Lillasyster – MetAle, Liseberg

Lillasyster at MetAle, Liseberg. Photo: Jonas Gustafsson / CrowdSnapper

Swedish rock/metal outfit Lillasyster recently announced their forthcoming disbandment but stopped by Liseberg's beer festival MetAle for a final round. The event was also visited by the rock band Mustasch and the one and only Edward Blom.

Lillasyster is a hard-hitting rock band from Sweden formed in 2006 by two members of the band LOK, which at the time (mid-'90s to early 2000s) was often referred to as hard rock or hardcore, but alongside Clawfinger and Headplate they were the frontrunners of Swedish nu-metal in a way. No one probably realised, though, since nu-metal was so tightly associated with the US scene.

Everything somewhat heavy just got labelled "hard-rock" back then. As a strapping young teenager back in the day, I can remember vocalist Martin Westerstrand in Voxpop, a Swedish music show, being very clear that the band was indeed a hard rocking band, but not a "hard-rock" band per se. My guess is the "hard-rock" label would probably associate them with spandex pants, hairspray, glam and that sort of thing. In contrast, LOK was more of a blunt force of gritty, unpolished aggression.

As LOK disbanded in 2002, vocalist and frontman Martin Westerstrand started a new band with his old bandmate Daniel Cordero on bass, together the new members Max Flövik (electric chello) and Ian-Paolo Lira (drums). The year was 2004 and the new band was called Rallypack and made songs with English lyrics. The band had no guitars, but an electric chello instead. As you can probably tell, it was an experimental project and a clear detour from LOK. Rallypack came to be a short-lived endeavour and would only release one album. Westerstrand then started writing songs in Swedish again and the band formerly known as Rallypack would resurface as Lillasyster. LOK bassist Daniel Cordero left the band in 2010 (enter Andreas Bladini on bass), and thus made Westerstrand the only remaining member from LOK.

Lillasyster's music has Swedish lyrics for the most part, although the band would move over to English once again as they competed in the Swedish trials for the Eurovision Song Contest; Melodifestivalen – first with the song Pretender in 2021, then with Till Our Days Are Over the following year. This helped the band reach a wider mainstream audience. In 2023, they followed up their "Mello" success with an entire album of songs with English lyrics called Stormtrooper Boombox, including both of the aforementioned tracks from the music contest.

In May, 2024, Lillasyster issued a heartfelt video on the 'Tube (you can watch it at the bottom of this page), announcing that the band in its current form has reached the end of the road. They declared this summer tour would be the band's last one, but also hinted about a final album coming later this year.

Westerstrand's old band LOK also made a return in 2019, however, and who knows, maybe we'll get to hear more from them in the future!

Metal + Beer = MetAle

What do you get when you combine metal with an endless supply of beer? I would put my bet on sludge metal, but in true Gothenburgian love for puns and wordplay, you get the event MetAle. You know, metal and ale. Another option would have been MetallIPA, but that would probably result in another lawsuit from Lars.

Anyway, MetAle took place in late May, 2024, where theme park Liseberg's Harbour area turned into something similar to Octoberfest, with activities for consuming beer and METALLLL. Visitors got the chance to sample local craft beers, lagers, and IPAs, and get guided tours amongst all the delicious brown fluids. What about the METAL part, then. Well, the bands Mustasch and Lillasyster closed an evening each with live shows.

CrowdSnapper stopped by on the second day of the festival, hosted by none other than Edward Blom, who not only knows everything there is to know about food and drinks. He also judged an air guitar competition, apparently. Missed that one, ain't that a bummer! Lillasyster of course also performed. Twice, actually. First with an acoustic gig at lunchtime, followed by a more typical high-octane rock show in the evening. CrowdSnapper only shot the latter of the two.

The one and only Edward Blom, presenting Lillasyster. He's not only a well-renowned food connoisseur in Sweden – he's also my long lost hair-brother!

Concert Photography

I was granted a photo pass for this show, giving me permission to shoot from the pit during the first three songs. That effectively gave me about ten minutes to shoot and afterwards I could enjoy the rest of the show right behind the fence. The pit was only about a metre deep, so I got really close to the band.

As a first time shooting from the pit, it was a very cool experience. It was also my first gig shooting full-frame gear, going from Micro Four Thirds. Hopefully with some visible improvements in terms of image quality. Otherwise I've been ripped off!

Speaking of camera gear, seasoned concert photographers often have ultrawide zooms in their arsenals, and now I can really see the value of having one! My standard zoom starts at 28 mm, which in most cases is wide enough for pretty much anything, but shooting a smaller stage like this makes a 20-60 zoom quite tempting as an alternative to the typical standard zoom starting at 24 or 28 mm. Find more details on what gear I used below!