After 2 weeks campaign under "Winterfest 2009" flag everyone came back home safe and sound. The tour went great and we did not have any major technical problems (except for the cancelled show in Stuttgart). Average attendance at the shows was close to 500 people per show which is a pretty good result these days. The most successful shows took place in Vosselaar (sold out), Erstfeld (620), Bratislava (800), Katowice (750) and Warsaw (800). DEICIDE did their best to rebuild band's reputation and the positive feedback was overwhelming. SAMAEL diverge stylistically from the other bands, but their performances were just perfect! VADER surprised everyone with their unstoppable killing abillity and dynamic - the new line up is working very well. For all great support acts, such as DEVIAN, ORDER OF THE ENNEAD and AMENTA this tour was something they will certainly remember for a long time. Special thanx go to our bus drivers and the crew! Here's what the bands had to say after the last show of Winterfest 2009:

"I want to thank everyone at Massive Music for a great and successful tour and thanks to all the crew and opening acts and all the local promoters for a job well done..we here in DEICIDE hope to see you all again this summer all the best and thank you all." - Glen Benton/ DEICIDE

"I would like to thank Massive Music and their entire crew for all the hard work they put into making this tour run so smoothly and making what is a difficult job look and seem easy! It was a pleasure for us to work with them all and look forward to doing it again very soon! Nostrovia!" - Steve Asheim/ DEICIDE

"The Winterfest -09 has come to it´s inevitable grinding halt. We´d like to extend a big Hail to everyone who screamed, sweat and bled with us at any of the 15 devils nights as we with aching bodies and high spirits left a vodka induced toxic trace all over central Europe. Thanks to Massive Music with crew who litterary worked their asses off to make this a great experience for everyone involved. Hope you enjoyed it as much as we did!!" - Legion/ DEVIAN

"The Winterfest 09 tour was the best tour The Amenta have ever been a part of. It was an honor for us to open the festival every night for such influential bands as Vader, Samael and of course Deicide. It was also great to play alongside our new friends Order of Ennead and Devian . We would like to send our thanks out to all the Crew, Bands, Venues and Massive Music who made the tour happen and we hope to make it back to destroy Europe again in the not too distant future." - Erik/THE AMENTA (29.01.2009)

This is the last part of DEVIAN's tourblog from recently finished "Winterfest 2009 Tour". Definitely the craziest one. Check it!

22nd of January Warsaw, Poland

Legion: "LEEEEGIOOON!!! Get your ass out on stage!!" Glenn roars in the microphone. I´m stomping out on stage and sing "Lunatic of Gods Creation" with Deicide. Deicide! My all time favourite Death Metal band. Fuck me dead as long as I live I´m not forgetting this moment. We´re ending the Winterfest in a packed to the maximum screaming thrashing Warsaw and we´re having a killer time messing around with eachothers sets. Mariusz, mr. Massive Music himself is carrying out a big ass ladder on stage while Deicide is playing, then carrying out a huge web:y thing and the second time he comes with the ladder Piotr has enough and calls off the prank. I´m stagediving to Vader with my chest and gut being duct taped into an inverted cross. Don´t ask me what it felt like ripping that off...As Vader gets off stage we have filled their room with all the trashbins in the whole backstage area hahaha!!! Everyone is running out in Order of Enneads set throwing Deicide merch at the crowd, Samael is getting the crappiest chair out on stage as the Baphomets Throne regards Devian and friends, design courtesy Carl. Me and Kevin are throwing bread at The Amenta and Glenn walks around on stage just minding his business being on the cellphone while they´re playing. During our set I get a condom clad banana thrown at me, condomwrappers seems to be everywhere on the stagefloor as our equipment get absolute VD-proof! Ralph is coming out and giving me a big gayman hug and the stage gets filled with moshing loons with guitars. We end the gig filling the stage with a shitload of bandguys and crew doing backup vocals for Deicide on "Sacrificial Suicide". Glenn, Ralph, Jack and Steve - thanks for a fucking killer tour with loads of good memories. Vorph, Makro, Xy and Mas - have a great remainder in the east. Peter, Vogg, Reyash and Paul - Hail and kill!! Kevin, Scott and John - Hell yeah on the good times and finally our fave aussies Jarrod, Eric, Frog, Dale and Tim - Cunt!! Hahaha!! Have a killer down under tour and talk soon!! Mike, Mikey,Wacek and Yanuary - Go The Gypsies!!! Fabricio - "Play ******!!" Darek - Polish style again soon my friend!! Last nights partys are basically just a big hug and cheers. Mariusz is letting the licker coming in box quantity, eagerly pursuading us to drink faster by pulling the oldest trick in the book, messing with a guys pride about how much he can drink, I got pwned hahaha!! Mariusz and Ewa - Thanks for everything and talk soon!! Everyone is running around with their cameras flashing, laughing, toasting, swapping numbers etc. It was a great one!! Hi and thanks to Black Dedee, Gosh, Brovar, Harry, Ewa and Anna for the party! Daray - Catch you next time my brother!! Na zdrowie!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Emil: Night of pranks. Last show for the winterfest tour and today´s afternoon brings a dead silent backstage. I make myself some sandwiches and cannot help to see that everybody is eating their breakfast and are just minding their own business. Usually, there is a hectic time during breakfast which accures around 14 PM, crew rushing with things into the venue, always someone that complains about something but today - silent. I ask "Is everybody sad today ´cause it´s the last day of the tour?", getting a smile from merch Mike answering me with a nod and some others grins. For some it is more emotional than others to part and I can understand them. There are people on this tour that are doing their first tour ever so it is just natural but the wibe turns out to the greater when we plan how to scam other bands during their show. That is sin some way a traditional when doing the last show on a tour. Now the fun begins. The Amenta had a clean show without any major attacks from us, except for Ralph Santolla bringing a beer and forcing it into Dale´s (bass) mouth while playing. Glen Benton is at his finest when preparing to walk out on stage during the Order of Ennead show and toss out Deicide shirts to the audience together with members from all the other bands. I guess this is - to the bands not so amused vocalist Kevin, not the best way to end their show but he took out his revenge later on, I´ll get to that soon... Next up was us, we knew that they had something planned but what? Hmmm... Well, the crew and members from almost every band rushed the stage with a guitar each and played along with is, Ralph smeared a knotted condom (with filling) in my face while I was playing and due to the nice smell of it, I thought it was cake at first but when I noticed the rubber with white fluid in it I wasn´t that amused anymore, looking over to both drumtech´s Mike and Vacek they are laughing their asses off. After we finish the song I´m at now I take the condom and put it on one of my cymbals for the rest of the show just to show everybody what the hell is going on. Then I notice that even Tomas and Joinus has a condom each, on their guitars so appearantly every got the same treatment, now I didn´t feel special anymore hehe...Mike put a big black rag over himself and went out on stage doing some kind of gipsydance, crazy motherfucker but we love him. Vader´s next and Legion contributes their show by having duck tape over his chest formed as an inverted cross and banging his head followed by a classic Legion stagedive. Samael does the song Baphomet´s Throne so what could be better than having an ugly chair put on stage during the song and taping a note to it with a bophomet. Killer artwork Carl did by the way. During their set, Kevin decides that why not making it a bit difficult for them to enter their backstage room so he barricades the door with chairs and tables. Oh yeah, he scatteres toiletpaper all over their room too. Deicide did one killer show as usual and between the songs Mr Benton looked over his shoulder, waiting for shit to happen. And it did. Kevin where throwing oranges on stage and fruits which btw isn´t the first time that happened. The tourmanager Darek and Mariusz - the organizer of the tour grabs a latter to enter the stage with but gets stopped by Piotr, guitar tech and stage manager. Legion enters the stage to do "Lunatic of Gods Creation" with Benton only playing the bass and he does a fucking awesome appearance! I suggest that Legion should be the new vocalist for Deicide!! Or not...:) When they are about to do the last song "Sacrificial Suicide" almost everybody from the crew and bands enters the stage to sing along with the famous "Satan..." part, I was on stage taping everything and it was a riot for sure! Celebration was on! Darek and Mariusz got me totally wasted with cherry vodka, making me puke like a fountain after a couple of glasses(!) still I continued partying. Damn...what a crazy night, we had a blast and I would really like to extend a great big thank you to Massive Music for making this tour possible! The bands and espcially the crew where amazing! So THANK YOU!!! See you on the next tour!

Tomas: I started the day with taking a shower and I must admit, this was the best shower on the whole tour! Dammit, I felt like a new person after that one. After that I found Ralph, of Deicide, and now it was time for some guitar lessons. He showed me some really good tips and I must tell you that that man is one hell of a guitar player! His fingers were just dancing over the guitar neck and moved so smoothly and simple! The next hours I sat down with my preamp and just analyzed all the cool stuff that he had showed me and during that time he came back to me a few times to give me some more tips. I just wanna go home and look myself in a room and play guitar for the upcoming weeks! I didn't notice that Harry and his lady Ewa had come to the backstage. I was just sitting there and playing my guitar haha! Since this was the last day it was prank evening! When Order of Ennead played Glenn gave us a bunch of Deicide shirts and we all went up on the stage and started to throw them to the people in the first rows. During our show, when we played Mask of Virtue, we suddenly had like 10 guitarist in the band. Guys from all the bands stormed the stage and started to headbang with us on the stage. I even think you can find that clip on youtube, give it a try ;) Jarret from the Amentha came up on the stage during The Unspoken and gave everyone a filled condom. Jarret, I don't wanna know what was inside the condom, ok? During Samael's show I and Kevin from Order of Ennead filled up their backstage with paper, cups and all kinds of shit that we could find! When Deicide play Legion was honoured by doing some guest vocals and he was shinning on the stage, damn I'm proud to be in the same band as that man! On the last song we all stormed the stage and banged with them all! John Li and I even got the pleasure to do some guitar solos on that song, haha damn crazy stuff happens on tour! The after party was crazy... at the end of the evening I found myself dancing on the stage with people from The Amentha, Order of Ennead and Glenn was leading the disco! I loved doing this tour and I meet so many new good friends and it was really hard to bid them farewell! Until next time guys, take good care!

Carl: Last night of the tour equals pranks on stage, and since we've been playing pranks on each other throughout the whole tour we're well prepared for the task. Amenta gets a visit from Benton on stage, Order of Ennead gets a bunch of people handing out Deicide merch on stage. We get several attacks starting with the Amenta, Order of Ennead and parts of Deicide playing along with us on stage. The Amenta attacks us with condoms, filled with suspicious liquids, which they place on our instruments and a strange cloaked figure lurks on stage during one song. When Samael perform "Baphomet's Throne" we carry around a crappy chair on stage, painted with a Baphomet pentagram. Deicide get several visits on stage, including Legion getting up on stage to sing "Lunatic of Gods Creation", a massive fruit handgrenade attack and most parts of the tour fellowship getting up on stage to sing along to the concluding "Sacrificial Suicide". The after party ends with the backstage area looking like a second world war battlefield.

    
  

(27.01.2009)

"Winterfest 2009 Tour" successfully came to the end. Below you can read the ninth part of DEVIAN's tourblog.

19th of January - Wörgl - Austria

Emil: Well, I doubt we can sink any lower; sucking on The Amenta members toes perhaps would be even nastier. Or anyone's toe either way. The only Austrian show on this tour and it was killer. Carl had to really go to the toilet the second before I put on the intro so it was just by luck that I didn't do it. We had to wait for him so we lost a couple of minutes of our time schedule but if you gotta go you can't do much about it. I partied heavily with Caroline from photopit, be sure to check out a great photographers work on her homepage! I also got to know some new Serbian friends which were cool to speak Yugoslavian with. Thanks go out to Nini and Nina and the drunken guy that bought me beer in the bar! As for the afterparty, it was one of the funniest ones so far, the polish and a few others took their clothes off after an extensive drinking session of vodka. They ran around in the buss buttnaked and woke everybody up, I couldn't stop laughing, crazy fucks Jonas was badmouthing jarod and....yeah he was badmouthing pretty much everybody that was in sight and he also threw water on me, Legion and some of the Amenta guys so Legion decided to spray some deodorant over Jonas while he was laying in his bunk, he coughed for 10 minutes! I'm still laughing...

Legion: "Hey Gypsy!!" Mike the drumtech shouts as I'm ready to get up on stage. "Look at the fucking stage floor, it's caving in. We've duct taped the amplifier cabinet's just to not have them fall on you guys." Mike wrinkles his eyebrows and points the finger to my face. "Today there will be no jumping and running on stage. I mean it!!" As the intro goes on and we hit the stage I see what he means, it's like walking on a bounce mat so today it's headbanging and screaming that's on the schedule. My dear friend Caroline is taking photos and I have the crowd have a go at her while I play the tiniest violin in the world just for her as always when we meet; i.e. rub the index finger against the thumb. The end of the tour is drawing near, -already!!??! What the fuck it's feeling like we're just getting into it still, so the topic of discussion is what we can do for fun the last day. Last time I was wrapped in toilet paper and danced onstage when Septicflesh was on, and we taped a banana on Vaders drum chair...lets see what we're coming up with this time. We end the night with some drinks with Caroline and friends before getting out of town. The crew are having a naked party downstairs while me and Joinus are having a water and deodorant fight upstairs cheerfully shit stirred by a hysterically laughing Emil that ends with me being knocked over the teeth with a bottle and Joinus bleeding from his nose...We end while we're still laughing. Joinus is about to go to sleep in his bunk when his phone starts ringing. With a tired voice he answers "Hello?" Laughing I scream "Fuck yooooouuuuuu!!!!" in my cell phone and hangs up on him. Hahaha I love you man! Time to go to bed. Out. On The Amenta vs Devian competition, we're pigs. Today's rate my shit is going haywire. Coming back from the restroom laughing my ass off showing the damage done with my camera Jarrod and Frog gives me the victory just for the pricelessness of the story behind the picture on there. Devian 3 - The Amenta 2. Here's a thought, we're all musicians' right? And the only serious thing so far, to recognize music we lost, when it comes to shit or other demeaning stuff Devian rules...hmm....

Carl: Wörgl - a small Austrian town a few miles south of the German border, situated in a valley at an elevation of 511 meters and with a population of 12 500. Endless tall mountain sides in all directions surrounding it, it's beautiful to say the least. I and Tomas took a long walk to the outskirts of the town checking out the majestic Alps. This was a perfect time to listen to some Immortal. So I loaded up my MP3-player with "Battles in the North" and enjoyed the view as we walked. On a less sensory-pleasing note, the Devian vs. Amenta competition is reaching new lows each day. Today's contest was a "Rate my poo"-challenge. Photos of the nastiest turd will reward your band with a point in the competition. I have a strong competitive mindset combined with a great deal of creativity, so I did my best to contribute. Can we sink any lower than this? Probably.

Tomas: Today I and John Li from Order of Ennead exchanged some guitar tricks. He's a really kick ass guitar player. Will try to steal some knowledge from Ralph tomorrow or before the end of the tour. I love Austria, it's so beautiful here. Me and Carl went for a 2 hour walk and just gazed upon mountains. Since Legion and Carl had such "nice" poo pics today, I didn't even have to show the Amentha guys mine. Hero of the Day - Tim, The Amentha, he bought me a travel pussy


20th of January - Bratislava - Slovakia

Legion: Vogg is as amazing of a pianist as he is of a guitarist. The backstage area of today's show is a cinema like hall with a big piano up on the stage. We gather around and lay decked out as Vogg plays somber classical pieces and "When Satan Rules His World". Steve grins at the cover. This is what strikes me about Death Metal with timeless quality. The scene saw ourselves as an elitist vanguard out to kill off the cheese bands, and many a critic of the whole thing saw the music as noise and noise only, but here with Vogg breaking down Deicides riffs and turning them into classical style piano stuff you can hear how really thought-out and beautiful the note progressions are. "Steve is more of a genius than he's getting credit for" Ralph nods. Order of Ennead is on stage in the sold out venue with the prankster Glenn pulling Scotts leg by getting out on stage making faces and gestures behind him. "Give me something that's good to throw" Glenn shouts to me over the music. A toilet paper roll seems like a good idea. Said and done the thing is flying into the audience, getting thrown back on stage, into the audience again while Kevin, Scott, John and Steve rips through the last song of their set. Piotr shouts to me. "You see the tables in front of stage? That's our last line of defense, don't jump on them, they're gonna break". "I'll just dive over them then" I shout back. Piotr is shaking his head laughing. Whatever". The place is boiling hot. Guys that looks like they're out to kill. We're having a pit going and another one further back by the soundboard! Madness haha!! I'm throwing myself out and instead of seeing adrenaline eyes and raised hands I see people headbanging...Crash!! I fall on and over people, on the floor and smash my hand. People lift me up and throw me back on stage. The madness continues and at the end we're happy sweaty messes crawling off stage, fucking great show!! Vodka and beers with the crowd ends the night. Good times!!!

Carl: Rolling into Bratislava in Slovakia we spot a big Rick Astley sign. I thought he got lost somewhere in the 80's but I guess his hit single "Never gonna give you up" has reached into Slovakia now. Crowds in Eastern Europe are one of a kind, going truly bananas in the mosh pit. And the crowd tonight didn't disappoint us. The place is packed, probably beyond max capacity, and the people in the front row are screaming at the top of their lungs right in our faces. Fists are in the air all the way to the far back of the hall. When we shake hands with the guys in the front rows they even refuse to let go of our hands! Totally crazy show and one of the best so far. People are playing pranks on each other to the left and right by now. I took advantage of Eric from Amenta while he was drunk and passed out a couple of days ago, and today he revealed that the retaliation is on its way. After a quick stop at a gas station on our way out of Bratislava we get a bag of pop corn, which we find useful for prank purposes. Today's victims are Jarrod of Amenta and Legion. A swift emptying of pop corn bag and a camera flash later they are covered in pop corn in their bunks, brutally awaken, pissed off and caught on camera. I think I should sleep with one eye open during the following nights...


21st of January - Katowice - Poland

Carl: I hadn't been to Poland for many years and things seem to really have changed since my last visit. I, Order-Kevin, Order-John and Deicide-Ralph took a short walk to a nearby mall. It was huge, enough to get lost, and very modern and had a Western Europe atmosphere. "Just like home" Kevin commented, and I'd agree with that. Last time I was in a mall in Poland things looked nothing like this and was far more eastern Europe-ish. We ended up at a bar in the mall (what else?) and took a couple of beers. Checking out the surroundings in a new city and then have a few cold ones at a nice bar is surely a highlight when on tour. Ralph once more proved that he's a really down-to-earth, humble guy and very friendly, a very good example of a musician who has come far in his career but haven't lost his mind over it. There are many rockstar divas out there who should learn a thing or two from him. Some things haven't changed about Poland though, since the crowds are still among the craziest there is. When we hit the stage we stand face to face with a seven hundred men strong Polish army, ready to tear the place apart. As soon as we hit the first chord, the place explodes. The energy is really intense here tonight! Each night we think that we just had the best show of the tour, but we keep having better. Stage divers, crowd surfers, violent moshpit and a front row so crazy they won't let go of your hands when you shake theirs. This is what live shows are all about

Tomas: First time in Poland. When I stepped out from the bus this morning I can swear that I heard a D-beat coming from somewhere. I'd do a crust tour in this country any day!!! The respond tonight was insane! We had like 7 security guards on the stage. I and John continue doing some guitar stuff today. Tonight we had a crazy after party at the bus with a lot of vodka - the polish way. Had a really nice time talking with Tim and the other Amentha guys, damn killer guys!

    

(26.01.2009)

Switzerland and Italy conquered! The next part of "Winterfest Tour 2009" blog is available below. Check also a great collection of pictures from Milan here.

17th of January Switzerland

Carl: Woke up half-dressed and messed up in my bunk, having no clue how I got there the night before. The bus was still moving so I decided to go down and join our driver Jörgen and check out the road ahead. I enjoy travelling in cars and buses, watching the landscape as the miles go by. The only downside of being on tour with a nightliner is that you sleep almost all the time when the bus is moving. You just wake up in a new city every day having missed out on the road to get there. But today was a bit different and I came down to the front seats to discover a mighty view of majestic mountains. The black metalish landscape made me get into a really good mood. A while later we arrived in Erstfeld and the Transilvania venue.We met up with some French and Swiss friends this evening and alcoholocausted ourselves together. I spontaneously had to do an extra show headbanging through a couple of Sepultura songs off the Chaos A.D. album. Seems like it's easier to headbang without getting a sore neck if you're trashed. Maybe I should have a few before getting up on stage tomorrow?

Tomas: Damn... Liked I mention in the blog the day before... I woke up in my bunk with clothes and everything 10 in the morning and I thought the clock was around midnight the day before. I more or less fall out from the bus and people are looking strange at me and wonder if I'm alright, cause they problably remember what happened yesterday, I don't. Frog gives me a few hints during the evening of what happened. What can I say, sorry swedish gypsy alcoholic. Later on the evening we meet up with Swiss and French friends and once again I took some throne pictures upon the awsome throne they have at this venue. In generel a very cool show.

Legion: "I have a cap with a Satan-mask hanging down in the front. I usually wears it when I drop my son off for the schoolbus" says Glenn. We´re having breakfast comparing tourstories, laughing at mutual crazy times on the road like when Deicide and Marduk played together at the Troubadour in L.A., a cool club with so much history, everyone that´s ever been anything has played there dating back from the Eagles, Metallica was founded there...back to the story - two chicks was fighting over a ticket so bad that one of em put the other ones head through the window at the front so they had to call an ambulance and fix the busted window with cardboard. Fucked moments in time is what the road is all about, it´s the time in between one must make valuable to not get bored. The Swiss mountains where the Transilvania club is situated is an amazing view. "Who built that shit?!!" Fabricio screams while pointing at the mountain top. Getting in the music mood. Feeling the heat onstage when watching the Amenta and Order of Ennead. Kevin from Order is getting off stage dripping. "It´s fucking hot up there" Scott pants. The venue is filled to the brim and the lights are burning. Emil hammers the end to a song when I see a banana laying on the stage floor just behind me. I´m doing a penisjoke and throwing it out in the crowd doing a few more songs and there is an apple laying in the same place. The fresh fruits keeps coming, I´m laughing inside. Tourhumour to kill boredom. I know who´s doing it. "Thanks for the fresh fruit Glenn" I shout getting off stage. Benton laughs. Vader gets fruit. Samael gets fruit. We´re hanging out with our Swiss friends in the audience when Deicide is going on. Going backstage for a beer Benton looks at all of us "Anybody throw some shit on stae and I will stop playing and come after you and I´ll not stop pounding on you until you are DEAD!!!" he says with a smirk. A few songs into the Deicide set Glenn challenge us. "Where the fuck is the fruit?!" he screams as Kevin is running out in the photographer ditch throwing oranges like handgranades on stage. Tonight is a laugh and drink party. We roll out of town at 8AM.

Emil: The always so lovely switzerland...Makes me wonder how it would be to live here with the Lord of the ring look a like mountains and majestic valleys. One of Europe´s most beautiful countries for sure and people are so friendly over here. If I ever become rich i will definetely have a cottage up the mountains over here, and one in spain...and one in zzzzz..... Today we meet up with Cedric "the entertainer", Geoffroy, Eric, Amelie and friends. It was nice to see you all again! Carl and I created a new song called "Chicks in a hat" which we annoyed everyone with. We´ll see if we can put up a video of it later on but I warn you, it totally sucks and we suck at singing it. There´s mainly just a chorus where we sing "chicks in a hat" and after singing it 12 times to everyone we changed the lyrics to "Legion with a cake, cake in his face" while I threw cake in his face, he retaliates by singing "Emil with a beer, beer in his face" and pours beer over me, and there it is, another wonderful day with the band.


18th of January Italy

Legion: I wake up and have an idea about taking out my contact lenses but I can´t find the fucking lens case. The hangover is washing over me, I´m drenched in sweat rolling out of the bunk in my leatherpants starting to crawl around on the floor halfblind looking for the damn thing. Going downstairs to the bathroom, as I twist the lock I remember we´re not allowed to do that. Shit, locked in the bathroom aarrrggghhh what a fucking Spinal Tap way to start the day. The door won´t open, I muck with the lock and pound on the door contemplating wether it´ll be worth kicking the damn thing off the hinges when The Jürgen arrives to my rescue with a screwdriver. Pheew. Breakfast. Relaxing. Everyone is tired today before the show. All over lays decked out, black clad guys. CMR Italy is here. Aswell as a shitload of friends. The stage tonight is perfect. It´s big. It´s got a staircase. We all jump around like ill. If I look in one direction I see Joinus in an inverted-cross-with-the-guitar pose, Carl is circlebanging by the crowd and Tomas is standing on something shredding. Emil is up on the drumriser looking like Animal from the muppetshow. Guys are standing with a Devian banner. People are screaming and banging. Circlepit! Putana Madonna!!! We spend the night in the audience hanging out with the metalheads having a great time. We roll out of town accompanied by Ozzy on the stereo, red wine in the cups, Ralph and John on the bus and me and Piotr make the stupidest fucking promise in the world - we don´t go to bed before ALL the beers we brought onboard are out....fuck me dead...

Carl: Woke up fully dressed having absolutely no recollection of getting into my bunk. We had to get off the bus in a hurry right in the middle of Milan, and the confusion and hangover got me into a bad mood. It's really up and down sometimes on tour, one minute you feel like shit and wanna die, the next you're in in a total bliss and couldn't feel better. Today was surely one of those days. We took a stroll in Milan to try to cheer ourselves up and me and Tomas ended up at a pizza restaurant. Mood getting better. When hitting the stage and gradually realizing we're doing one of our best shows so far on the tour, I'm at the top of the world again. The stage was perfect for a band like us that move around a lot on stage.There were stairs down to the crowd making it easy for us to really connect with the crazy metalheads at the front rows. The total mosh madness was inevitable. Fyra solar - självklart

Tomas: When I just went out in the hall of the venue lots of Devian fans saulated me and wanted to take pics and get album signed. At that time I knew that this evening was going to be something out of this world. The intro went on and the Devian machine was unleashed. Damn!!! this was probably one of the best shows so far. People even started to raise Devian signs and shit in the crowd and the circle pit was so nice tonight! Shared a pizza with Carl at a resutrant today too which was a real nice relaxing moment today. Memento of emotions...

Emil: Italy´s cold today, way to cold. We don´t get to setup merchendise due to the reason that the promotor of the venue want like 37% of the profit, what´s up with that?? So our Merchmaster Mike has a dayoff and of corpse opens up a beer as soon as he relize that he can do whatever he wants today. The wibe backstage is calm, very calm. Everybody are tired and cold, some are falling asleep in chairs and soffas in a snap and it looks pretty hilarious since the backstage is really small. I go to the bus for some sleep just to be awaken by Jonas yelling "The Amenta is on stage now, we need to go back to the venue now"! On our way back we meet up with Devian fans that just came to the show to watch us play, they even had a big sign they made where it simply said Devian but still, that made us smile that they put som effort in supporting us. Changing to my stagewear we all get pumped up and start triggering each other like orch before a fight. Intro starts and the adrenaline starts rushing! I´m not tired anymore, I´m rather excited and jumps up on the drum riser almost leaning over the drums, people start screaming! The others enter the stage, another scream is unleashed. We are elite för helvete. Milano Rules this earth!!!

     (19.01.2009)

So far so good. "Winterfest 2009" has been going great and without any major problems (not counting cancelled show in Stuttgart and poor attendance on two shows in Germany). Before Germany we played two fantastic gigs in Paris and Lyon (once again over 500 people per show) and one show in Luxembourg (where we played for the first time actually), at the beautiful Rockhall in Esch. Packed venue, excellent organisation and another show turned out just great! The next two concerts took place in Frankfurt and Bochum. It seems that German fans are not interested in death metal anymore. Too bad! Those who came to see the shows got what they paid for- hellish dose of brutal music at its best! Greetings to pagans! An amazing show in Erstfeld, Switzerland wasn't a big surprise for us, since we've always played great shows at that venue (the best possible level of organisation is definitely worth mentioning). Over 650 fans came to see the show at Transilvania Live (highest turnout so far). Read the next part of "Winterfest 2009" tourblog (that is available below) and stay tuned for reports from the upcoming shows in Milan, Worgl, Bratislava, Katowice and Warsaw.

15th of January Batschkapp, Frankfurt

Joinus: Ok, it's about time I do some writing here. I know what you're thinking. Joinus, has probably been away drinking all the time. And you know what, you're probably right. I've had so much fun so far that it just isn't possible to have this much fun without alcohol...hahaha!!!! Frankfurt was a day off from drinking. Well the second day there at least. When we arrived there one day early because of our cancelled gig in Stuttgart we basically went in to town, had some food and bought vodka to go back to the bus and drink it in a polish manner. It turned out to be a blast and I don't wanna know how much vodka that went through my body. The night ended with me being locked out of the bus. I tried to call the rest in the band but they had already passed out. So there I was wondering if I was gonna crash in a pile of snow. But luckily Mas from Samael let me in their bus and pointed out a place in their bus where I could get some sleep. And you know, there is no one on this tour who's grumpy or anything. Everyone is just SO cool and funny. So, after a pretty wild day off it was time to hit the stage in Frankfurt. And I can't say I like days off. It usually feels like starting over and having to use double times the power to row the boat. But the crowd was cool and even though we had some mishaps like Tomas shoulder strap unlocking from the guitar and I almost dropped my guitar it went fine. Todays game with The Amenta was to pick out five songs each and guess what it is. A game I like. Being a music nerd to the bone. That competition isn't settled yet. But right before we went to bed yesterday a new competition was proposed. To see who can stay away from shitting the longest time. So, the first one to go the bathroom was the loser and therefore that band didn't get any points. Everyone lost....hahahahahahaha!!!!! Today's soundtrack: Anal Cunt - You keep a diary

Tomas: Today I thought was the day when everything was finally turning the right way. The illness is gone and I'm feeling better than for days! The stage is cool, we are talking gypsy stuff with the crew and just having the best time. The show is fucking killer! During "Scarred" I'm going so insane that I bang off my straplocks. Since we have a killer crew, drumtech Mike is screwing it back together mean while I'm playing the first verse of God to the Illfated... haha he's like sitting on his knees and doing that during the song haha, great going - great gypsy style! After the show we celebrate with some grogs and shit and THEN I discover that someone has stolen my Stagejacket from the backstage area. Dammit! Steal my used underwears next time fuckface!

Carl: Backstage today was like a game of Tetris. Fiftytwelve people occupied a really tiny space. Although when people were aligned in a row they didn't disappear, and noone got any score either. Good thing that all guys on this tour are cool people, otherwise it would be easy to start at fight on a day like this when everybody are literally stepping on each other's toes. When we went up on stage tonight we were once again greeted by a crowded venue, ready to scream their lungs out on command and trash the place in a violent mosh. It's a great feeling to play for crowd's like these. Afterwards most of us felt their batteries getting drained pretty quickly so we went to bed early. So we missed out on a crazy party going on downstairs, but we don't mind. There'll be another one tomorrow, and the next day, and the next, and the next, and the...

Emil: Listening to Immolation now, can it get better? 2 days in Frankfurt, one crazy and one actually pretty calm except for the awesome show, some minor problems with Tomas and Jonas guitar but we had fun with the crowd, Legion was at one of his peaks on this tour doing his best to win the crowd and he succeeded. Carl just had to make us looking stupid by saying "Wollen Sie Party? Wollen Sie Tanzen? Wollen Sie Devian hören?" but I love his input in the band, he has his humor that I truly enjoy everyday, we are like the 3 stoogies but as a 5 disasterpiece. The contest for today was to play 5 songs to the Amenta guys and have them guess what it is and the other way around. You score for getting the name of the band correctly and an additional point for getting the songtitle and name of the album. Who do you think will win? So far Amenta is no challenge for us, they need to shape up or else we have to kill them all. Already we spotted some tension in their camp, Erik is threatening Tim on daily basis to kill him and Tim ricochets back, this is gonna be a fun competition to follow up on...


16th of January Matrix, Bochum

Tomas: Carl has been looking the whole morning for gothic stores on google and finally we find one and we are leaving to find a new stagejacket for me. At least we thought so... the store has gone out of business. I'm getting desperate, I really need a stagejacket!!! Finally the century media guys are coming to the venue and they really saved my ass! Stefan, Century Media, drove me and Carl to this gothic store called Bullet shop in Dortmund and there Id found this awesome Hellraisercoat! Damn... it really kicked ass! Now Tomas was back in the game FINALLY! After the show we drank with the Century media crew and they were so pleased with the show, damn that was so great to see them all again. Darek became the another hero of the day since he fixed us a new bottle of vodka - Legion broke the first one!!! Then I went to party with Micke from In-Quest... He had set up this minibar in has car so we went out a few times and he made me some nice drinks. Then I can't remember anything more. Rumors have told that I fell asleep in the backstage toilet and that some guys from Samael broke up the door and got me out of there. When I woke up I was in my bunk and in switzerland. Micke, what the hell happened??? If anyone knows.... please send some info here - info@devian.se Heros of the day: Century media staff, Darek, Micke Villain of the day: Legion

Joinus: Wow, Bochum was a really cool place. The venue looked like catacombs and made a very eerie feeling to the place. The crowd was a bit hard to get going but we managed tonight aswell. Legion went crazy and stagedived and tried to start a moshpit along with the crowd, and finally they fell for it. So from the second song and after they were an awesome crowd. After the gig we had some drinks and started to mingle with the people at the show. Met some really nice people. Me and Mas got our drinks on along with some japanese friends of his. And as I would love to go to Japan one of these days it's good with friends where you go. Today's hero points goes to Tomas alone who managed to pass out in the venue's bathroom...hahahaha!!!!!!! And i guess today's soundtrack has to be: Bathory - Total Destruction

Emil: One of the the craziest night is about to occur. The staff from Century Media is here so we get pumped up before the show to show them what Devian is all about. We have friends over from Belgium and different parts of Germany so as soon as we do the show we toss ourselves over the booze but Legion is too fast and drops the vodka bootle on the floor, breaking it. "You fucking idiot" we start to yell at him. "You ruined the booze asshole" but our tourmanager Darek (the hero) resque us from soberness and brings a new bottle. Me and Steve from Deicide got some wine and cake from fans that knew it was our birthday which was a pleasant surprise. Tomas got waz to drunk at an early stage, it was like 40 people in the backstage, CRAZY! After we left we countinued the party until 7 in the morning, then I just had to go to bed and die.

Legion: "Happy birthday to you!!" Me, Peter from Vader, Jessica from our label Century Media and others stand gathered around Steve Asheim and sing for him as loud as we can muster. It´s a few minutes past twelve and his birthday is on. We down a steady Jaeger and I have just swallowed when Steve refills our beercups with the sticky licker and cheers again. We down the second one and after that I can´t remember a god damned thing. Rewind. Todays been a great day, just hopped out of bed and knew it was gonna be a good one. The Devian - Amenta race rages on, today is no-one is allowed to shit contest and for Tim from The Amenta and Joinus this is litterary hell. Both are struggling in pain til Joinus declares us defeated and runs for the bathroom. Eric from The Amenta asks whats up. "Joinus lost the no-shitting competition" we explains and he goes "Fucking hell I took a dump when I got in here first thing" haha his bands scream straight out but after some debating we give the point to the aussies anyways since Eric didn´t know it was on. Devian 2 - The Amenta 1. We´re in Bochum in the for Metal blessed Ruhr area of Germany, the club is as cool as they come and I know it´s gonna be a killer show which turns out to be just that. My stagediving ends up in being carried around in the audience singing while shaking hands. At the end of our show the place is boiling! A ton of Centurians are here tonight, the CMR´s are the coolest people always a great hangout.Tequila! Jaeger! Vodka - of corpse!! Pia, Micke, Inge, The Leif, Jenny, Dario, ms Icequeen, Jess, G-force, Jens, XX, Stefan and Bochum Matrix thanks for the good times! Hope your ears are still ringing and the hangover is hurting!! We will see you all again!!!

Carl: The Matrix venue in Bochum is a really cool place with stairs dwindling down into medieval like dungeons. Several people from Century Media came to meet us and of course we had to show them how to bring a place into a mosh! We heard rumors about the crowd being a tough one here, but not all rumors should be given credit. Fists in the air, heads banging, crowd going wild yet another night. Ah! Sweet stuff! Many new and old friends to party with at the place this night, so we had to take the booze train into the haze yet again.

    

(19.01.2009)

The 6th part of "Winterfest 2009" tourblog written by four musketeers from Swedish DEVIAN is available below. Enjoy reading it!

13th of January Rockhal, Esch/Alzette

Carl: When I took a stroll down to the floor before the show there wasn't much people at the venue, so I thought we'd have a hard time trying to get his show a killer one. Man, was I wrong... By the time we hit the stage the venue was just as crowded as all other nights so far. Tonight we incicated a challange between us and the guys of The Amenta, we're gonna do different challanges each day and today the challenge was to have "weirdest hair on stage". I won.

Legion: "Hey Mike, I found your shirt in my bunk". I return the resurfaced lost Massive Music shirt to our drumtech as the Vaderguys are "Wooaahh":ing and laughing. The obvious gay jokes are flying as Mike goes "I thought I lost it, and it´s new". "Not anymore it aint" Peter laughs. The tone on the road is raw but with a lot of heart. "I bet you haven´t had sex since prison". "You look divorced". "We´re the Amenta from Australia ya cunt". Question - What is it that four out of five people enjoy? Answer - Gangrape. It´s liberating to laugh at the world. From today on Devian and The Amenta will have a competition, send us your ideas what we´re gonna challenge eachother in! Todays competition is stupidest hair on stage, I ask the crowd and the way they laugh and applause at Carls hairdo which is so gay it makes Fieldy from Korn look cool we win the first day. Devian 1 - The Amenta 0. Respect goes out to Tomas who has been onstage as brutal as ever the last two days with fever and the flu.

Tomas: Still feeling like shit today. The fever has gotten worse so I went to bed after the breakfast. A few hours later I woke up and checked out the venue and drank some hot lemon water. I talked to Emil and he ordered me to go back to bed and that he'd wake me up just before the dinner. I fell asleep directly. Then the weirdest things ever happened, I dreamt this strange dream, bombs were exploding everywhere. Somewhere in the distance I heard Emil shouting - Dinner's ready now! I woke up soaked in sweat and looking like shit. I went to the dinner room and had this paranoia feeling that someone was following me, damn this fever gonna kill me! The first thing Carl told me when he saw my look was, man, if you gonna keep that look for the stage time, we'll surely win the hair competetion today!

Emil: I´ve woken up so many times now thinking, today should be a non-drinking day and everyday I fail. It almost feels like we are doing a AA meeting-dairy about our drinking habits. I still can´t feel that it is wrong, we just have a killer show after another and we always focus on what´s most important, giving people what they paid for! Tonight we killed and for today's Devian vs The Amenta competion Carl won for having the best hair on stage, he looked like a cute girl. Amenta wasn't even close but I think they can be a tough competitor now when "Frog", their drummer, is back in the game after being food poisoned. Do I even have to mention that we had a party on the bus?


14th of January DAY OFF

Legion: "Vodka is the future and Satan is my master! Na zdrowie!!!" Our mercher Mike is raising his glass and sets off our vodka breakfast, it´s 4 in the afternoon but time is not really a concept on the road since we just got out of bed. Frankfurt is a happening city and we´re back in Germany so Hell yeah to that!!We have steak and beers, vodka and Absinth before strolling out in the cold snowing Frankfurt downtown to go look for stripclubs. Fastforward a few hours, a taxi cab back to the buss, vodka with The Gypsies and Makro from Samael and you´ve got one passed out Legion. I puke a stinky all of the above food and beverages plus sake and sushi mixture in the sink in the lounge of the buss to everybodys relative amusement and deck out completely. And we win the competition again - todays task is to find the most beautiful chick and get a picture with her, I got a pic with our waitress and our judge Jürgen The Driver gives us the victory. Devian 2 - The Amenta 0.

Carl: Today we had a day off in Frankfurt. We took a stroll down town and ended up in a steak house where we had vodka for breakfast and then went straight to lunch consisting of beer. A day off doesn't necessarily mean a day off the booze. Hours later we went back to the bus and the bar next door. Me, Emil, Tomas and Frog started to play some pool at the bar, which we all sucked really bad at. We thought we heard some live music so when we'd put the eight-ball in the pocket prematurely for the second time we headed down the stairs just to find the most amazing band playing live in the basement. I just stood there mesmerized and totally absorbed by the band. I'm not really familiar with the style they played, but it was some kind of Sigur Ros-ish post rock. The band was named Pg.lost. Be sure to lend them an ear. After the show we went up to them to greet them just to find out that they were from Sweden! And not only were they from Sweden, but some of them basically lived next door to Tomas. It's a small world, and obviously much of the best music comes out of Sweden. But that's old news.

Emil: Breakfast at 4PM, starting of with a vodka shot, followed by beer and a steak. Devian, parts of Deicide and the wonderful Polish crew had ourselves a treat with dinner and booze. Shortly thereafter we went to the bus to continue drinking, it was massive! So many bottles of vodka were drunk by Devian and crew, I stuck to red wine and beer just to try something different. Today´s Devian vs. The Amenta competion-task was to find a girl to pose with and then "The Jurgen" (our bussdriver) was chosen to be the judge of who found the most pretty girl. We won again so, Devian 2, Amenta 0. Come on guys, bring it!!! Tonight´s party was one of craziest so far, Jonas tried to keep up with the crew pace drinking, he did pretty good but what he missed was that when they rested he found someone else to drink with so while the gradually got drunk, he was already fucked up. One by one they fell into the fog of drunkness laying all over the bus all wiped out, me and Tim from Amenta threw snow over people that slept so we need to sleep with one eye open tonight. Legion slept with half of his body in someone elses bunk and right after that made a mess in the stairs of the bus by puking all over it. I knew that the busdriver would be so pissed if he found out so I started cleaning after the fucker to get rid off his tracks. The thing is that I missed that he puked in a sink too so he found out anyway. Jonas woke up on the other bus (Samael, Deicide, Vader) and I guess he was a bit shocked to not really know where he was! He couldn´t get in our bus ´cause the door wasn´t able to open. So that is basically how our dayoff locked like. Just pure stupidity!

Tomas: Please kill me.

    
   

(15.01.2009)

The fifth part of DEVIAN's "Winterfest 2009" tourblog is finished (you can read it below).

11th of January CCO Villeurbane Lyon

Tomas: Woke up this morning with a bad fever. It has gotten far worse during the day. Somehow, probably due to all the French people that show up and gave us their great support, I manage to do one of the best gig so far on the tour! A little bit fucked up and Legion almost made me fall into the audience. Our friend Christine showed up today too, damn, was really nice to see her again. Okay, I need to go to bed right away!

Legion: I wake up and feel reborn. Passing out next to Vogg before the party even started on the bus a little after 8 pm the night before I realize I´ve been sleeping 14 hours when stepping off the bus in a freezing Lyon. Last time I was in the city it was midsummer and the heat made the asphalt sticky.

I haven´t showered since the tour started and I´m feeling pretty messy about it. The only shower is in the Deicide lounge and Glenn is happy to lend it to me. "Don´t you have a towel?" he goes. "No there were none whatever I´ll manage". As I turn on the water the door is being pounded on so the hinges sway and I hear Glenn going "LEEEEGIOOOON!!!! Hey!!! LEEEGIOOOON!!!" I open and Glenn is standing with a towel in his hand. "I made the promotor cough one up for you" he shrugs.

Today is Emils birthday and my plan is to make the crowd sing Happy Birthday with me between songs. France is off the hook mad as always, during our build up the audience is already so loud the adrenalin just washes over me, it´s the threat feeling but in a good way. My hands are shaking and my eyes are dialated tweeked out big time. I jump on stage, scream so much over the intro I miss when it´s ending, stagedive in the first riff and then it´s madness extravaganza for the rest of the songs. The Lyon circlepits, headbanging, screaming and fistbanging blows my mind. We do our best show so far tonight and the headrush is immense. I´m so worked up interacting with the crowd shouting all kinds of shit about how they make us feel, crowdsurfing and shaking hands that I first realizing afterwards in the backstage that I completely missed Emils B-day celebration. After we all have a toast in his honour we get out and party with the crowd and watch the other bands. Me and Emil slamdance in the pit during the Deicide gig shouting along the lyrics, the beers keeps flying. Lots of love to our little Mousse, Izzy and Jen. See you around! Lyon - lunatics of Gods creation!!!!

Emil: "It's my birthday, my b-b-b birthday!" as Cartman nicely once put it. So far I spent it with playing guitar together with Jonas and Carl, we just put a song together that we think will be killer as an epic song for the next album.

So here´s a treat for the rest of the tour: The Amenta and Devian are gonna have daily competions for the rest of the tour. Just stupid bets that we gonna try to win and for tomorrow we decided that "weirdest hair on stage" will be the theme.

Tonight's show was just crazy, moshpit and cheering between every song makes you go even more nuts on the drums, a good crowd gives you an extra boost so thumbs up for Lyon! Our good friend Moose sneaked up on me by the drumkit saying "Happy birthday", taking me by surprise. I celebrated hard with Legion and Carl, beer and vodka was the maincourse and in the bar we had shots, even Ralph Santolla and Jack Owen from Deicide joined in. Jen and Izzy from London were our party buddies tonight so thanks for joining into the madness! Legion, them and I were watching Deicide in the moshpit area and as on night´s before, we sang along with Benton through most of the songs, banging like maniac and just enjoying another deicide show. The funny fact that Legion was suppose to have a vocalrest tonight is just another example of how unpredictable he can be. He´s maybe even crazier than the rest of us tonight, he lives in the moment when on tour, that's for sure. Afterparty in the bus - of course, or as the polish crew says "Of corpse". 4.30 we went to bed after making a hysterical vodka and beerparty...damn, it is weird how much a body can handle but I'm having the time of my life with the Devian brothers and the bands...

Carl: Woke up with a sore throat thinking that I'd probably have a rough day ahead of me. As it turned out, having a few beers and playing some guitar with Emil and Jonas in the bus was the perfect medicine. Beer and music, cure for anything. The show turned out to be one of the craziest so far. The crowd was wild and I nearly moshed myself to death on stage. Really intense! Can't wait for the next show!

    

(14.01.2009)

The 4th part of "Winterfest 2009" tourblog is available below. Enjoy reading it!

11th of January, Paris

Legion: "Didn´t I tell you if you practiced your instruments things would happen in your lives?" Ralph Santolla laughs "Your friends are home fucking their own hands, we´re at the Louvre!!" After one hour of sleep me, Carl, Ralph, Kevin and John from Order of Ennead jumps out of the taxi to check out the monster of a museum that the Louvre is. Two hours later, having maybe seen 1% of it we grab a beer at the gift shop trying to make first impressions sink in. We´re doing a really early sunday show in Paris that the bands that haven´t yet experienced the Metal mecca that Paris is find a bit sceptic. I´m chilling them down, "This is Paris, wait and see". We are hopping on stage to a roar from the fullpacked audience that goes nuts immediately regardless of it being 3 PM on a the day every touring band dread the most, sunday are usually a more chill show, not in this town. I stage dive run down the stair to the crowd and have them sing a long, the circle pit is insane, the warcries when we end the songs is massive, it´s Metal thrashing mad at it´s finest. Thank you for always being outstanding Paris we will see you soon again!!!!

Tomas: Been looking forward to come back to Paris, cause the last time was awesome! It's Sunday and we are loading out the gear at 8.30 in the morning! FUCK, that's TOO early! We are playing around 15.00 cause there's gonna be some kind of disco at the venue at the evening. I'm spending the day with drifting around alone in Paris and various hockers and other strange people try to start communicate with me, but I'm looking the other way and keep on going! The stage is kind of slipprey and Carls is making my guitar cable get unplugged during Mask of Virture, anyway... the best gig so far on the tour and a lot of metalheads show up, that once again proves that Paris is a cool city and that the metalheads are supporting the scene!!! After the tour me, Legion, Carl and Emil are going to eat some stuff at the Buffalo Grill and another hocker tries to start communicate with me. Kick ass food, really nice stuff! Everyone's pretty off today so we all go to bed very early.

Carl: The rock'n'rollercoaster made another stop, this time in Paris. Woke up hung over and disoriented at 8AM in the morning. Minutes later, I took my total trainwreck of a body and stumbled into a taxi with Legion, Kevin and John from Order of Ennead, Jarrod from The Amenta and Ralph from Deicide, heading off to the Louvre. I was totally struck with awe at it's total awesomeness. I walked around in there like a retard just gaping at the wonderful arts and architecture. If I ever make an album that makes people feel like I did there, I've won.

Emil: It´s Sunday and we are suppose to play at 15PM. We figured, shit, there´s gonna be no people there. We were so wrong! The place was packed and we got a tromendious response, just like the last time in paris! It´s just insane at this place everytime I´ve been here with both Marduk and The Legion. Went to bed at 9PM due to the tired body I´m wearing but it was so cold that I couldn´t fall asleep until 4 in the morning...Tomas is sick and Legion is getting there, one by one the cold drags us down, it is just a matter off time until the rest of us gets ill.

   

We have also gathered some new links to video footage from the tour. They are available below:

DEICIDE (Tilburg 1)
DEICIDE (Tilburg 2)
DEICIDE (Tilburg 3)
DEICIDE (Haarlem)
DEICIDE (Vosselaar)
DEICIDE (Vosselaar 2)
DEICIDE (Vosselaar 3)
DEICIDE (Paris)
DEICIDE (Paris 2)
DEICIDE (Paris 3)
SAMAEL (Paris 1)
SAMAEL (Paris) 2
VADER (Vosselaar 1)
VADER (Vosselaar 2)
VADER (Vosselaar 3)
VADER (Paris)
DEVIAN (Tilburg)
DEVIAN (Haarlem)
ORDER OF ENNEAD (Tilburg)
THE AMENTA (Tilburg)
Soundcheck (Haarlem)

(13.01.2009)

Long awaited UNLEASHED's Scandinavian tour starts on February 27. Twelve shows have been already confirmed, we are still working on two more dates. It's not so easy to schedule a good tournee these days for various reasons. The competition is quite strong but we hope to see all UNLEASHED die-hard fans on the upcoming tour. Johnny Hedlund & Co. have been indefatigably promoting their highly-acclaimed full length album "Hammer Battalion" (SPV/ Steamhammer). Support for UNLEASHED will come from two death-black metal acts, Austrian BELPHEGOR (their latest album "Bondage Goat Zombie" was released last year) and Swedish DEVIAN (the second album "God To Illfated" was released a few weeks ago)! Both bands will be touring Scandinavia for the first time so be prepared for great, killing shows! Swedish DIABOLICAL will appear on the tour as the opening act. The tour schedule is available here. (13.01.2009)

With a slight delay we would like to present you a tourblog of our friends from DEVIAN who decided to keep you updated of all that is happening during "Winterfest 2009". The daily journal will also contain some comments of our tourmanager Darek. The trek featuring also DEICIDE (Glen Benton in Europe again, without him the tour wouldn't happen), SAMAEL, VADER, ORDER OF ENNEAD and THE AMENTA is attacking Europe at the moment. It started in Tilburg (013) when we played the first show exclusively for over 500 screaming metal maniacs. Great venue, great crew, fantastic audience! The second show in Haarlem. Great work of local promoter and another 500 people came to see the gig. What a great result! The third gig took place in Vosselaar and over 500 people unleashed hell! We were terribly concerned about turnout but the show was ...sold out! That means a hat-trick! As you can see, so far so great! The tour is going ahead and everyone is really happy. Fans haven't let us down and we hope for more, just to prove that guys from Stuttgart made a huge mistake of cancelling the gig.

The tourblog is available below a few Youtube links from the first show of "Winterfest 2009":

THE AMENTA in Tilburg
ORDER OF ENNEAD in Tilburg
DEVIAN in Tilburg
VADER in Tilburg
SAMAEL in Tilburg
DEICIDE in Tilburg

8th January 013 Tilburg

Tomas: Dead fucking tired! I and Legion spent the previous night at the airport and in the morning Emil, Joinus and Carl rumbled in already drunk with a box of wine. After checking in our stuff we finished the box of wine together and people at the airport started to look weird at us. The rest of the day was like a big fog. It was very nice to meet all the massive guys again. General Darek picked us up so I knew from the start that we are in good hands now. The coolest thing with the first night was that Ralph Santolla, of DEICIDE, borrowed my guitar. His guitar had been shipped to Denver and when he saw mine he asked me right away if he could borrow it. Of course I wanna support this great band and... We are label mates now!!!

Legion: First day feels like a Vader quote - "Unleash Chaos". Beat and messy from a long travel and only some sleep with one eye open looking out for the luggage on a bench at the Stockholm airport in true bum fashion the night before we arrive to the mighty O13 in Tilburg, a venue nice enough to make you dillusional "Yeah we´re almost Iron Maiden" now!! First day on tour equals issues, everywhere people are stressing around trying to get the beast that an ambulating festival is underway. Familiar faces everywhere. The Massive killer crew. Glenn, Steve, Ralph and Jack. Vorph and his crew. "Nothing beats touring with dedicated guys" Vaderpeter shouts as we hug hello. Some merch is fucked, Ralph Santollas guitar has been flown to Denver, Colorado, the Winterfest has started. Unleash Chaos!!!

Carl: In our usual style we didn't get any sleep when travelling to Holland, where the Winterfest started. After a long drive (first beer opened when we left Huskvarna) and a delayed flight (box of wine downed before boarding) we arrived in Amsterdam and joined up with the rest of the bands and crew. A while later the tour buses rolled into Tilburg and the 013 venue, the first stop of the tour. I hadn't been there for several years, but the place was just as good as I remembered it. I really enjoyed the show and felt it was a great way to kick off the tour. Even though the sleep-depravation started to make itself reminded, I could use the adrenalin high to keep on partying. Although the bunk in the bus felt extremely comfy when the bus started rolling again and rocked me to a good twelve hours of sleep.

Jonas: AAAAAAAAHAHAHAHA. I can't do anything else but laugh cause I'm having so much fun. Sleep is for someone else, cause we ain't getting any. On this first day we arrived a little bit drunk from the box wine and some beers that somehow slipped into our bags. On the flight, already delayed we were told that one of the windows had a crack in it. You'd think we did it because we're so evil but it wasn't us. So we had to change plane. When we finally arrived in Amsterdam we met up with all the other crew and of course it was a nice reunion with both Peters from Vader and crew. And of course Samael who did an amazing gig this evening. And to top this gig they played "into the pentagram" and Joinus was very pleased. It was mightier than ever before. After all bands had played we went to the bus and had an afterparty with class. Me, legion, Ralph and the guys in Order of Ennead drank ourselves unthirsty and unsober along with the crew. So to sum up this first day it was a blast being on the road again. Until I woke up 7:30 all alone in the "resting place" in the bus, NOT in my bunk as I'd wish. And it was freezing like hell. The bus driver better turn up the heat next night or we'll need to have a talk me and him.

Emil: Since Wednesday I´ve had 5 hours of sleep and it is Friday now. Why is that? Well, we started out drinking as soon as we got to Stockholm, a couple of hours before taking off to Amsterdam. Seeing all the familiar faces of the guys from the Massive Crew made me smile and it feels wonderful to be back on the road, the roadlife where it´s very noticeful that we all truly feel alive . Partying continued right after our first show and I got together with friends for some afterparty until 6.30, slept to 9.30 and went by train to the next venue that was just 10 min away...and now I´m here, blogging, shit...My eyes are squarish, the colours are fading, everything´s black....Need some rest before the show 'cause tonight, many friends are joining up for another party, it is Friday for them so I have no choice but to join in, it is Friday everyday when on tour! Tough life it is...tough life...

    

9th January Patronaat Haarlem

High-quality pictures from the show

Tomas: Feels like I've been here before! Yeah I was singing Iron Maiden songs all the morning. It was a weird feeling to return to a venue that we have played at before, since I haven't toured in Europe with my previous band, I'm used to that everything is new when I'm coming to a venue. This time I knew how many showers it was and so on. And kick ass food this time as well! Tonight we meet up with Harry again, Mr. Vader online, and I had the honor to meet Ralph, Mr. Forum creator, from Kult of the Serpent. I had a kick ass time with those guys! The show today was better than yesterday due to 12 hours of sleep; yes... rock musicians have to sleep sometimes too! Everyone looked so hangover this morning and more looked like broken soldiers than musicians. In the evening there was no trace of the broken soldiers. The last thing I remember was catching up with Fabricios backstage and then I lost the ability to walk... and talk too? Carl and Emil grabbed me help me to the bunk. They didn't understand what I tried to tell them on the way, strange?

Carl: Woke up, dizzy and confused. New city, new venue. This time in Haarlem and the Patronaat. The day just disappeared in an instant and soon we were on stage again, this time even more on fire than last night. Getting warmed up now! The after party was one of a kind. All beer fridges were looted and all vodka bottles dried. At the end of the evening I found Tomas trying to sit down in a stair case, unable to successfully do so. At that moment he was probably the most drunk person in the northern hemisphere. Had to drag him onto the bus before we left off to unleash the Devian beast in Belgium.

Emil: Arriving at the venue I meet up with my fellow brothers of Devian and Amenta, the Australians gives me a cheerful hello! I turn to greet Tomas and the rest and I just burst out in laughter when I see a not so cheerful Devian. Joinus looks like he has been run over by a train and Legion has his eyes halfopen, Carl starts the day with opening a beer, and one by one we all follow his example. Legion hesitates, "no I´m gonna take it easy today". 2 hours later, he is drinking big straight shots of vodka with our good friend Harry. Today´s show is going a bit better than yesterday, we are more into it now. I personally like a smaller stage ´cause you´re not that depended on good monitors then. Today, we didn´t play a small stage. It´s a huge one and luckely with good monitors. After a violent show, Carl and I run back and forth (with tons of beer)from the backstage and the concertfloor." It is a great party going on in the backstage and you are all invited" I yell to people I´ve never met before. True to my words, we have a swarmed backstage in the end of the evening, damn I love this tour! The part rages on...

Legion: Blackness!!! Gassed up on a rocket fuel trip you´re bound to burn out pretty quick. Harry, Vaders online main man helps me set the pace by downing 12 cl´s of straight vodka as a start off toast. The show tonight has been really great and I´ve been fueling up watching Vader happy to see that Peter despite the loss of the three old bandmembers has hit the ground running and kills with just the same ferociousness as ever. Hell yeah gets my blood going! Ralph from the dutch Kult of the Serpent is here, as well as Ashmedi from Melechesh and my old pal Joey Severance. Samael is one of the live experiences you just have to witness, unrivaled in groove and stage production they make the place boil. Into the pentagram fuckers!!! Deicide makes my day though, being my all time fave deathmetal band people around me and Emil laughs when we sing the lyrics to the sillable. Being a drunk teenager I knew nothing better than to grab people in a chokehold and scream a Deicide phrase in their face haha, not to mention scrawling their stuff on churchdoors getting home from metalparties late at night. Watching Glenn and the boys rip through the classics is a priceless metal onslaught to relive defining moments in my life to. Fueled up from slamming in the pit and screaming myself soar I shoot myself into oblivion with the drinks. My vision is like fastforwarding a DVD with frames just jumping that don´t make sense. Here, there, a new face saying something out of context.Nothing makes sense. I scream"Lets party" in the face of Frog from The Amenta only to throw up two seconds later and pass out in the stairway of the bus. Our tourmanager Darek laughs out loud as he is opening the hydraulic door to the bus and I fall out of it like a sack of potatoes. I have to be carried to bed. Blame it on God!!!

    
  

10th of January Biebob Vosselaar

Tomas: Rebecca from Kult of the Serpent came today as well and she was kind and took us to the Centrum of the city so we could get some new underwear and socks. We also had some nice Belgium chocolate. The venue was really small and it was sold out. 500 people in that small space, damn it was crowdie and smoky! I saw The Amenta for the first time today... crazy band! Using something new like.... Black paint? Well nice stage performance. Before our show today I was helping Legion out with duck taping his shirt. I told him - man I've got this cool idea... then I ducked taped an inverted cross on his back. After two songs in the set his hair was stuck in all the duck tape. Since he was pumped with adrenaline he wasn't that gentle when he tried to rip off the duck tape so he also ripped off this huge amount of hair from his head. Carl threw the hair out in the audience. For the past days Dareks has been bringing us pizza on the evening. He did that tonight too, damn... he's a fucking hero Darek!

Emil: About 10 sms´s hails in on my cellphone today, do I have that many friends? Appearantly. I get a lot of guestlist requests and I do my best but it is a sold out show so I can´t get everybody inside. Those that didn´t get in for free told me afterwards that they sneaked in saying that they ARE on the guestlist. It worked. There was conspiracy in the bar, everybody tried to get me drunk, I got more beers coming than I could handle and I had a hard time keeping track on everybody with that thick crowd around me. Joinus, Rebecca and Carl stands behind me in the merchbooth screaming Swedish obscene words at me and I back at them, the fun is unstoppable! I get to meet some old and new friends. Sandra, Erika, Dol, Lisa, Aleksey, Maarten, Evelien, Sam and Laurent at listenable rec, thanks for showing up!! Sandra and Kathryn makes this evening even better when we share moments of an Ibiza visit that haven´t occurred yet. The craziness has just begun and just before we enter the bus Joinus arrives with 2 bags of chips which me and carl steals only to destroy them. He just sighes at us and takes a zip of the Devian-vodka. Afterparty is inevitable and the polish crew hits us vodka shots. Pol vs Swe 1-1.

Carl: Biebob, Vooselaar, Belgium. We had to take it easy on the booze, cause we were supposed to get up early next morning in Paris. I didn't. The place was crowded beyond it's limits, we performed with furious intensity and the circlepit revolved in a crazy mosh. Afterwards we hung out in the merch stand, getting wasted and screaming. Easy on the booze, my ass. Legion: Trying to wake up with coffee and getting camera-flashed in the face being halfway asleep by a laughing Glenn Benton I start the day. Belgium again which is gonna be good so let get to it! "Scarylooking guys that play chaos shit" - the Amenta guys are laughing at my review of their show, good stuff! Tomas is duckt taping a big upside down cross on my shirt before we enter the stage. "Go kill em brother!" Steve Asheim claps a goodspeed on my back. We get up and the crowd is already loud and geared up for onslaught. Straight after the intro I dive into the audience and end up on the floor! Haha fuck me nobody saw it coming. The place is beyond packed though and I get lifted up and thrown back on stage in an instant. Three songs later is the next Spinal Tap moment, the upside down tape cross goes off the shirt and end up in my hair. The crowd is laughing and applausing as I rip the ball of tape out and and throw it into the audience along with a big chunk of my hair. Finishing a great show in Belgium means party. This country has always treated us like novelty, it´s not for no reason I ended up hospitalized with severe alcohol poisoning after our first show here. To all our friends here, thanks for making it a really great night. Being the day after and with the show in Paris just being hours away I first plan on going to bed but change my mind when getting on the bus. Polish-Swedish party. Go The Gypsies!! (12.01.2009)