Welcome to the Revival Party

It's impossible to make a correct description of LZ7 as they blend elements of hip-hop, RnB, pop and dance culture and mix them with deep bass lines and awesome beats and create fresh and spiritually powerful music that they serve their audience. 

  

You might not heard about the Manchester based band LZ7 before. But the band are one the venue of getting bigger. They have released their fourth album - Home and 2016 might be the year when they reach a much bigger audience and have a major breakthrough. LZ represents an individual and 7 is the number for creativity. The meaning of the name LZ7 is that humanity are designed to be creative by a living God.

  

I covered LZ7s concert at the Gullbranna festival outside Halmstad i Sweden on july 4th 2015. And like the rest of the audience I was completely blown away by their performance and the strong presence of the Holy Spirit. LZ7 are a Christian band that not compromise with their faith and communicate the truth to both believers and nonbelievers with their modern sometimes groundbreaking music.

  

LZ7 gave the audience a really good revival party that was visited by the Holy Spirit. Many young people met with the Lord that evening and I'm glad that I decided to go to the show and not to the caravan for a good nights sleep. Later I walked away from the show with a big smile on my face thankful for what I just had experienced.

    

LZ7 will play at Skeppet at the Gullbranna festival on Saturday 9 July at 23:00. The band will be supported by the ex member of Family Force 5 Solomon Olds. It's really a concert to look forward to, I believe it's gonna be pretty awesome - Welcome to the revival party!

You can listen to LZ7s latest album here:


Text and Photo: Mikael Good

Superman Is Dead - Outtrigger

I Melodifestivalen slog Outtrigger igenom med tvångströja och burar som förde tankarna till Dr. Hannibal Lecter. Med sin melodiska sång, growl, tunga riff, distade gitarrer och bra scenshow har de snabbt vuxit till att bli en publikfavorit på den svenska rockscenen.



Jag fotograferade bandet på Gullbrannafestivalen 2014. Outtrigger bildades i Helsingborg 2009 och består av Simon Peyron (sång), John Löfgren (trummor), Timmy Andersson (gitarr), Adam Axelsson (gitarr) och Joakim Agnemyr (bas). Det märks att bandet är vana att stå på scen och i från första till sista ackordet har de publiken i sitt grepp. De flesta av deras fans är unga men här och var ser man gamla rockrävar som står och diggar med.



Bandet bjöd på sig själva och gav järnet för publiken. Men det är först när de kör sin cover på Robin Stjernbergs "You" och sin Melodifestivallåt "Echo" som det verkligen lyfter. Outtrigger är dock mycket mer än de låtarna och de har fler starka låtar på sin reportoar som också röner stor uppmärksamhet men dock inte lika mycket som deras "schlagerlåtar".



Med debutskivan "The Last of Us" som kom i november har Outtrigger precis det låtmaterialet som kan ge dem ett lyft internationellt. Efter framgångarna med "You" och "Echo" skulle man kunna tro att bandet skulle välja att följa samma spår för att kunna kränga fler skivor. Istället har de valt att följa sitt hjärta och spela in den plattan som de själva ville göra. Skivan består inte av lättsmält schlagermetal för den breda publiken utan är en skiva för den kräsna metalkonnässören som vill ha mer substans än vad snärtiga tuggumi-refränger och publikfriande riff ger.



Från första låten "Superman Is Dead" till avslutande "The Last of Us" tar bandet med oss på en välspelad, välproducerad resa där sångaren Simon enkelt hoppar mellan olika sångstilar. Den enda låten som drar ned helhetsbetyget från en 4 till en stark 3:a är den akustiska verisonen av "Awaken Me" som mest känns som utfyllnad. De skulle ha lyssnat på Agnus Youngs råd. På frågan varför inte AC/DC gjort några ballader svarade Agnus att Led Zeppelin gjorde en bra ballad 1970 och att det räckte med det.

Om du inte kan se bildspelet på din mobil eller surfplatta kan du klicka på den följande länken så kommer du till bilderna: www.flickr.com/photos/chasid68/sets

Text och foto: Mikael Good

Blindsides concert at the Gullbranna festival in Sweden

It's more than 20 years since Blindside formed in Tumba outside Stockholm in Sweden. Blindside have never been a mainstream band but still they have managed to sell nearly 500 000 albums since their first album in 1997, that makes them to one of the best selling Christian rock bands in Sweden. 

Blindside has never given in to the record companies who has asked them to tone down their Christian faith in order to sell more records. The members has always followed their hearts. Blindside are rooted in hardcore music but they have always renewed their music. Faith, passion and energy has always been an key ingredient no matter what musical direction they have explored. Blindside know the importance of a good concert and with ten years of touring and almost 700 concerts around the world in all possible places and venues they really know how to deliver a good show. Whether they play in front of 15.000 people at the Cornerstone festival or play smaller venues like the Gullbranna festival in Sweden for 400 people they give everything they got for God and their audience. 

It's obvious that Blindside are a hard working band. They where eager to deliver a good show to their audience when I saw them at the Christian rock festival at Gullbranna in Sweden! Simon Greneheds guitar riffs are epic, Tomas Näslund and Marcus Dahlström takes care of the rhythm section and gives the songs depth and solemnity. Christian Lindskogs vocal performance and intense stage presence gives life to the music and lifts it up to a higher ground and blends perfectly with their heavy but yet melodic sound.



It's obvious that Blindside live for the moment when they can go on stage and share their hopeful lyrics with the audience. The fact that they played in a small venue didn't seem to bother them and they put on a excellent big time show for the audience. Blindside are truly Swedish metal at it's very best and also one of the best live acts in this country!

Click the following link if you want to see more live concert photos of Blindside: https://www.flickr.com/photos/chasid68/sets/72157645983568220/

Text and Photo: Mikael Good