The synth gig of the year with Priest in Stockholm

As promised a few days ago, this blog post is all about why I travelled to Stockholm again just five days after the music video shoot for Midnight Danger's "Nocturnal Immortal". It was for a concert. Surprise, surprise. It was the first and only Priest show in Sweden's capital in 2025, the first of only two performances this year in Sweden and Northern Europe overall (They played in Jönköping the following day), and the second to last show before the band's reboot.

  

Speaking of which, if you missed my review of Priest's current EP, "Chaos EP", you can read it here. And you can read everything about their sold-out headline show at "Patricia" on 29th August 2025 - presented by "Klubb DÖD" and supported by Hatif - in the corresponding live review. Last but not least, here are some audiovisual impressions of Priest and Hatif...

  

 

It was a bit unusual to have two such special events in August, especially within a single week, given that concert season usually starts in September. At the same time, it felt like a great end to summer 2025 - or a perfect early kick-off to autumn, whichever way you want to look at it. Let's see what autumn 2025 will bring...

 

 

Music video shoot for Midnight Danger's "Nocturnal Immortal" in Stockholm

It's been a while since my previous blog post, and while there is a lot to share - both from spring 2025 and more recent stuff - and I've also been sick in bed for a week and a half now, I still want to share this one thing with you in real time... 

On 24th August 2025, I travelled to Sweden's capital Stockholm, in order to take part in a music video shoot for the first time in many, many years. Midnight Danger taped the party scenes for their music video at "Garlic & Shots". The filming was a bit unusual. For one thing, you never knew when you would be on camera, "to keep things natural", so filming anything yourself or taking pictures wasn't an option. For another, the actual song from the music video wasn't played on set. Instead, we listened to Hardcore Superstar, amongst other bands, which I, of course, didn't mind. Like most people, I only heard the actual song - "Nocturnal Immortal" - for the first time yesterday when the music video was released. As I wrote yesterday on my social media channels: "Wow! What a song, what a music video - and what a plot... I did not see that one coming. Proud to be a part of this music video... ♥ ♥ ♥" 

You can kind of see me in close-up at 1:35. 

 

 

The result turned out great, and the day of filming was just as great. I met a lot of lovely people there, some of whom are also mentioned in my news article about the release of "Nocturnal Immortal". On location, I only managed to snap two shots, featuring frontman Chris Young, the male lead (Trench Dogs' rhythm guitarist Erwan "Stone" Lengliné) and Rëdlite guitarist Johnny Flame Lee, after the party scenes had wrapped.

  

 

This time, it would only take five days before I returned to Stockholm, but more on that in my next blog post... 

 

 

Henric de la Cour & Bluesky

Exactly three weeks ago, on 31st January 2025, Henric de la Cour released his fourth studio album "My Bones, Your Ashes", and I wrote an album review of it. 

 

And in honour of the occasion, here is an older video from my YouTube channel, showing Henric de la Cour performing at "Dalhalla" in Rättvik / Sweden on 24th July 2019...

 

 

Furthermore, I joined Bluesky at the beginning of January 2025, so feel free to follow me on Bluesky. I am still active on X / twitter, currently sharing all the links to my work on both platforms. Time will tell how these two platforms develop, and especially whether Bluesky will establish itself as a social media platform in the long run.

 

 

Happy New Year 2025!

Happy New Year 2025, everyone! ♥ ♥ ♥ 

Unlike in previous years, there was a bit more going on here on the blog, although not nearly as much as on my account on X (formerly known as twitter) where I share all the links to my work. In other words: If you want to know what I'm up to (or simply want to stay up to date in the world of rock, metal, goth and punk), feel free to follow me on X / twitter. 

Like last year, there was a concert a few days before Christmas, the sixth and last one for 2024, and it was again a concert with Priest, so we were basically celebrating the first anniversary since we discovered the band. Further parallels: The concert took place in Sweden's capital Stockholm, there were three bands performing that night, and Priest were the second act on stage (aux animaux was the first act of the evening, and Combichrist were the headliner). 

 

Photo Credit: Krista Sainio

 

You can read everything about the show at "Kollektivet Livet" on 19th December 2024 in the corresponding live review and also check out the photo gallery. And here are some audiovisual impressions of Combichrist, Priest and aux animaux... 

The wish is, as always, that there will be more concerts in the new year, and I think that 2024 was a good start. At the same time, there would have been more opportunities to attend live events in 2024, but even before the year 2024 had reached its end, I realised that, in most cases, it was a good thing that most of those opportunities were not used / could not be used. For very different reasons. On that note: May the choice of live events in 2025 be as wise as it was in 2024. ;o)