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Now it's DreamHack LAN/demoparty- weekend, Digital Man Live with Rush could be suitable to listen to.

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P O W E R · M E T AL video game theme Mega Man 3 Cut Man Stage remix by GameOver.

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Plastica - "Y Y ME" (all-toy Rush YYZ Tribute) - Click here for this week’s top video clips

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T H E · S C H L A G E R · M E T A L I S T S · The Poodles are comming to Vällingby Design City to perform in Kfem Fashion House Stage. Be there and take a close look at some italian shoes simultaneusly, but don't trow them on the lads in the band. Visit Poodles web

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I N F L A M E S · E L E C T E D · at the annual Grammis Award 2009, the swedish music industry show held in Stockholm. The nominee in the metal class where: Opeth, Sabaton, Millencolin, Inflames, Messhugah. Learn about Inflames latest studio album “A Sence of Purpose” on wikipedia
Visit Grammis

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I N · S T O C K H O L M · at Pub Anchor Sveavägen 90 at 09.00 PM the Swedish gigants of death/viking metal will release their new album. Check out their new widget beneath.

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L I S T E N · T O · T H I S · keyboard shredder. Not only guitarists can play fast.

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O F · B L O G G I N G · with a video from Ullevi, Swedens biggest Stadium from SVT with Iron Maiden playing “Run to the Hills”

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T H I S · W E E K E N D · it’s metal festival in Wacken, Germany, EU. I listening to the Wacken event radio at Last.fm right now. Do it at: www.last.fm/listen/event/278782

A little story. When I was a kid I had a dream that Iron Maiden walked on the St:Eriksgatan in Stockholm and Bruce Dickinson came up to me and asked if I wanted to join them as a drummer. Guess if I was disapointed when I waked up. St:Eriksgatan btw is the musical district in Stockholm.

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Q U O R T H O N (Tomas F) · was one among my best friends in Vinsta school and Spanga Gymnasium school in the 80ies. He was completely obsessed with music at realy early years. Kiss was the favorite band at this early stage. He put up posters (teared out from music magazines) outside the classroom, posters that covered the walls completely. We choosed group music in “fritt valt arbete” (free school subject), as the only one from the class that dared to play when we where 14. The group music class (two pupils) was conducted by the music teacher, an older man with a grey goatie(called Carl Henry, if I remember right).

D R U M S · A N D · K I S S · Quorthon lived in a big white stone house near the school and I lived at a greater distance and had to travel by bus every morning. My parents and I chosed this scool because it was the best in this part of Stockholm. Unfourtanely I could not spend much time with my schoolmates after school because I had to take the bus home to my district and also studied a lot. Quorthon talked a lot on musical topics on the lunch breaks, like what the intention of a musical solo was, what it meant, and on how to play drums, the members of Kiss. He played Pearl drums that he practised on at home. He was quiet, tall and skinny and I think he had a verry strong and cloes knit family at home, so he didn't took much contacts with mates in school. His dad run a musical business operation called Tyfon that focused on swedish dance bands originaly and I remembered that his dad was young, much younger than mine. I do not know when Quorthon picked up the guitar but I think he had a lot of opportunities to play what ever he wanted at home.

T H E · C L A S S · from school had a reunion on a boat trip to Mariehamn at Aland in the 90ies. Quorthon talked a lot and we shared cabin. He had started out his international music career with the Hammerheart album, was sad for some unsolvable difficulties with his ex-girlfriend from a south European country, Italy I think it was. Most of our classmates did not understand and apreciated his extremly high musical ambitions and his great talent. Music was something you could do on your spare time but not do for a living was the middle class perspective around. Quorthon did not like school much, expect from music of course. I remember that he also was a bit interested in sports and had a bag with the 1980 Moscow olympics logo printed on it.
He used to pick on me because he was almost a year older than me. He was so much more experienced, also tired on school and I was far behind, in his oppinion. He didn't found comfort with the life in school and wanted to be inspired by real life and grown ups outside the school setting.
I remember a travel with the class down to a lake where we used canoes to experience the wild nature. I fell of course out of the canoe and into the water, something my class mates found verry funny. I used to have a picture of all mates in canoes somewhere in a photoalbum.

T I M E · went on. I studied a lot and worked at different sites at offices. Quorthon was 100% focused on music. Mine and Quorthons paths went on diffent directions. We lost contact. After a lot of years I got information that Quorthon lived in an appartment just some kilometers away. He had experimented with his stage name and changed it several times. When I got layed of from my old work I got a lot of time to think and I thought a lot on music and started to think what Tomas was up to. Maybe I should call him up, after all this years and go visit him?

I · D I D N ' T · even know the name of his band at that time. I started to search on the net and I googled around a lot and found out that he had founded and run a metal band for several years and published a complete catalog of albums, had international success, made several promotion trips abroad, most most important of all – invented two musical genres all by himself with his own ears of creativity. Bathory and Quorthon (sounded like a sort of cream cheese to me) at the beginning.

T H E · C O N C E P T · of a branching out or differentation of hard rock to what we today call extreme metal (speed, grind, trash, hardcore etc. etc.) started to be popular in the early 90ies with bands like Slayer and Megadeath. Bathory was influenced by Motorhead. The studio equipment and later musical applications for computers developed so one person could compose, play and produce all music by himself. Bathory was a band that bacame a oneman band with a great recording artist, supported by new technologies.

A T · T H E · S U M M E R · of 2005 I thought of taking up contact, but a big issue crystalized among the rich information on the net. Quorthon had hart failure and he had got a deadly stroke just seven weeks before. That was the irony of destiny, that we never should talk again. I would liked to say hello, but now I only can bow and say thank you alot for beeing such a great person in my early youth and thanks for all your effort you brought into you music that will live on for a long time in the future.

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M E T A L · B A N D · A V A T A R · and Crash Diet is young hard bands. But right now every weekend is about Eurovision Song Contest. My collegue at FastNews in Norrkoping has made his opinion heard at his blog and I can tell you he is right. But Swedish metal is good. Today the toilet paper was finished so I had to use the Agonyzone Metal News Paper to wash my ass. Sorry this doesn't mean tha metal is shit. The Swedish Metal Awards results are presented here. Crash Diet and W.A.S.P. was awarded. Great shit!

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I · W A N N A · B E · S O M E B O D Y · is placed as song 2 on W.A.S.P.s self titled debute album is a great tune with good video, that I enjoy on and on and on. W.A.S.P. is out on tour and playing live tonight at the Filmore, NYC. This group was so dangerous in the late 1980ies so TV host Mr. Sivert Öholm at Swedish national Television hosted a program where he strongly critizised and totaly damned the band that a lot of young people loved. But as you all know music power is great and can’t be stoped.
Learn more on this nice tidy group at Last.fm

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M U S I C · I N D U S T Y · C O N V E N T I O N · Swedish Metal Expo 07 is held in Fryshuset, Stockholm. It’s two days with record companies, lectures, workshops, competitions, instrument resellers and a lot of metalheads all ages.

Above, art exhibition with master cover artist Kristian Wåhlin (King Diamond, Bathory et al)
kristianwahlin.se

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GAME OVER is the Swedish world leading game metal band. Guitarist Wire is right now in the USA. The tour lasts from late februar and early March. Check out the places beeing visited and the band site Nintedometal

Game metal & xmetal friends should listen to Blodkorv morgonfjong at Backflashradio. Video game remix fans could visit www.vgdj.net or chat on #vgdj on irc:// irc.enterthegame.net.