The Theatre – Rozzano (Italy), 5th december 2012

by Marcello Catozzi

It was a cold winter night when we arrived at The Theatre of Rozzano, a nice venue, perfect for gigs, in the neighborhood of Milano. Saverio (the kind guy from the Eagle Booking Agency) welcomes us just as the Italian band FROM THE DEPTH is finishing playing.

After a short while the Norwegian TEODOR TUFF hits the stage, suddenly providing a rocky sound. The people raise up their hands, invited by the headbanging of Rayner Haroy, the bass player. The singer shows a clean and strong voice, able to reach very high octaves.

The line-up of this 2012 tour is: vocals: Terje Haroy, guitar: Christer Haroy, guitar: Knut Lysklaett, bass: Rayner Haroy,
drums: Knut Hellem. The band comes from the North and performs  rude scandinavian power metal, with some melodic ingredients:  hard and heavy timing of the rhythmic basement (thanks to Knut Hellem / Rayner Haroy) mixed with the melody of voice and guitars are the characteristic of this young “family band”.

Here is the setlist of the songs, some of them being on the last CD “Soliloquy”:
LAST SUPPER
DENG’S DICTUM
ADDICTION
REDEEMED
TOWER OF POWER
STRANGER

JORN LÄNDE

After Teodor Tuff, the time is coming. The technicians are moving fast on the stage, preparing for the headliners: in the dark we can see the shapes of the musicians, while tunes of the intro are rising through the smoky air. Here we go with “Road of the cross” (from Spirit Black”). A sprint starting, with a terrible wall of sounds that invades the ears of the audience with violence, but this is just the spirit of the band (Spirit Black?).

Here is the new line-up after the last change: vocals: Jorn Lände, guitar: Trond Holter, guitar: Jimmy Iversen, bass: Bernt Jansen, drum: Willy Bendiksen

To see Jorn on stage again four years after the last gig in Italy is emotional to all the people, above all to the fans on the front row, who show all their love to the legendary vocalist. The beginning is very strong, the song is powerful and pumped with high volume. Unfortunately, the balance of the sound could be much better….. But the most important thing, in this situation, is Jorn’s voice, as usual, strong and powerful, penetrating the minds of all the rockers.

Then we have some tracks from the past, such as as “Shadow People” and “Below”, with which we can understand that the viking will take no prisoners tonight. Next is “Bring Heavy Rock to the Land” (the title track of the last album) the audience join in to form a nice duet with the frontman. Introducing “Time to be King” (Masterplan tribute) Jorn expresses his admiration for that band.

After “The inner road” the drum solo comes, full of strength and energy, by Willy Bendiksen, old fellow of many battles. The heavy “Black song” introduces a fantastic guitar-solo of Trond Holter, new entry who deserves all the respect: a good surprise for everybody. The performance of this blond giant is simply pyrotechnic, with fast scales in a typical “northern style” where technique and speed are mixed together for the happiness of the fans. During the final part of the solo the rest of the band comes again and joins Trond in an exploding ending.

Let’s carry on with the wonderful “We brought the angels down”, where the audience duets with Jorn, whose voice is in incredibile shape. With “I came to rock” the band says goodbye, but after some minutes there is an encore that shakes the walls of the Theatre with a couple of killer songs such as: “Lonely are the brave” and “War of the world”. At this point the show is over, and all the people are satisfied with the performance of this inoxidable Viking hero.

The complete setlist is as follows:

ROAD OF THE CROSS (“Spirit Black”)
SHADOW PEOPLE (“Lonely are the brave”)
BELOW (“Spirit Black”)
WORLD GONE MAD (“Spirit Black”)
BRING HEAVY ROCK TO THE LAND (“Bring Heavy Rock to the Land”)
TIME TO BE KING (Masterplan cover)
MAN OF THE DARK (“Lonely are the brave”)
THE INNER ROAD (“Lonely are the brave”)
Drum solo
BLACK SONG (“The Duke”)
Guitar solo
WE BROUGHT THE ANGELS DOWN (“The Duke”)
I CAME TO ROCK (“Bring Heavy Rock to the Land”)
Encore:
LONELY ARE THE BRAVE (“Lonely are the brave”)
WAR OF THE WORLD (“Lonely are the brave”)

Listening to the comments of the lucky people who were at the show tonight, we can say it has been a total success, without any doubt. The Norwegian team won the match and the glorious captain, Jorn Lände showed a great performance once again, as well as his musicians, in spite of the low quality of the sound.

Anyway, we feel fine after all this good old Rock; the only downside is for the lack of people, because the artists deserved much more, although we know very well that it’s a hard time for this kind of music. But we are proud to sing loud: “I came to Rock”!

Article by Marcello Catozzi – Pictures by Cuore

More pictures at this location.