Nordic Fest 2008

Last weekend was my 4th time at this amazing annual festival in Oslo, Norway => always a lot of awesome bands and great surroundings! But the main reason I do these festivals is because of the fellowship. This year I counted people from more than 10 different countries who came to Norway just for this weekend! ... Check it out at NordicFest.no

This year we were 20 people from Denmark. Here you can see a few of the always cheerful great danes :-) ... And a couple of Green Light District Festival t-shirts ;-)
The Thursday-Friday-Saturday concerts + Church service was held at SubScene / SubChurch in the heart of Oslo, but the accommodation, breakfast and seminars was at Holy Riders Cave deep inside this mountain outside of Oslo city!  
Pastor Bob and I did a seminar each and it was so great hanging out with PB again! He couldn't make it for Meltdown last week, so it had now been 4 month since a hug from the heavy metal pastor. ... It was an honer to be asked to do a seminar at Nordic Fest. This festival really means a lot to me, and together with Sub Church, Extol and other Oslo-bands and Nordic Mission, this festival has inspired and encouraged my metal ministry in Denmark a lot. It has been a great support having Brothers and Sisters in my neighbor country who has done it 5-10 years before us in Denmark. 

Therefore I had to share some of the amazing things which are going on in Denmark and with the Green Light District Festival and thank my foreign Family for staying true and keep fighting the good fight. All glory to God!! Besides telling stories I also talked about Brotherhood here at Nordic Fest, like I did last week at Meltdown in England.  
Below you see a picture of Slechtvalk from the Netherlands. I really like when Christian extreme metal bands are going to the extremes in stage performance as well, hehe. It kinda forces the audience to have an opinion about it. 

Meltdown Festival 2008

From November 6th-10th I went to England and Wales together with the guys from my band Solace The Day. There we played two shows, hung out with a lot of great people and attended the "hard music retreat" Meltdown. This was the 19th year of the Meltdown retreat Festival and the 3rd time I came to visit this great place! Meltdown is a weekend of fellowship, concerts, seminars and worship. A cool way and a cool place to celebrate your Christian faith!
Here's one more picture from the Solace The Day show at Meltdown. Somehow it always turns out to be a little bit crazy. But for us in a very nice way. If we don't have any bruises or scratches after playing a concert, we don't feel that we've delivered a good enough show B-)

On the picture below a little "circle-pit" is going on. We were also able to make a little "wall-of-death" at our show: The crowd divides into two and at a specific outstanding break-down in the music the two crowds run towards each other and become one. Isn't that beautiful? :)
The picture below is of the venue. Everything is inside this awesome castle. Inhere everybody eat, sleep, hang out in the café, play pool, attend the concerts, the worship and the seminars.

This year we had 3 seminars. My American friend Jim LaVerde and I did the two more Bible-oriented seminars. Jim's subject was worship; and I shared stories and scriptures about Brotherhood. We've been giving an AWESOME family with God as our loving heavenly Father and all fellow-Christians as Brothers and Sisters; how great is that!! 
Sunday night we went to meet some other cool people and play with Solace The Day at "Bar SOUTH", which was a lot of fun as well. I don't know what it is with metalheads and posing on pictures... But here we are (+ a new friend who sneaked into the picture):

Running

Suddenly I felt an urge to start running the marathon again. Very fortunate that I live in this little 700 inhabitant beach/forest-village the. 

This "city-sign" says; "Welcome to Fjellerup => the city by forest and beach".

There's so many great places to go running, and every time I go for a run I feel so sorry for the people who don't find the time to appreciate Gods nature!

In a hectic everyday life I often forget to give God the glory and appreciation, but every single time I'm running, the nature around me just cries out how amazing the creator of heaven and earth is!!! When I go running in the nature, nothing can convince me about anything else than that God is real! My Lord and Savior reigns!!

Fruit of the Spirit tattoo

This was my very first tattoo which I got at the christian metal festival BobFest in Sweden 2005. It's placed on my upper left shoulder. 

I'm talking about the "fruit of the Spirit" in the loooong blog beneath about Gods unconditional love.

Gods unconditional love!

I wrote these thoughts (and feelings) down after reading one of Pastor Bobs blogs:

- - - - - - -

It's so easy as humans not to put each other in "I-know-your-type"-boxes, when we meet, see or hear about someone. It's probably impossible..? It's hard for me not to try and categorize how bad a specific sin is. But God sees the full picture, and I can't thank Him enough that He is the one who'll judge us.

We would all be doomed if we as humans had the commandment to judge each other. Still it can be hard not to... ...Which we also see it the news worldwide everyday.

The AWESOME thing is that God knows us completely! And still He urges to have fellowship with us!! Even me.

I try to live by the fruit of the Spirit:

=> Gal.5,22-23: "Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, mildness and self control ..."

Still it happens that I steal peoples joy without wanting to. Jesus said, that if I look at another mans wife with lust in my eyes/mind, I'm guilty in breaking the law.

The guy on the cross beside Jesus got saved ONLY by unconditional love. He believed in Christ and got saved! Without unconditional love NO-ONE of us would go to Heaven.

Not all who call themselves "christians" go to Heaven. It's not the label that saves. And I believe that people who seek God and lay their guilt, shame and pain at the cross of Christ will be saved though they won't label themselves "christians"... For many reasons:

=> Don't fell that they are "good enough" or simply because the word "christian" has extremely bad associations in the mind of many people.

We are all humans (in good and bad) in this world with human thoughts, actions and feelings. Personally, I can't follow a leader (but Christ!) if he tells me that he is perfect or if he tells me that he has got the absolute truth in every detail.

The first and second commandment:

=> Mark 12,30-31: "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: Love your neighbor as yourself."

I often fail at doing that!

We are all on our way in life, and for christians a life in relationship with God where we grow in the knowledge about Him and His love for us. If it wasn't for Gods unconditional love and His mercy and grace I would have had nothing! He is my everything.

In the Old Testament we see our holy and righteous God who can't endure sin. God is still the same and still just as holy today!

In the New Testament Christ broke the death, bought us free, buried our sins (if we accept Christ as our savior) and is winning people by His love.

=> Romans 10,4: "Christ is the end of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes."

Man, Gods love IS unconditional! Otherwise NO-ONE will be saved. The dude on the cross beside Christ. And Christ forgiving sins and healing people on the spot, when all they could do was to believe in Him and receive. Then, AFTER receiving His unconditional love we can do good deeds with thanks.

=> 1 John 4,19: "We love because he first loved us." 

- - - - - - -

Be sure to check out Pastor Bobs blogging at   MySpace.com/PastorBobBeeman

"Andreas believes in God - and heavymetal"

=> The title of the 1,5 minutes sound-picture profile-"article" mentioned in the "New Breed Festival" post beneath.

Here's the link if you wanna see the sound-picture-video:

http://medianet.djh.dk/mm/2008e/tro/min-tro/min-tro_forside

(It'll only be on the internet for a short while...)

New Breed Festival

We (Solace The Day) did a gig in Herning on Saturday. A one day event with 8 promising upcoming bands (mainly metal). It was an awesome day/night and a very cool first gig for our new lead-vocalist, Magnus.

The very best thing about this night was all the talks, meeting folks and connecting with people, and that's what Solace The Day is all about (+ a lot more :-) !

The picture is taken by a journalist photographer who came to the show to meet Solace The Day and write about me => Living my life in relationship with a loving God, and loving extreme metal at the same time.

Traveling seminar

This morning I did a 45 minutes seminar for 100 students at the boarding school here in the village Fjellerup. I talked about how important it is for young people to travel and experience other parts of the world.

I see a big tendency among people who never leave their country, that they get convinced that MY COUNTRY IS THE BELLY BUTTON OF THE WORLD..! In every single country you'll find people who're convinced that they're the center of the world.

I talked about cool, crazy and fascinating facts about Nepal, the people and culture + told crazy and awesome stories from when I, as a 17 year old kid, traveled Nepal and India for 4 month with my brother.

These pictures are taken from a 5 weeks trekking/expedition trip in the Himalayas where we also conquered the summit of Island Peak ( 6.189 meters / 20.305 foot ).

Good OLD neighbor

These days I'm mostly sitting in front of my Mac working on the Green Light District Festival, Intense Extreme Radio, my band Solace The Day and other metal ministry projects.

Yesterday I needed to do some different kind of work, so I started trimming the bushes around my parents house. Before I knew it I was standing over at my neighbor trimming hers as well...you know how it goes :) 

My old neighbor, Laura, always tells me twice a minute that I'm her boy.

Hmm... Not bad.  

Who am I?

Yesterday I did a 45 minutes bible study for 100-115 students in age 15-17 at the boarding school where my dad is a teacher.

It's a great bunch of folks and it was actually a lot of fun.

The main theme was: "Who am I?"

- According to myself...

- According to God, who created me and loves me unconditional. ...And knows me even better than myself!

=> If I try to be God there's all kind of reasons to be get depressed, because of my failures and flesh. I'm not even capable of making myself stay happy...

=> If I try to see myself as God views me there's all kind of reasons to get excited, thankful and filled with love to God, myself and people around me!

... I've been a student at this school myself, which I REALLY enjoyed. But I also remembered how hard it could be staying awake at the lessons of bible study. 

Therefore I couldn't help it but play some gore grind metal from Vomitorial Corpulence in between two bible verses  :O)  Which kinda kept them well awake  B-)

Grandma's gone

So my grandmother just suddenly died from a blood clot.

Just one single week after a big family party that she was much in charge of (my grandfathers 80 year old birthday).

It has been some strange days.. The day before yesterday I drove across the (little) country to visit my grandfather and be with my mom in the situation. Today I went again (this time with my mom, dad and sister) to see my grandmother in the casket and be with my grandfather.

On Friday the funeral will be. She's a great loss and it came VERY unexpected for the whole family, but we're all talking a lot about it which is the right thing to do. The whole family on my mothers side (mothers 3 siblings, my grandfather, us 13 grandchildren + 2 great grandchildren) believe in God which is so awesome. 

It's some strange days, but things are well considering the circumstances. It makes ALL THE DIFFERENCE IN THE WORLD (and beyond!) to have God as our loving Father carrying the family through the hard times. Not pass the hard times, but THROUGH it. This is where we learn about life. And love.

Solace the EP

Solace The Day just spend 3 days and 3 nights in a great studio (BMmusic.dk) recording 6 tracks for our first release: "Solace the EP"

Above: The biggest dread head of us all, Jonas in his drum-cage.

Below: I, in the room where we did all guitars, vocals and violins. 
Love this picture below. Pretty spent after working from 9 AM to 2-4 AM everyday, but it was a lot of fun! On the picture you see David (vocals) in front, drummer Jonas on left and bass Mads recording violin in the back. Guitar Levi behind the camera I guess.  
Still need to do the mix and mastering - so it might take a while before the disc is out.

Living with my nephews

My brother just became a doctor and has started working at a hospital a good distance from where they live. 

My brother, his wife and two kids can't move into their new house the first month, so Amy and the kids Jonas (2,5 year old today) and Adam (1 month today) are living at my parents house, where I'm staying as well.

It's very cool being close to my nephews and today Jonas and I went on a two hour gummy bear adventure :-D 

Intense Extreme iPod Radio

We (Sanctuary International) just started a new thing called iPod Radio. Like before you can download all of the great PodCasts and teachings by Pastor Bob, but the new thing is that Intense Extreme Radio and the rock and melodic metal Intense Radio is doing PodCasts as well!

Every two weeks I'll fit together 45 minutes of extreme and awesome metal music for you to download for free! Commercial free as well! 

Vol.1 contains music by Antestor, Extol, Crimson Moonlight, Frost Like Ashes, Underneath The Gun, Becoming The Archetype, A.W.A.S., Arvinger and Vardøger, where several of the songs start out with a song description and introduction by the artist.

Besides that, every PodCast has got a short devotion by Pastor Bob + lots of pictures, album covers and band info that will show up on your iPod while you play it.

To download and subscribe to the iPod Radio PodCast for free:

1) Download iTunes music player for free (if you don't have it)

2) Go to "iTunes Store" and search for "Intense Extreme Radio"

3) Hit "Subscribe" and it will download to Intense Extreme iPod Radio

...all the future coming episodes will now automatic download to your iTunes library!

HOW GREAT IS THAT!!  :O)  ... I like it.

Sommer Oase

The main reason that I only spend 3 weeks in the States this time, was because of this Bible Music Summer Camp in Denmark called SommerOase. During the week long camp more than 4100 people participated.

And what a great week! It was definitely the right decision to be back in Denmark for this camp. Great seeing so many friends again and reestablish connections with other ministries and Danish leaders that I'm working with.

During the camp I did a seminar on "Integrity as a musician", where I showed pictures of my friends around the world. One of them was of 3 of my black metal friends:

Daniel (old growler in Barricades), Ravn (Frosthardr) and Ronni (Antestor), right after the Antestor concert at BobFest'04 in Sweden.

This picture was a bit shocking to many of the people who heard my seminar  B-)

At the camp I also did some punk rock worship for the 10-14 year old kids, and maaan that was fun!! The more wild the songs were, the happier and more excited the kids became :-P

One night it all ended up in a massive celebration where the kids were jumping around all over and we were jumping around on stage trying to keep up with 'em  :O)

Adam Mattias Larsen!!!

YEAH BABY!!!

One of my new very best friends just got born on the 14th of July!

He's the coolest little none year old dude I know!!!

Here's my parents with Adam on his birthday. They are also very cool!
I just made it back to Denmark to catch the birthday, which means a lot to me! 

Nephews are a blast! 

Here's 2,5 year old Jonas showing his little brother one of his favorite cars: The Mustang. He is half American, you know B-) 

...I did it again!!! Uncle times two!

SeeYouLater my McCavanaghs

It felt weird to leave the States already after only being here 3 weeks this time. But 3 GREAT great weeks! Loved it all, and one of the best things was to hang out with my McCavanagh family again. These friends has been hosting me every time I've been living in Nashville.

Sad to say "SeeYouLater". I love you guys!

(And BTW sorry for posting this old picture of you :O) 

GLDFestival tattoo

It has been a year since my last tattoo and it has been itching for more ink :O)

The night before I left for Denmark I got this one. Of course I only want tattoos that means a lot to me, and at the same time I like using my body as a blog about great things happening in my life. 

Work in progress. A re-design of the Green Light District logo that my friend Magnus made for the GLDF'08 T-shirt.  

Old school with a lot of colors and symbolic. 

- A life-breathing heart with

- A candle light in the main vain, aorta, life meeting life, (don't fight the dark => shine your light!)

- A crown of thorns rapped around the heart (because of Christ, I live)

- Skulls with the everlasting sign of the cross marked in their forehead (when we die as Christians, God will look at us - see Christ - and embrace us as His children, that we are! Christ died so that we can have life! Everlasting! Dead is the death for those who proclaim His name!)

- The Green Light District Festival banner (this festival exists because of Gods grace, the love of Christ, the guidance of the Holy Spirit and all the exited metal-kids in Denmark who stand together as family! => Church)

- Two big roses in bloom (life, life, life) and

- Cartoonish "KA-POW!" at the bottom (chew on that one, mister :O)

Cornerstone Festival concerts

The Cornerstone concerts are running from Monday to Sunday morning, where about 300 bands are playing. Here's my friends from Scotland playing in the punk band Rodent Emporium. I met them in England/Wales half a year ago.
There's probably more than 50 stages at Cornerstone, and it's crazy with all that noise all day none stop. ...And I love it!  
Above: Flatfoot 56 playing at the Underground stage. 

Below: A couple of my friends from Nashville playing in the band Mankind at one of the MANY MANY "Generator Stages". A small piece of grass area and a generator. Then the bands just bring there own gear. The Sanctuary Stage was one of the bigger ones and in a crowded location. 

One of the very cool things about Cornerstone is that there isn't a whole lot of back stage areas. Practically none, so the bands are forced to walk around, and that way I got to talk to all the folks I wanted to. 

Just to name a few of my favorite concerts during the week:

Living Sacrifice, Frost Like Ashes (picture above), Flatfoot 56, Neocrecy, Impending Doom, Becoming The Archetype (again), The Chariot (again again), The Famine, Drottnar (as always), Sotahuuto (Finish friends), Bestir (my good friends), Alethian, Common Yet Forbidden, A Plea For Purging, The Burial, Showbread (again), A Hill To Die Upon, Voice Of The Mysterons, Sexual Confused, Demon Hunter and As I Lay Dying.

Cornerstone Festival fellowship

Finally!! 

I've been longing to go to Cornerstone Illinois since the first time I heard about it, yeeeears ago. Awesome being here and meeting a lot of cool people, getting new friends and meeting many, whom I've met in Europe at several Christian metal festivals. 

Above: Phil and I. Brothers in metal-arms: True love!

The cool thing about Christian metal festivals is that people are so passionate about both the music AND the fellowship, that WE travel world wide to meet each other => the Family. 
Above: Larry and Karen Schertz has had a Sanctuary camp at Cornerstone for 16 years now! Wow dude! And a sanctuary it truly is! A restful place, loving people and amazing food :-P
A few of all the great folks I hung out with. On the picture there's friends from Finland, England, Denmark and the US.

The picture above is taken inside the Sanctuary Stage Tent, and man it looked awesome! The ceiling was covered with thick BLACK plastic and fake burning torches hanging down several places. SO MANY people did amazing job working at the Sanctuary all week.
Jeremy made this cool info stand to put outside of the Sanctuary Stage. Pastor Bobs Pod Casts, different projects and the Intense Extreme Radio that I'm doing.

I played the heavy-guitar 3 times with Jim LaVerde and the Sanctuary Worship Band. It was an honor to play 3 times at this festival, that I've been longing to experience for so long. The worship went well and Pastor Bob shared his heart after the worship all 3 nights. Good times! 

Ravn + Annie (and the Schertz)

It was a great honor to stay at the Schertz family the days before Cornerstone + be at Ravn and Annies wedding!!

Above: Ravn, Annie, some girl and Mika (Annies great boy).
Ravns dad from Norway => and => Karen & Larry Schertz.

It really felt like family staying with them, and I can't wait to visit them again..! They know what it is to love on people! Thank you my Friends!
Annie and Amanda Schertz......My friend Jeremy (from heavy metal band Strangeland) did the photos. 

A quick update from Tennessee / Illinois

It's awesome being back in the States seeing friends and hanging out with the McCavanaghs + driving around Nashville with Pastor Bob again.

Birthday
The 25th was my birthday and Pastor Bob put up a surprise party for me at Abbie's house. About 30 people came and it was great seeing so many people again. I really appresiated it!

Wedding
PB and I had a 8-9 hour drive to Illinois yesterday. My friend Ravn (lead screamer of Norwegian black metal band Frosthardr) and Annie Schertz are being married by Pastor Bob this weekend. My Danish friend Stefan "Ghashul" Bruhn is here as well.

Cornerstone Festival
will be this upcoming week from Monday to Saturday. I will be playing 3 times with Jim LaVerde and the Sanctuary Worship Band on the Sanctuary Stage. Besides that I've scheduled 30 band interviews that I hope we'll get done. Usually there's about 30.000 people at this festival. Christian bands where most of them are playing hard core metal.

Nashville it is

Goood being back, in spite of country music and bad traveling..!  

... Actually the traveling wasn't as bad as it used to be  :O)  This time I only got my travel schedule changed twice, missed one flight and had an extra 12 hour layover in Chicago. But it felt like luxury this time! Because of all the mess at the airports I got a room at a nice hotel + a business class seat from Washington to Chicago. AND a food voucher, YEAH, hehe:

I usually post my food voucher food at this blog, so here you go B-)

The good thing about traveling by my self is that I don't have to worry. I've got no traveling partners to take care of, and I don't mind sleeping in the dirt. But it would have been funny to share the travel and the funny episodes with someone, like when I entered business class, sat down, and all the pretty business folk was convinced that I was in the wrong section of the plane, hehe :-P

But after a few seconds I started talking with the very wealthy business lady beside me, and we had a great chat for at least an hour. 

Back to The States

So, tomorrow early early early I'm heading back to Nashville, TN!

Looking VERY much forward to see everybody again, especially my little American family; The McCavanaghs!

I will only be here for 3 weeks though, due to a huge SummerCamp that I'm involved with in Denmark.

While being in the US I will go to Cornerstone Illinois to help at the Sanctuary Stage, do some band interviews and play there as well with Jim LaVerde and the Sanctuary Worship team.

Road trip to Sweden

JUST got back after a very impulsive road trip from Friday to Monday. My old nanny and friend "Tante Gerd" has got a little cabin out in the woods in Sweden. No electricity, no running water and the toilet is a bucket out door: Awesome!

It's probably the 5th time I'm here => sweet place for vacations out in the wilderness! ...But this time we went to clean up after someone broke the door down. Fortunately nothing was stolen, but a dude had had at least one good nights sleep there.It turned out to be an GREAT time of quietness, retreat and fellowship. Tante Gerd, my friend Jered (from Nashville) and I went for it. Appreciated some quiet time in-between a whole lot of world-wide-traveling. God knows how to turn bad things into great things => what a blessing!

Hard Rock Halleluja, Germany

Last weekend was a GREAT one as well!
We rented a van and went on a road trip down south to our German friends. Pastor Bob did seminars and Solace The Day brought the axes. Here's the line up for the metal event:

My friends from Arcane Legion, who are working with their church on putting these events up. This sweet stage is actually the church room:
Solace The Day in back stage warming up. With a little help from Martin from Corpse Under Construction:

It's always great to meet the Pantokrator guys, and it has been lots of fun sharing stage with 'em two weekends in a row. ...Here Panto-Jonas and I are having a serious talk down under in the catacombs of Eckernförde:

...or something like that.

After the show Arcane, Panto, Solace and more friends went to grab a beer sausage. Sweet time of fellowship and hang out (though a couple of these guys look a bit spent):

From left; my Nashville-friend Jered, I, Solace-drummer-Jonas, Solace-guitar-Levi.

A great time i Germany meeting friends and getting new ones! The Hard Rock Halleluja events happen once in a while. Please go check it out at myspace.com/hardrockhallelujah1 ! They are great people with a good ministry and a cool show!