Relaxing

On the beach outside haag in holland.. Having a great time and been drinking loads of beer... I also just booked my flights to germany for the mcf festival.. See you soon./Johan

Holidays

Preparing to leave for holland tomorrow.. Going to be a crazy week before I leave for norway rock.. I am blogging from my mobile phone to see how it works out. Hopefully I can blog directly from the festivals.. /Johan

MANOWAR's setlist in France last Sunday

The first reports from MANOWAR's second show on the DEATH TO INFIDELS TOUR 2009 said that they added SLEIPNIR and LOKI (GOD OF FIRE) to the same setlist that they played in Finland... sounds cool! The show ended with fireworks and the legendary "The Crown And The Ring".... I'll post more news from the show as it happens..

Seems like it's going to be a few surprises both at Norway Rock and Loreley.... I'm looking forward to hear the new songs but also some old ones; I hope for "Death Tone", "Fighting the World" and "Kingdom Come" just to name a few..

Eric and Karl in Finland 2009. Photo peppar.fi.

Not very long until my holidays begin, this Saturday me and my friends will head for Holland/Belgium, and then finally it's time for Norway Rock and Loreley.... I can't wait! /Johan

Pictures from the AC/DC show yesterday

A nice warm up..

AC/DC was great yesterday and really impressive with a 2-hour show... and it was LOUD too! 57.000 people in Gothenburg and we had a great day.... the city was filled with people wearing metal-shirts. Too bad I didn't spot any with a MANOWAR shirt...

I'll put up some of my pictures later.. we had terrible seats, way back... but I probably got some nice pictures of the crowd and the stage..

Anyway, it was a nice little warm-up for MANOWAR's summer shows... :)

/Johan

AC/DC

I celebrated midsummer last night and it was a crazy party, so today I've just been lying in my sofa, listening to the Magic Circle Festival 2 DVD and the new Holy Hell album...

Tomorrow is going to be a fun day, me and a couple of friends are heading for Gothenburg to see AC/DC... a good break from all the MANOWAR music it has been the last days... it's going to be cool, and a nice warm up for MANOWAR's shows this summer...

/Johan

The new HolyHell album

Just downloaded the new HolyHell album. Sounds great so far and I love Maria Breon's voice. HolyHell have been touring with MANOWAR for the last years and I've been lucky to see the band a few times.

There's a couple of new songs as well as some they've been playing for some time now; my personally favorites are Eclipse and Resurrection.

Maria Breon, singer HolyHell

Behind the drums are no one else than RHINO, the former MANOWAR drummer who recorded the legendary "The Triumph of Steel"-album.

It will be great to see them again on Norway Rock and Magic Circle Festival this summer.
/Johan

Father

I've been listening through the new EP and I'm stunned... altough it's MANOWAR, I got really surprised by how great the songs on the EP are.. I still had the feeling from "Die with Honor" that there was more great things to come... My favorites so far:

Gor or man
Let the Gods Decide
Thunder in the Sky
Father (Norweigan version)
Father (Japanese version)

Father in Norweigan sounds so great... I really hope Eric will do a song in Swedish. He would do it perfectly.... without being an expert in Norweigan, I think it sounds so good... the translator (Erman Atabay) have done a good job together with Eric.

父

The japanese version sounds so interesting, but I can't really explain why.. I guess it's because it sounds so different from anything I would ever speak or understand.... it makes it exciting.

To summarize, the new EP gets 5/5 Sign of the Hammers :-)

Now I'm about to start to listen through "Father" in all of the other languages.... it's such a nice song.

/Johan (which by the way has the greatest father in the world who's always there for me)

Death to Infidels Tour 2009 setlist Seinäjoki, Finland

Here's the setlist for MANOWAR's first show this summer at Provinssirock, Seinäjoki in Finland on June 13th 2009.

Manowar
Blood Of My Enemies
Hand Of Doom
Call To Arms
Brothers Of Metal
Heart Of Steel
Shell Shock
Die With Honor
Kings Of Metal
Fast Taker
The Gods Made Heavy Metal
Warriors Of The World United
Kill With Power
Hail And Kill

If there's errors in the setlist, please let me know.

More tourdates can be found on MANOWAR's official website.

Father - The new MANOWAR song in 16 languages

In case you have missed it - here's a short documentary on Youtube about the new song "Father", recorded in 16 languages.

I'm sure the full song will sound absolutely amazing, altough I think there will be some language errors here and there, but who cares? What a fantastic way to say thank you to all the fans who follows the band around the world.

I'm of course especially curious about the Norweigan version - since Swedish and Norweigan is very close...

"Father" is released on the EP "Thunder in the Sky", which is available this weekend on Provinssirock in Finland, where the band starts of the tour this Saturday. It will also be available for download on this location.

MANOWAR's new EP "Thunder in the Sky" mp3 available for download!

Full version MP3s from MANOWAR's new EP "Thunder in the Sky" is now available for download on this location.

More on the new EP later, now I'm off to listen through all the songs over and over again!!!! :)

/Johan

MANOWAR line up 2009

Here's the MANOWAR line up for the "Death to Infidels Tour" 2009.

Karl Logan, Donnie Hamzik, Eric Adams and Joey DeMaio.

The Asgard Saga TV special online

The TV special about The Asgard Saga, MANOWAR's collaboration with Wolfgang Hohlbein, that was broadcasted on iMusicTV, is now online at The Asgard Saga website. Check it out! /Johan

MANOWAR's new EP "Thunder in the Sky" lyrics

.. and song clips are now available on MANOWAR's official website. /Johan

MANOWAR Finland special

Warriors of Finland, unite! Tomorrow on Saturday 13th, MANOWAR will headline the Provinssirock in Seinäjoki, Finland. As a little warm-up I'm going to do a little "MANOWAR Finland special" here on the blog :) I hope you enjoy it!

The last time the band played in Finland was in 2002 on the "Warriors of the World Tour", which also included Sweden, Denmark among other countries such as Germany and France. I was lucky enough to see the band on three shows this year; on the Roskilde Festival together with 60.000 other people, in Gothenburg and in Denmark.

The setlist for the show in Finland 2002 was:

Manowar
Brothers of Metal
Spirit Horse of Cherokee
Warriors of the World United
Kill With Power
Guitar solo
Army of the Immortals
Call to Arms
Kings of Metal
Sign of the Hammer
Bass solo
The Gods Made Heavy Metal
Hail and Kill
Sword in the Wind, Courage and Master of the Wind (acoustic)
Outlaw
The Power
House of Death
Black Wind, Fire and Steel


Pretty sweet setlist, right? :) The highlight of this show was of course, the acoustic part with "Swords in the Wind", "Courage" and "Master of the Wind". These are all featured on "Hell on Earth part 4", as well as other songs from this tour such as "Kings of Metal", "Spirit Horse of the Cherokee" and many more.

There's actually official live recordings from shows in Finland to be found on the "Return of the Warlord"-single released in 1996. There you can find recordings from Helsinki from 1994, "Blood of my enemies" and "Kill with Power", with the last one being a bit different from the original version.

Past tourdates in Finland:

1984 - Himanka (Fight for Revenge Tour?)

1987, 28 May, Fighting the World Tour, Helsinki

1989, 6 April, Kings of Metal World Tour, Helsinki

1994 - Agony & Ecstasy Tour, Helsinki, Finland
1999, Monsters of the Millennium tour with Motörhead and DIO

2002, 26 nov, Oulu, Monsters of the Millennium tour with Motörhead and DIO

2002, 27 nov, Turku, Monsters of the Millennium tour with Motörhead and DIO (originally scheduled for Tampere Icehall)

2002, 29 Nov, Icehall, Helsinki, Warriors of the World Tour with Bludgeon

I'm not sure if I got all the dates, if you have any corrections please let me know!

Joey and Eric in Finland 2002 with a spectacular stage setup.

Have fun seeing the band in Finland if you're going there! If you're not, there's plenty of other festivals this summer where you can see the band. I hope to get back as soon as possible when the show in Finland is over to give you the setlist!

Hail to Finland!

/Johan

Interview with Eric Adams and useful links about the new EP "Thunder in the Sky"

I collected some links with useful information about the upcoming MANOWAR EP "Thunder in the Sky":

There's a brand new audio interview with Eric where he talks about the upcoming EP, the recording of the song "Father" in different languages and much more.

1st song preview of what I think would be the title track of the new EP "Thunder in the Sky": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bUi3O75MERo&feature=channel_page

2st song preview of the same song... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BkllfVTRPFA&feature=channel_page

Short clip of another new song http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wNYyQXtbfJk&feature=channel_page (probably "God Or Man")

And yet another song preview... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_HfR-PkPc5k (probably "Let the Gods Decide")

I think it sounds great and really promising.... more guitar oriented stuff, double bass... it's going to be a killer album. And the song names sound like it would be some really epic stuff, and reminds me of Into Glory Ride, The Triumph of Steel etc..

And some footage from the Magic Circle offices getting ready for the tour http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CucjB3U19JE&feature=channel_page

Message from Donnie Hamzik, the orginally MANOWAR drummer who are going to be playing on the tour.. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1HjbGKN1TM&feature=channel_page

Thanks to Neil Johnson for all these great clips!!!

For those of you who don't know Neil, he's the director of MANOWAR's DVD-series "Hell on Earth". Here's the announcement on Thunder in the Sky, the new EP.. http://www.manowar.com/news_body.php?idnews=320

And finally the tour schedule for this summer... Be there! I'm going to Norway and Loreley :) http://www.manowar.com/tour.html

Keep an eye on http://store.magiccirclemusic.com/ hopefully the new tracks will be available for mp3 download there this weekend...

/Johan

MANOWAR announced for the Gorky Park in Russia

It's MANOWAR season! :) There's times when it's pretty quiet from the band but now it's definetely not!

The band just announced that they're playing their first outdoor show in Russia, at the Gorky Park Green Theater on July 24th.

It's just days left to the first show this summer on the "Death to Infidels Tour" which will begin in Seinäjoki, Finland this Saturday. I was hoping to go there but there was no reasonable travel schedule so I think I will have to be happy with going to Norway and Loreley :)

/Johan

New MANOWAR EP Thunder in the sky

:-)

What a great start on this day, I open my mail and read the announcement on MANOWAR's next release, an EP called "Thunder in the Sky" with 6 songs to be released next week. Cool!

The songs are Thunder In The Sky, God Or Man, Let The Gods Decide, Father, Die With Honor, The Crown And The Ring (2008) and versions of "Father" recorded in German, Italian, Hungarian, Romanian, Bulgarian, Norwegian, Spanish, French, Greek, Turkish, Polish, Japanese, Croatian, Portuguese and Finnish.

I'm curious to see if they've made any changes to Die With Honor and The Crown And The Ring probably is something like the one they played on tour last summer.

More information:

MANOWAR official website http://www.manowar.com/
Magic Circle Festival 2009 http://www.magiccirclefestival.com/

Only four days left until the tour begins!!!

Norway Rock...

Yesterday I got our confirmation about which camping site we'll be on at Norway Rock..... so now I have flight tickets, ticket to the festival and camping tickets..... ! :)

I saw the festival shirts for Norway Rock and they look pretty cool and there's some good bands on there as well... I've seen In Flames before and it's going to be cool to see them again..... Nightwish of course for being such a good band altough I don't listen to them.. Wasp, Arch Enemy, Testament, Mustasch..... and of course I won't miss HolyHell and Maria. ;)

See you in Kvinesdal. /Johan

Looking for MANOWAR pictures?

If you came here looking for MANOWAR pictures, there's a better place to look for them:

The Official Manowar Forum - The House of Death

Fans post pictures of the band and from the shows regulary, so this is the best place to look for pictures.

Here's also a huge collection of pictures from the Magic Circle Festivals.

You need to be a registered member to view the forum.

I found some pictures of my collection..

Check it out http://picasaweb.google.com/jhn.aberg/ManowarCollection080822

This one is from the Monsters of the Millennium show in Malmö, winter 1999. I was 15 years old and of course in front row.... an amazing night.

I can't believe that they've played here. Probably the first and last time, but I'm still hoping they'll return...

My was picking me up after the show and told me that her car had been shaking and there I was in front row without earplugs... ;)

/Johan

Another sneak preview of the new songs..

has been posted by Neil on his Youtube account:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BkllfVTRPFA

Yeaaaah! Thanks Neil!

Interview with Joey DeMaio on Finnish radio

Joey DeMaio will be doing an interview on YleX June 11 (23h00-00h00). Don't miss it. I won't!

MANOWAR is headlining the Provinssirock in Finland on June 13th which also is their first appearance this summer.

/Johan

Less than a month to holidays..

and I have looked forward to it for months now:

- one week in Holland/Belgium with my friends... did it last year as well and it was just crazy. My friend has a colleauge who we're staying at so it gets cheap too...

- a couple of days at Norway Rock to see MANOWAR!!!

- a couple of days at Magic Circle Festival in Loreley to see MANOWAR and meet all friends from The House of Death....

- one week at home and at my family's summerhouse down at the sea (my friend keeps telling me that we're going to Turkey this week, but after those weeks I don't know if I've got the energy.. ;))

/Johan

TV-special on The Asgard Saga and Magic Circle Festival III

There's gonna be a TV-special about The Asgard Saga and the next Magic Circle Festival on imusictv on June 6 and 7, 8-10 pm.

I'm really curious to know what they're going to do... perhaps we'll get some more insight into the project and hopefully a few sneak previews of the new album...?

More info will follow..

/Johan

Donnie is back

One of the most exciting news concering the tour this year is the return of Donnie Hamzik, the orginal drummer of MANOWAR, which you can hear on the album Battle Hymns.

Donnie made a guest appearance at 2005 years Earthshaker together with the band and Ross the Boss, playing both "Metal Daze" and "Dark Avenger".

I had some e-mail contact with Donnie after the Earthshaker, and he was hoping that he would play with the band again...... and now his dream come true!

Donnie 2009 and 1981.

On the sad part of the news, Scott Colombus is still not available after personal tradgedies in his family. I wish Scott all the best and hope to see him back behind the drums soon!

Here's a video clip with Donnie, posed by Neil Johnson on his Youtube account http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1HjbGKN1TM

/Johan

What's new?

Here's a good link for you all to read if your curious to know what MANOWAR are up to lately...

Thanks Nima!

http://www.lordsofmetal.nl/showspecial.php?id=277

Festival season is coming up

Sorry for not updating in a long time, hopefully I'll get this site going now when festival season is coming up.... I've scheduled the shows on Norway Rock and in Loreley... I'm also looking into the possibilities to see the show next Saturday in Finland, that would be awesome!

Be sure to check out the new previews directly from the studio if you've missed them http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wNYyQXtbfJk. Neil Johnson (the director of the Hell on Earth series) is doing us fans a huge favor when uploading those previews!! Thank you! Subscribe to his channel.

I've been involved in another project lately, as translating material for The Asgard Saga which is a collaboration between MANOWAR and Wolfgang Hohlbein. Be sure to check it out.

/Johan