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Witnessed
Raised Fist, Totalt Jävla Mörker, Gatans Lag, 2008-08-02
20/08/08 || theProphet
Venue: Emmabodafestivalen.
Where: Emmaboda, Småland.
When: August 2nd, 2008.
Why: Totalt jävla festivaltillfälle.
How: Hungover at Gatans Lag, over-refreshed at TJM and fucking hammered at Raised Fist.
Country: Sweden.
Intro: Emmabodafestivalen is THE festival for all Swedes who are fans of indie-pop, so one might ask why on earth GD should be represented there? Well, there are two answers, and the short one is just three words: Totalt Jävla Mörker. Yep, Sweden’s best live act had set its sights on a sleepy backwater town in the midsouth of Sweden, what the hell? Anyways, besides TJM playing there, Raised Fist was also included as a bonus later in the evening.
Gatans Lag: So after waking up with a splitting head and overwhelming nausea I wandered around the festival area (which by the way is not separate from the camp site on Emmaboda, hooray!) like a lobotomy patient when suddenly a distinct sound of distorted power chords hit my eardrums. Apparently some skinhead punk band called Gatans Lag (Swedish for “Law of the Streets”) was playing, singing songs about drinking and violence as well as the vocalist chugging beers onstage. They did a good job, and I the choruses had a high singalong factor, for sure. I even managed to keep up despite never having heard the songs before in my life. Gatans Lag managed to grab my attention and establish such a good party mode that I started my alcohol fueled recuperation and joined the human race once again. Certainly a pleasant surprise for me. 7/10
Totalt Jävla Mörker: By now I had successfully downed two bottles of wine and things were starting to look up again, and filled with new found energy I sauntered over to the second stage, where the weekend’s highlight were to take place. After buying a festival ticket and booze as well as paying train fares, everything totaling a sum of more than 300 dollars, with the only objective being one of Total Jävla Mörker’s few shows this summer (as well as the mandatory boozing and fucking), they better had to be pretty fucking good for this whole thing to pay off. After seeing them once a year ago, I already had pretty high expectations, so the big question was: Would TJM manage to deliver?
And they did deliver. Holy fucking hell and Satan on a throne of goatskulls, did they deliver.
The crowd, buzzing with anticipation, was greeted with “Lögnen blir sanningen, och sanningen är subjektiv…” from the 2006 split with Human Waste which was closely followed by “Samma jävla skit” from their latest, self-titled effort. After this, there’s a short break as singer Fredrik announces that they are gonna play an old song now, and then all hell breaks loose with “PK – Poliskonstapel”, one of the best songs ever written in the entire history of music. At this point, Fredrik leans over the frothing mayhem that is the audience, working everyone into a frenzy. And it’s not just the audience, no other band resembles a moshpit onstage as closely as Totalt Jävla Mörker. The band members are bouncing around, falling over, crashing into each other, throwing themselves on the ground and seriously abusing their instruments. I got hold of a drumstick afterwards and it was broken at two points and splintered all to hell.
After the level of intensity is set with “Poliskontapel” TJM never lets off and the entire show continues in this break neck fashion. The set is dominated by the 2006 self-titled effort, aside from “Samma jävla skit” we get “Psykets heroin”, “Norrland”, “Smärtgränsen” and “Kall värld”, a fact which is fucking fine with me as that album is a masterpiece. Also, we are treated to, I think two, new songs and they certainly sound promising. I talked a little afterwards to the other vocalist Sylen, and he said that the new album was going to be a bit more black metal oriented and is set to be released early next year, hopefully. My mouth is watering already. A genuinely great guy, Sylen, as well as bassist Victor who also plays in death metal act Dominion which are definitely worth checking out.
The gig was concluded after two encores, leaving me bloodied and broken but with a big stupid grin on my face. Definitely the best concert I’ve been to this year, and one of the best I’ve been to overall. 9/10
Raised Fist: Apparently the big name, Raised Fist played the big stage at midnight. Unfamiliar as I am with their music I know that that guy who used to play drums in Dark Funeral plays drums here now. As for their music and live show in general, it was fairly bland, especially when compared to the maniacal onslaught witnessed earlier. Also by now I was so fucking shitfaced that my recollection of the concert is sketchy at best. I do remember this though, the show featured the biggest moshpit I have ever witnessed, and though my memory fails to give me an idea of what happened, the bruises on my entire body does not. 8/10 for the moshpit 5/10 for the show.
