Pastor Bob on visit

I've been looking so much forward to hang out with Pastor Bob again! Yesterday he arrived to Denmark from the Rock On The Rock festival in Italy and it really was good to see him again and confirm that we're both alive and well :O)

He will stay here with me and my family in Fjellerup for a week, so it's cool not having to rush before him and I will fly to the States (Nashville, TN) on the 1st of August..!

Family vacation in Norway

I just returned from Norway the day before yesterday. I had a WONDERFUL week long vacation together with my Family (Mom, Dad, Sister Signe, Brother Thomas, his wife Amy and their son Jonas). We stayed at a very nice cabin up in the mountains by Beitostølen. It looks like the one on this picture (though it had a bit more more luxuries :) and was placed above tree level).

We went day trekking and it only took us a couple of hours to reach the top of Mugnetind, which was a beautiful and cool place to sit and admire Gods work of nature powers!

2nd last concert

The night from the 14th to the 15th we did a gig at KFUM&K's UngUge. It was a good evening and we had a great crowd!! We played at an out door stage in front of the whole sleeping tent area where 1500 people were staying, so I guess a lot of folks heard us that evening, hehe :0)

Farewell party

Well A LOT has happened since I did blogging last time!
I had a GREAT drop in farewell party at my former home in Århus, where my very good friend Morten
now lives with his wife Maria, who's also a good friend of mine. THANKS for a cool evening to everyone who showed up!!

My "SEND OUT"

Today I was being send out as missionary from my beloved Church, Aarhus Valgmenighed ( www.valgmenighed.dk ) .

I've been an intense member of this Church for the last 3 years and it has been 3 great years in the Church where I've been challenged a lot + being given opportunities to make my visions become reality! This Church had a money collect for the Green Light District metal festival and it was a huge blessing!



One week ago I was being ordained Deacon by my Deacon/Social Worker education "Diakonhøjskolen". It has been 4 years of just the right education for me and I feel very blessed for that! The ordain ceremony at the big old Sct. Pauls Church in Aarhus was great and breathtaking, and with the todays Missionary ceremony I feel so very ready to work full time with ministry!
Glory to God!

And here's a picture (from last Sunday) of me together with the rest of the Deacon-gang + Henrik Stubkjær and Lars Østerkjærhus. Today I was the only one who got send out from Århus Valgmenighed.

1/4 century

Dude..! Yesterday was the day when I spend the last day of the first quarter century of my life. Hmmm... Still feeling young though:


...Though my skin is starting getting loose (and I've lost hair on one side of my head):


In Denmark we've got this wicked tradition, that when you turn 25 and you're not married you'll get powdered cinnamon. And when I say powdered cinnamon I mean freaking powdered cinnamon all over the place and everywhere :O)
I got totally run down by friends both at midnight AND at midday and I've still got a big plastic bag full of cinnamon clothes. My skin color was actually very similar to the pictures above.

Grandma's 80s birthday :)

Well yeah my Granny is turning 80 today (the 18th). Her name is Nora Christensen and she's a real nice and funny ol'lady with a lot of energy :O)


I haven't got any picture of her but I've got the Danish flag which is traditional used for every birthday and celebration. Nora gathered family and friends for her birthday at a fine hotel. It was a nice and calm day together with cousins and folks. In some wierd kind of way Grandma always expects me to play a little music for her at these parties... So I decided to make her happy and play/sing a song called "Kære lille mormor" (Dear little Grandma). The music genre is IN DEED VERY fare away from the music I like and I've never thought that I'd play this song ever in my life! ...But my cool sister, Signe, was hip and she helped singing along and playing 2nd guitar so I wasn't alone :) . And my teenage cousins were all singing, shouting and bawling along so it turned out to be lot of fun! And the old people seemed to like it as well, hehe :0)

Todays 50km run

Wow dude... My legs are pretty much less mobile now compared to how they were doing this morning :O)I've done 7 Marathons since I was 16 years old and now I wanted to give myself a bit of a bigger challenge. I like doing long distance running just to challenge myself and my staying power.

Today was a hard one. I haven't trained very much and the last two days I've been on a too long pilgrimage walk together with my class. A good but exhausting walk :) My goal for today was to run the 50km (31,1miles) without any kind of breaks or walking + to do it in less than 5hours, and it actually went kind of well! I reached my goal in the time 4hours and 22minutes, and now I'm going to suffer the next week because of such a dumb challenge hehe :) ...but sure it was worth it.

Rock For Nødhjælp

This is the name of a cool one-day festival at my school.


Yesterday was the big day of this debut festival, and everything went very smooth! It was mainly arranged by the students of the school and the main organizers did a very cool job!! I helped as well and Barricades did one of the late evening concerts, and a great concert it was! A bunch of Barricades-friends traveled long distances to come hang out with us. Thank you guys!!

And Karin from the band Munich did guest vocals on 3 songs at this concert! It was BEAUTIFUL! She's the one who does the female vocals on our album Blood Combines.

Final school paper done!

Thumbs up, very nice good work and now be joy full... :0)


Phwew... That was lots of work. But it feels good to have it done! My classmates at Diakonhoejskolen and I delivered our bachelor project today. That means that I haven't slept at all last night => just writing. Worked all day yesterday, 15 hours the day before yesterday and 17 hours the day before. ....Aaaand I'm spent :O)

The paper was about double diagnosis - mentally ill addicts. An interesting and important challenge to help these people in their very difficult life situations. (The picture about is just some happy thumbs up giving people who's celebrating with me).

Been working on this paper "full time" the last 6 weeks so now I've got a bit more time for other projects. 24 days left of my 4 years education. Wow, how quickly time flies away!

Blood Combines

I just realized that I havn't posted a picture of the Barricades album!


Here's the reviews from Nordic Mission:
1) From their newsletter:

BARRICADES: Blood Combines
Denmark’s leading Christian metal band is back with their debut fullength! This is an absolute must have for fans of brutal metal and metalcore like Norma Jean, Extol or As I Lay Dying!

2) From their website:

BARRICADES: Blood Combines (CD)
Metalcore/Hardcore

Denmark's leading Christian metal band is back with their debut fullength album! Selfreleased, this still both looks and sounds as professional as anything else! A must-have for any fan of aggressive music in the veins of Zao, Norma Jean, As I Lay Dying and bands like that. These guys are not afraid to tell the truth and who they believe in. What's to loose anyway!

12 tracks
16 pages booklet
More than 50 minutes
+ 4 hidden live videos

Todays concert

Today we did our 4th last gig with Barricades at a big Church camp named "Kirkedage". We have been playing at a lot of funny places during the years and this is one more to count though it actually was a good experience.

This picture is from another Barricades concert in Vejle, DK. Not many folks attended the todays concert, but 8 of the most energized Barricades-friends came and made a huge party!!


They even made a couple of circle pits, which the Barricades-friends are very well known for YEAH!! A couple of the guys on this picture were also dancing with us today :0)

Thank You Guys

70's car chase movies!

Yesterday I went downtown to watch a couple of Peter Fonda movies in an old, dusty underground cinema called "Slagterhal 3" (Slaughter Hall 3).


Lars from Barricades and I went and had our selves a great laugh!! Those movies are just the best. We watched "Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry" from 1974 and "Race with the Devil" from 1975.

Can't wait...

I will work and travel together with Pastor Bob Beeman from August and I must say: I CANT WAIT!


After traveling in Europe I will fly with Pastor Bob to the States and have my new base in Nashville, Tennessee. I have now known this for quiet some time and it actually feels very strange not to be there!! I'd really like to start my new work NOW!
...Guess God has something for me to do and experience here before I'm ready to leave.

Double Diagnosis

I've only got 6 weeks left of my deacon/social worker/teacher education. That means that I'm in the middle of my final school paper => a 40 pages paper about mentally ill addicts and how Denmark can be better to reach and help these people.


It's a big problem for these people to get the help they need, and it's a big challenge for the society to know how to deal with them.

Last week I attended a two days Double Diagnosis Conference at a very nice Hotel with the leading professors, doctors and social workers in that field. The charge of the two days conference were 5.000kr (910 US dollar) per person... wow dude!! So I grabed the my phone and told them about this school paper of mine...and I got it for free!

A good conference where I learned a lot and got a lot of facts for my paper. And all the noble people got pretty curious about me => I think they are only used to see people with dreads and tattoos as their clients, so I got a lot of chats in the coffee breaks :O)

The end of the Barricades-era is near

Here is a press release that I wrote for our website:
______________________

Hey guys, fellowmen and heavy rockers!

Barricades will hereby announce you that from the 1st of August 2007 Barricades will be no more.

Untill then we will ”Windmill kick you in the face” :0) all over Denmark. We’ve got a bunch of concerts which we, as always, are looking brutally much forward to experience together with you moshers: The best crowd in the world YEAH!!

You may ask why in the world the band of Barricades will end this Summer just after releasing debut album and having a lot of positive coverage and publicity..?

Andreas will move to Nashville, Tennessee, USA to work with the rock n’ metal Pastor Bob Beeman. Check out: www.sanctuaryinternational.com

Morten will now focus more on his solo singer/songwriter project Silent Highway. Check out: www.silenthighway.com

Brian has become the drummer of Threat Chest. A great metalband who had their brutal debutconcert at the Green Light District festival. Look out for this band!

Lars will after the Barricades-era be freelance metalhead and only God knows where.

The time in Barricades has been awesome, and it has been a great period in our lives. We now feel that it’s the right time to stop the band and put our energy in other projects and stuff. It was amazing to experience a bunch a great Danish metalbands at the Green Light District festival this year. Now we know that the future of Denmark is in good hands :0) Look out for Magtesløs, Amplified and Servants Of The Immortal.

Hope to see you all at our last concerts, where it will also be available to get our new shirts as long as they are in stock. Johnny Haven from The Burning has once again done a very cool job designing our shirts! Check out: www.myspace.com/johnnypopeye

/Barricades

New tattoo..!

So yesterday it happened again :O9
One of my friends made me a nice spider web on my right albow, and I tell you it was a mad spider who did this web :0) I like it a lot!

You can watch a youtube video from yesterdays moment of pain her:
YesterdaysTattoo

the GreenLightDistrict festival

The 13th to 15th has just been an amazing weekend!!

I've had pretty much going on but now I'm ready to go blogging again :O)

The 13th to 15th of April, Denmark received a great debut: Now this little country in Scandiavia has joined the world-map of Christian Metal Festivals!! And a truely blessed festival it was!!!


With 9 bands and more than 200 attending the festival we had a great weekend!

The sun was shining and the mood was way high! This weekend I really found out about the hunger for these festivals to happen in Denmark. One Danish guy had waited for 25 years for something like this to happen in Denmark! He even wrote a snail-mail to Pastor Bob 20 years ago to find out about the posibilities to import Christian Heavy music to Denmark :) YEAH

Everyone was just so positive and wanted to make this festival a great event, which literally raised the enthusiasm to the skies. I've been to a A LOT of festivals and metal koncerts and I've never seen an audiens with SO much energy!

Bands playing at GreenLightDistrict festival 2007:

Crimson Moonlight (sweden)
Frosthardr (norway)
Intohimo (sweden)
Barricades (denmark)
Magtesløs (denmark)
Amplified (denmark)
Threat Chest (denmark)
Servants Of The Immortal (denmark)
Silent Highway (denmark)

Actually we had a metal concert at 10 in the morning, and the crowd was awesome man! A constantly crazy moshpit with cirkelpits and a lot of stagedivings and crowdsurfings => at 10 in the morning!! People were monster positive all weekend and had an energic brutality :0) ; all bands were great and Pastor Bobs seminars were right in the bulls eye! So many people have told me that Pastor Bobs teaching spoke right into their lives and that it really meant a big difference to them. For some of the teenagers, this was the very first time they met a pastor who they really liked.

At the end of the festival I got so many comments from thankfull teenagers who said that they just couldn't wait a whole year for the next Green Light District festival to happen. ...And I DID NOT mentioned anything about doing this next year LOL :0) ...But this festival is needed and therefore it will rise again next year..!

GLORY TO GOD!!!

Endtime Festival

I had a GREAT weekend in Sweden! It was so awesome to meet so many lovely and cool metalheads from all over the world. And I've met A LOT of them on BobFests, NordicFests, FreakStock, Meltdown and DestructionFest - nice!

..And the scedual wasn't so bad either ;O)


A big applause to Samuel Durling, the Endtime Crew, Blood Red Booking and all who showed up - I REALLY enjoyed it!!

And now there's only 8 days to the GREEN LIGHT DISTRICT metal festival in Denmark.
Wild days ;o)

My sisters birthday

Signe just turned 18 the other day (the 5th of March)!

She and I have a lot in common though there's almost 7 years age difference.


She has her own music solo project and it's VERY cool!! She's the brain behind all music and lyrics and has recordet everything herself except for the drums.

Check out LATTER at www.myspace.com/latterband and enjoy!

On Danish national TV3 yesterday...

I got a phone call last Friday from the national television TV3. They do this "1 against 100" quiz where the Danish (world famous) soccer goalkeeper Peter Schmeichel is the host.


The quiz concept is one person against a panel of 100 people. A question is asked (by Schmeichel) and the panel has to answer with in 6 seconds. Then the one person will answer, and if his answer is correct he'll get an amount of money per person from the panel who had the answer wrong. If the one persons answer is incorect he'll loose all his money and what's left of the panel will share what he had got.

We (Barricades) where headhunted to make this quiz show a bit more interesting :0)
They wanted to have a couple of politicians, a couple of clowns and a couple of METALHEADS in the panel together with "normal people" :)

Don't know how they found out that they wanted to use us, but it was a fun day with the guys and I got to talk with a bunch of interesting new people (incl. clowns and politicians).
Brian and Lars from the band even won some pocket money ;)

I'm actually not very much of a fan of these quiz programs and I havn't got a television either, but you always get to talk with folks in a very cool way when you're all stucked together for a reason like this. I felt that everybody was equal no matter of knowledge, politician stands or strange look. That was maybe the only thing I loved by perticipating in the program - but it was worth it!

Nearly done with the record

A few things need to be done before our album hits the press...


It will be named: BLOOD COMBINES

Can't wait to be done and share all our music with everyone who cares!!!

Here's one of the lyrics I and Storgaard wrote for one of the tracks:
__________________________________

With Swelled Fists And Broken Neck

Take this heart

I need You now more than ever Lord, please come take my hand

I need You now more than ever, don’t wanna separate our ways
I need You now more than ever, don’t wanna separate our ways and die, die

With swelled fists and broken neck don’t leave me here please take me back
Back to Your garden of… rest! Of rest

Cause I know I’m not the fighter, I know I’m not a hero
I know I’m just like dust, but in Your arms I’m gold
(in Your arms I’m precious gold)

Take this heart make it Yours
Call us back to love
Make us one again

Better is one day with You than a 100 days alone
Better is one day with You than a 100 lonely days
Better is one day with You than a 100 days alone
Rather one day with You than a 100 lonely...

Give me Your eyes
Give me a heart of flesh
I need You now more than ever, don’t wanna separate our ways
With swelled fists and broken neck don’t leave me here please take me back

Blood runs through my veins -
Your love does not run dry -
How beautiful you guys are -
We were born with so much love -
That’s one thing we have in common -

Grace

Faith
Love
Integrity
For eternity

Grace

My nephews birthday!!

Jonas Samuel Larsen is 1 year old today and Uncle Andreas is very proud of him!


This is a picture from Christmas morning. I thought that now that I'm the one in this family who's studying kids and their welfare (and homeless people with addicts) I should be the one to give Jonas the most none-correct present for a 10 month old kid :0)

...He liked this gun better than the beer I gave him. He said that Daddy could have the beer :)

Christian Metal in Denmark

The 13th of February 2007 Report:


Things are happening over here. Slowly, but I believe that we’ll soon see a small explosion of Christian Metalheads who want to spread some positive energy and the light of Christ in the often dark sub scenes and -cultures of Denmark.

Barricades just recorded a full length album which will be out in March. I’m sure this will be a landmark for Christian metal culture in Denmark!

Pastor Bob Beeman will come visit my family and I in Denmark this April. I know that the Christian metal heads in this country has so much to learn from Pastor Bob, so this visit of his has also turned out to be a 3 days festival as well. (Sorry, I just couldn’t help it, Pastor Bob:0) )

The very first Christian Metal Festival in Denmark:

The Green Light District Fest will be from 13th to 15th of April and will contain great teaching from Pastor Bob, fellowship, metal cafe, great metal concerts incl. 3 debut concerts from the new hope of Denmark + much more!!

There are a couple of things that need to be in place before we start the big promotion. This will be the start of something very big!

I’m putting up this Festival together with a Danish Christian Metal Community who started less than one year ago. ( www.assaultingvanity.dk ) They do a very good job!

“God Gave Rock n’ Roll To You” – I just want to give some back :0)

-Andreas Larsen

Done in studio

Wow!
Just done with our time in the studio. 9 days recording, and now 4 days mix and then 1 day mastering. The result has untill now been awesome!! Hard work!! - But fun!


Three of us in the band has written lyrics. Here's one of the lyrics I did:

With swelled fists and broken neck

Take this heart

I need You now more than ever Lord, please come take my hand

I need You now more than ever, don’t wanna separate our ways
I need You now more than ever, don’t wanna separate our ways and die, die

With swelled fists and broken neck don’t leave me here please take me back
Back to Your garden of… rest! Of rest

Cause I know I’m not the fighter, I know I’m not a hero
I know I’m just like dust, but in Your arms I’m gold
(in Your arms I’m precious gold)

Take this heart make it Yours
Call us back to love
Make us one again

Better is one day with You than a 100 days alone
Better is one day with You than a 100 lonely days
Better is one day with You than a 100 days alone
Rather one day with You than a 100 lonely...

Give me Your eyes
Give me a heart of flesh
I need You now more than ever, don’t wanna separate our ways
With swelled fists and broken neck don’t leave me here please take me back

Blood runs through my veins -
Your love does not run dry -
How beautiful you guys are -
We were born with so much love -
That’s one thing we have in common -
Grace

Faith
Love
Integrity
For eternity

Grace

_______

Can't wait for the album to be done!!!

6th day in studio

Things are going well here!!
All drums, bass lines and guitars (except solos) are done!

The next couple of days we'll do vocals, acoustic guitars, cello, ukulele, mandolin and other weird stuff. Three of our friends are going to visit us in the next days:

- Jonas from the band Attrap will do cello
- Karin from the band Münich will do some vocals
- Daniel from the band RatSack will do guest vocal aswell. He is a former growler of Barricades and it'll be good to work with him on this CD too

It's awesome to finally do our full length debut record and I'm looking SO much forward to here the result!!

It's gonna be brutal and b-e-a-u-t-i-f-u-l !

Barricades in the studio

Two years ago my band and I recorded a 5 track EP, so I guess it's about time we do the full length record!

We will hit the studio on Friday and wake up 12 days later with at least 11 tracks recorded ,lml

The CD will be out in March and I'm SO excited for it - rock on!!

This will be the very first Christian metal album from Denmark (and about time :)

A new year!

The first day of 2007 I sat down and prayed for what God wanted for me in this new year:

FOR TO ME TO LIVE IS CHRIST AND TO DIE IS GAIN! (Phil.1, 21)

2006
A year full of amazement and enthusiasm because of Gods ways, which are way past my understanding!


2007

My desires are to constantly grow in:
- The faith in Gods guidance for every area in my life. He wants to be my traveling partner and my protector everywhere I am! I want to invite Him to be a part of everything in my everyday life. I am in great expectation to what God wants to teach me.
- A confidence in myself my qualities and that God wants to do big things thru me. He has giving me so many gifts and I believe He wants to bless me with as much as I can handle. Who am I without You? Because of the Holy Spirit I can do anything. I want to feel an everyday rest in that confidence! The Spirit lives in me and is working from my inside and out – that perspective convinces me that there’s tons of possibilities to serve God and people. Suddenly anything is possible! I’ve experienced and believe that life doesn’t get any more excited than to spent it in the guidance of God!
- Giving God the glory. I want to honor leaders and people in general. I want to serve those “who doesn’t deserve it” in the eyes of society and other people. I want to serve them because of what they are in the eyes of God. They are His highly beloved creation too.
- A love that “may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that I may be able to discern what is best (and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ), filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God.” (Phil.1, 9-11)

I want to overcome:
- Laziness
- Thoughts that make me believe that my work is worth nothing
- God as a second priority
- Self control without Gods guidance

My expectations:
- Gods guidance
- His greatness in both big and small things
- Times of struggling both in my flesh and in my spirit