Carl, Neil, and Nick scribe our mammoth trek across 13 countries to tour with two of our favourite bands ever.

20th March 2018 - Obituary (Milan, Italy)

After spending 4 days feeding our unhealthy fetish for coffee, booze, French cheese and service station food, we finally arrived in Milan. This was fortuitous as the on-board bog on the bus needed some serious attention... perhaps the less said about that the better...

First off, Alcatraz in Milan - what a fantastic venue! These guys have seriously got it nailed. Right from the techs and stage hands to the merch guys and the in house catering, it was faultless. Before we knew it they’d basically loaded our trailer into the venue, sorted out merch out, and sat us down for a proper tasty meal. There was some fantastic looking cake too. I say “looking” because by the time any of us got there, Luke, our TM had basically buried his face in one side of it and eaten his way back out the other. Next on the agenda was showers. Nice showers. The sort of showers that you’d literally give vital body parts to hop in to during a tour. But enough about soapy body parts...

Washed and fed, we headed for the stage for sound check. Half an hour later, the building was shaking satisfactorily, and we were being shot some very confused glances from the monitor engineer. His assertion that “any more kick drum through the monitors will kill you” fell on deaf ears (pun intended) so, with the wedges literally peeling our skin off, and with more red lights on the desk than a questionable weekend in Amsterdam, we gave the thumbs up and we were set for the show. And what a show!!!

Considering it was our first show in Milan, and actually the first in Italy for Krysthla, the crowd were great. 45 minutes later there were sweaty bodies, raised horns, and plenty of Krysthla t-shirts wandering around the venue. Our job here was done. We had a good chat with the Exmortus and Obituary guys (who are all lovely fellas), packed the kit into the backstage holding room, and relaxed to watch the other bands and drink our way through the very generous rider. A 1:30a.m bus call then put a halt to the aftershow party, just as we were assisting Obituary deplete their whisky collection.

Now we embark upon the 2500km journey to Tallinn. Next stop, 3 dates with Vader..... BRING IT ON!!!! (Carl)

23rd March 2018 - Vader (Tallin, Estonia)

So it begins. The 1553 miles from the Obituary show in Milan to the first show with Vader in Estonia was a monster endurance test, but with Des, the mutant driver at the helm we managed to smash through it like soppy mashed spuds. The venue and all the staff were awesome, with possibly some of the best catering we've seen in years! Klubis Tapper, thank you..!!

After load in and the glorious grub we started soundcheck. Within minutes we knew we were in for a heavy one as a huge smile was plastered over our sound engineer Luke's face. Could have been memories of the food though..? And just like that it was all systems go and doors were open for the night.

The support bands played great sets and the venue was filling up nicely. Then it was our turn to crush everyone and get the crowd ready for the mighty Vader.!!

Big riffs, all the hair swishing and much low end had Estonia rocking from the off! With some folks coming from Mexico (😯) to come see us the night was heavy, sweaty and totally awesome!! Estonia knows how to enjoy a metal show for sure... another amazing crowd.. (they liked the stickers)!!

Next stop, Latvia..!! Stay tuned for more tour/riff/food related shenanigans tomorrow. (Neil)

24th March 2018 - Vader (Riga, Latvia)

Although it was sad saying goodbye to Estonia, it was now our time to head down to Riga, Latvia. So far we haven’t really had the time to stop off and take in the surrounding Baltic landscape but our super human robotic driving machine Mr. Des pulled over to have a look at the frozen Baltic Sea... something I’ve never seen before, nevermindwalking on the thing. Adi gravitated towards the melted part and fell in (soggy shoe).

We pulled up, parked up and checked out the venue which, after navigating hallways and stairs in true Spinal Tap style, the stage emerged and what a cool place that was! Melna Piektdiena (or Black Friday) is a true diamond in the rough type of venue. As per usual we received gracious hospitality and proceeded to prepare ourselves for another night of blast beats and phat riffage.

Shout out to the opening band Beyond The Structure who blew us all away and subsequently laid the foundations for building Riga an entirely new arsehole, which ourselves and Vader completed shortly afterwards. Great audience, great vibes, great beers! 🍺🍻

🍻🍻🍻Talking of beers, last night we had the absolute pleasure of being taken around Riga by our lovely Russian friend Max, who helped look after us by making us all go to a local micro brewery. Of course we all kicked off about having to go out drinking but eventually we agreed that a team meeting would benefit the tour. Got got to the pub and Krysthla starting blaring out the speakers!! Chaps at the bar were at the show and stuck us on their system. Don’t get that every day! Half an hour later I was on the 10.5% ‘Grave Robber’ which rendered my conversation skills useless. We hit an awesome burger joint next door which I will rate 5 out of 5, purely for working out what I was trying to order.

Another amazing night - next stop Lithuania! (Nick)

“I guess that’s one of the plus sides of the Spotify era - before we head to any country, people are already aware of the songs, the band, and are keen to buy merchandise.”

— Carl Davis (Krysthla)

25th March 2018 - Vader (Vilnius, Lithuania)

With Latvia now behind us, we found ourselves trucking towards Vilnius, Lithuania. This was the shortest run on the tour, so we made good time and just 4 or 5 hours later, we were there. The venue, The Rock River Club, is quite literally, right on the river on the edge of the old town. Very picturesque and definitely a place worth exploring as a tourist, but we had a metal show to play. Once again the treatment from the venue was first class, and within no time Vader and ourselves had sound checked, and it was nearly show time.

It struck me that fans in Vilnius really like to get the whole gig experience from the very first, to the very last second. A quick trip out to the bus 15 minutes before doors opened presented me with a HUGE queue of people waiting patiently in sub zero temperatures to make sure they were there for all the bands. Superb! For every bit of cold they’d endured waiting, they soon warmed up once inside, and the openers, Beyond the Structure once again got things going with a top performance.

It was then our turn to take to the stage, and it was clear this crowd had done their homework. It was obvious they knew the songs, as I could clearly see people at the front singing along with the words to 'A Minor Mystery Of Death' which we opened with, and the cheer when Adi announced 'Luminosity' was deafening. Awesome stuff! I guess that’s one of the plus sides of the Spotify era - before we head to any country, people are already aware of the songs, the band, and are keen to buy merchandise.

We found in our previous European tours that the crowds love to chant along to certain parts of the tracks more so than in Britain. Well, Lithuania certainly took the volume record for that. During the mid section of 'Make Disciples Of The Nations' they were at least as loud as we were. And that’s REALLY saying something... 😂

So, with the show done, we headed into the crowd to enjoy the Vader show, take at least 75,000 selfies with the audience members, and sign many albums, stickers and body parts...😳
A couple of beers in a bar just along from the venue then ensued until about 4am, and we headed back to the bus to catch an hour or two of sleep before wagons rolled at 6:00.

We now embark on our 1500 mile journey across 7 countries to get back to the UK. We have Easter weekend off, and then next up it's Sanctuary Burnley on 6th April followed by Rebellion Manchester on the 7th!! BRING IT ON!!! (Carl)

CONTACT KRYSTHLA: http://www.krysthla.co.uk/contact/

Blog: Obituary and Vader shows