy it...

We, the bobfestteam started Bobfest on Wednesday at Michael Hero's (singer in Sons of Thunder) home with prayer and fellowship. We had a great time worshipping our Great Lord and praying together. We especially prayed for the secular concert on thirsday where we would be and spread Bobfestflyers.

Thirsday came and we started the day with picking up 4 dudes that had come all the way from Latvia to join us at Bobfest! Later that day we also picked up 2 people from Hungary that had come only for Bobfest. Woah! Isn't that amazing that people are coming all the way from Hungary to be on Bobfest!!

Later that day some of us also went out to meet Pastor Bob at the airport. His plane was delayed 1, 5 hours and when it finally came Bob wasn't with it, only his suitcase!!! But he arrived with the next flight and told us what happened: He said that the Swiss government had told some passengers to get off the plane in Switzerland cause they wanted to carry something special with the plane so some passengers including Bob had to get off the plane! It's unbelievable but true. I have never heard of something like this happen.

But the spiritual war had only begun, cause later that day we were about to enter into satans territory and spread Bobfest flyers outside the concert where Dimmu Borgir, Dark Funeral and some other very satanic bands played. We had told many to pray for this and we surely felt that many were praying for us and our protection. We had lots of problems to get to the concert but when we finally got there everything went very smooth. We spread the flyers and almost everyone that was standing outside got them and many of them said that they wanted to go to Bobfest! Amen, some become really happy when they saw that the Saturday concert were free and that it was Metal. So it went great! Of course some of them recognized that the bands were Christians and demolished the flyers they got, but that was only a few, most of them received them and was thankful. So praise the Lord, God was with us and it went great!

Then friday came and usual we started the day with prayer (we started every day with prayer) and the battle became even harder... We had a soundguy and equipment ready but then the soundguy suddenly became very ill and couldn't help us! He couldn't even let us hire his equipment!! So there we were standing without soundguy and equipment. We tried to get soundequipment from other places but didn't get any. Then we find one addy to a nonchristian company and he was very willing to help us! But we still hadn't found any soundguy that could mix the concert. But then we talked to Thorbjorn Weinesjo from Veni Domine and he was willing to help us right away! But we didn't get the equipment and a soundguy until 3 - 4 in the afternoon! Then there was another problem with the electricity and the contacts didn't match. But by God's wonderful leading we talked with the mechanic that was our closest neighbour and he had a contact that matched! So we took the cable, opened the window and let the cable go out thru the window to the mechanic's place!

So there were lots of problem but the rest of the evening went good. Pastor Bob had a great sermon and 9:30 the concert was about to start. Mercenary started off with their neoclassical metal. They got a great guitarist and a good singer too. Good set and they got the audience (that were 200+) going. Vital Decision followed next. They had changed their style a bit since their demo and now their style is more metalcore than the experimental deathmetal they played on their demo. I prefered their old style and their new style wasn't really my thing. Delta followed, a symphonic metalband that now have Carl-Johan Grimmark as secondguitarist! They also got a very good singer who can sing both low and high. The music was a bit too slow for me to really love it, but they did an extra tune that was faster and it was AWESOME! The audience loved it and was pretty wild (in a good way). Bishop Garden ended the gig. They too have changed their style and downtuned their guitars so now they are a lot heavier than on their cd Garden of Relief. They got the crowd going and played over an hour and mixed both old and new tunes. They also did some bonus tunes.

Saturday came and we (the bobfestteam) splitted to be more effective. One team went to Quantum to prepare the concert and the other took care of Bob and everything that was happening at Stockholm Vineyard (the place where the conference was held and where people also slept). Bob had some great teachings between 10:00 am and 4:00 pm. During that time I and some others in the Bobfestteam went to Quantum to prepare the concert. And now things started to go very wrong!! When we arrived there, there was some other people there having an exhibition when we had been told we should have Quantum reserved for us for Bobfest! They didn't leave until 2 pm. Then we realized that the stage was too little! We had been told that it should been bigger than it was. Anyway we solved that by pulling some tables close to the stage to get it bigger. And then the soundtechs without a warning left for lunch for over an hour!! When they suddenly came back we realized that we hadn't all the equipment we needed! So we had to get some more amplifiers. All in all this caused the concert to be delayed 2 hours.

But God gave Victory! When the concert finally started there were 400+ people there and many of them unsaved. In the beginning of the concert we also took the time to pray together backstage with some of the bands. Tekla Knos, a swedish punk band started off with their energetic punk. A really good band, if you like punk. Sons of Thunder followed next. They played their thundering praise metal and was really Christ centered. Unfortunately, the soundtech didn't mix them well so the guitars and heaviness almost dissapeared. With a good mixing there heavy sound would have come thru but now it sounded weak and that was too bad.

Anyway Narnia hit the stage and woah now things started to happened! The audience were really moving, hair were flying, people were stagediving and we had a great time! Christian, the singer was very straightforward and talked a lot about Salvation and there was no doubt what Narnia stands for. There were also a gang of satanist there (must probably have been some of the people that got bobfestflyers at the Dimmu Borgir - concert, amen!) that were shouting and yelling when Christian told them about Christ. But he handled them very well and said a lot of good things. When Christian said that God also loved them at least one of the satanists got tears in his eyes, so God was truly working there. Narnia played tunes from their both albums and had a great show. Carl-Johan was shredding on and on with the guitar, the bassist Jakob did an awesome basssolo and the drummer Andreas a drumsolo. When they had finished the audience shouted for more... and they came back and rocked on with some more tunes. That was truly the highlight for me and many others as well. Woah, Metal is back!

When Narnia had finished Crimson Moonlight followed next. Their second guitarist Petter was in Israel so they had to play with only one guitar, but they did it well. Their music was really fast and atmospheric blackmetal that get the crowd headbanging. Crimson got a very cool image too, especially the singer Simon Rosen. He truly looks like a real Viking with lots of denim and a cool big sword in front of him. The whole band have a perfect image for Black Metal. Anyway they shred and people were really enjoying it. Simon was very straightforward from stage and spoke about Salvation. So, the Word got out and I'm sure many was touched. Next to Narnia this was truly my highlight of the evening.

Then it was time for some hardcore with Selfmindead. Since hardcore isn't my thing I talked to friends and looked at the cds instead. :-) But according to people that like hardcore they did a good set and people were enjoying it.

Then, it was time for.... EXTOL! Since everything was delayed two hours they didn't start to play until 1 am! Nevertheless they rocked hard in 1 hour. It was a great joy just to see them live. They were headbanging and doing the helicopter all the time, all of them! Woah, this must be the best liveband I have ever seen!! Lots of hair were flying during their set. They ripped thru their classics from Burial and also played some new tunes. Amazing that they can hit the tones and play so perfect when they are doing the helicopter all the time. I have to agree with Phil, this must be the best Liveband there is!

So there this great evening ended. We had great evening and many seeds were planted in the unsaveds hearts and God will continue His work in them.

On Sunday morning we had the last meeting with Bob and when we were ready with everything at Vineyard we, the bobfestteam went to Michael Hero and spent the evening there with Bob and his american friends Casey and Adrienne. We had a great time and ended the evening as we had started the whole bobfest with some time in prayer and just thanking God for all He had done.

Bobfest was a real success, and in despite of everything that went wrong every evening finished with Victory! Thank you so much Jesus for every thing you have done during this weekend, we would never had made it without you. To God Be The Glory!

In His Service
Johannes

---

***METAL  NEWS 990302***

First some GREAT NEWS! A Christian Metal Festival called Bobfest will take place in Stockholm, Sweden 19 - 21 of March!! Pastor Bob Beeman will speak and it will be concerts with Extol, Narnia, Selfmindead, Bishop Garden, Crimson Moonlight, Mercenary, Delta, Mercenary, Sons of Thunder and Tekla Knös. It's gonna be great so don´t miss it! Find out more about this big event at http://come.to/bobfest
Immortal Souls have been signed to Little Rose Productions. They will release a fullength album next winter.
The second album by the Mexican death metal -masters Lament will be released on Little Rose during this month (March 1999). The album is titled "Through The Reflection" and comparing it to their debut album on Rowe Productions, "Tears Of A Leper", the new one is more melodic but still very heavy death metal.
Deuteronomium will release a single titled "...to die and gain" on March 5. The single includes one song from their forthcoming album, one bonus track and a demo version of the single track, recorded live in studio. The full album is to follow in mid-April and it includes 13 songs.
Deuteronomium has also got a new website, it is found in the same address as the old one used to be: http://www.dci.fi/~kpaju The site is still a bit under construction, there will be for example some pictures and sound clips coming up, but you can already surf to the page.
Little Rose -website will also be born again within a couple of months. Actually the new site is already under construction. With the new site we hope to get rid of the problems we've had with adding new products to the site. For more info about Little Rose check out http://www.sci.fi/~lrose or mail them at lrose@sci.fi
SHOUT BACK TOGETHER AGAIN! The second most prolific, Dove Award winning christian rock bands of the 80's is back in the studio with front man Ken Tamplin. "Some of the old band members contacted me with the idea and I said why not," states Tamplin. A new, full-length SHOUT album will be released ALL NEW SONGS from the original band members. This album is slated to be released soon (Z Records) and there are plans in the works for a LIVE INTERNET CONCERT OR CHAT SEESION! Stay tuned for more info! http://www.kentamplin.com
A new issue of the swedish metalzine Noizegate has seen the light! It contains interviews with Stavesacre, Tourniquet, Mortification, Mercenary, Deuteronomium, Soapbox, Charizma and more + lots of reviews and metalnews. For orderinfo and more check out http://surf.to/noizegate
FACE OF HUMANITY has a new homepage: http://members.xoom.com/faceofhuman .. their new CD is due out on ClenchedFist Records..
Bad news! Death List have broken up...
The Metalzine Screams of Abel have a new issue out! Interviews with LIVING SACRIFICE, VENI DOMINE, OVERCOME, DIRGE, KOHLLAPSE, UPLIFTED, HEARKEN, CRIMSON MOONLIGHT, ISRAEL, SACRIFICIUM and NOIZ.. email editor@screamsofabel.com for more info. Screams of Abel also have a new addy http://www.screamsofabel.com
P.O.D. will be putting out an EP on Tooth and Nail which will be released on April 20th. The EP will feature 8 songs including an intro and outro and 2 instrumentals.
For all of you Living Sacrifice fans....The first three Living Sacrifice albums, (Self Titled, Inhabit and Non-Existent) which are long out of print, will be reissued this year on Solid State!
News about SACRIFICIUM's new demo, "Mortal Fear": Actually the new Sacrificium Demotape should already be finished. Actually it is already finished. The tapes are here, just the inlay is still missing. We should have get them last weekend but that didn't happended. But everything else is still the same: 3 songs: - 'Pauper's Grave' 2:30 min (as mp3-file on the Newspage http://www.euphora.com/Sacrificium/news.htm ) - 'In Your Eyes' 5:20 min - 'Psalm Of An Unborn' something about 15min
TOURNIQUET, NARNIA and FONO will all be in concert together in Ennepetal, Germany on April 24..
News about the brazilian bands DEATH POEMS and AZBUK: Finally our CD is almost ready. The ReleasePresentation will be in Sao Paulo (april/99) and the album will be called PSEUDOPROPHETF. AZBUK will record their first album intitled NOSFERATUS DARNESS EARL in the next week. Pray about it !
Wreathe of Thorns have a new issue out! It has interviews with Veni Domine, Hearken, Salutary, Ultimatum, Necromanicide, Blissin Angel, Tefilla, Face of Humanity and more... For orderinfo check out http://wreathe.cjb.net
Parable also have a new issue out with interviews with Getsemani, MainStay, Saviour Machine, Deuteronomium, Devout and Mental Destruction. www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/Hall/8012
Lightforce Records are looking for more Christian Metal bands to sign! If you are interested write Light_Force_Rec@hotmail.com