Evil invades Norje
Mercyful Fate, King Diamond and related bands at Sweden Rock Festival.

by webmaster, mfkdfaq.com (2009-03-10)

Sweden Rock Festival is a hard rock / heavy metal festival that are held in the south of Sweden, in a little society called Norje, about 10 km from Sölvesborg. A wide spectrum of bands has performed at the festival, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Dio, Judas Priest, Testament, Aerosmith and  Anthrax just to mention a few. It started out in much smaller scale than today back in 1992 and has grown ever after, now it’s a 4 day-festival with more than 30,000 visitors each year.

Mercyful Fate
Back in 1999 it was time for Mercyful Fate to enter the stage in Norje. They opened with Evil, a perfect opener in my opinion. The set list contained of two songs from the new album “9”, and the rest was classics from their three first albums; the mini-LP, “Melissa” and “Don’t break the oath”.  It’s always a special thing to watch Mercyful Fate when it’s still daylight, not so easy to be evil as when it’s dark… Not one time during the festival 1999 did it rain, except when Mercyful Fate played. It was like God tried to make a point. King just cursed the weather and they kept on playing. This was one of the best shows in the history of the festival. This show was a part of the “9”-European Tour. (Trivia: During the show, Mikkey Dee was in attendance beside the stage, watching the show.)

King Diamond
The next year, 2000, King Diamond performed at the festival. This was a one-off gig just one month before the North American House Of God Tour began. “Out From the Asylum” echoed out from the amplifiers, and Grandma was home… Great show once again in broad daylight. The set list included songs like “Eye of the Witch”, “Dressed in White”, a rare performance of “The Trees Have Eyes” and “No Presents for Christmas”… This was the last time King Diamond entered a stage at Sweden Rock Festival (let’s hope he returns soon), but there has been some related bands playing there over the years.

Motörhead
Motörhead with Mikkey Dee has visited the festival six times 1998, 1999, 2002, 2003, 2005 and 2007. And now in 2009 it’s time again. Back in 1998 Dee Snider of Twisted Sister made a guest appearance during the song “Born To Raise Hell”. Then in 1999, John Norum (Europe) entered the stage for “Killed By Death”. Girlschool joined in on “Bomber” 2002 and in 2007 Fast Eddie Clarke helped out with encores. It will be great to see Motörhead again this year; they always put on a great show.

Force Of Evil
In 2005 Force of Evil did an excellent show at one of the smallest stages on the festival. The sun was at its highest, hot as hell; it was just great sitting in the grass with an ice-cold beer and listening to these great guitarists doing their stuff. It was very nice to hear Hank and Michael do their magic once again. It’s been to long since I saw them together live. They even played a great version of “Evil”.

Other related bands that played the festival that needs to be mentioned:

• 1995 – Abstrakt Algebra - With Mike Wead
• 2002 – Dream Evil - With Snowy Shaw
• 2005 – Megadeth - With Glen Drover
• 2006 – Arch Enemy - With Sharlee D’Angelo
• 2007 – Switchblade - With Ken Anthony
• 2008 – Stormwarrior - With Yenz Leonheardt (a.k.a. Yenz Cheyenne)