Road Trip with Angelcrypt – a firsthand witness account in three parts
- Noel Mifsud
- 1 day ago
- 3 min read
Part 3
Stage Conquered, The Journey Home Or Exploding Beer
Sunday, July 13th. Clear skies, full stomachs, can’t lose. At noon we uploaded the van and 30 minutes later we were off.
Arrived backstage through a long and winding road around 1.50pm and once we unloaded the gear Andrea checked the drumkit on stage and all logistics taken care of the band started to set up. Condemned AD was the first band of the afternoon on the second stage, just before Angelcrypt.
Hailing from Sweden and formed in 1989 thrash metal band Condemned AD has till now released 2 demos 3 Eps with the last one being their latest release in 2024. The have released their debut full length album in 2022 titled Follow A Failing Leader.
3:05pm it was time for Angelcrypt. I was on filming duty, phones in both hands, while a crowd gathered and grew louder by the minute. From the first notes of ‘Clockwork Blood Read’ I could feel a certain aura building behind me, I was filming at that time so I could not turn around, but once the song finished I could hear a good round of cheering and upon turning I found a really good crowd of metalheads who came to see the band, some of them not for the first time, as we found out later. ‘Iron Creed was next, both from Dawn Of The Emperor released in 2020, followed by ‘Serpents Of The Somme’ from the 2016 album We Are The Dead. With the crowd getting warmer and louder every minute the band went into ‘Through Blackened Water’ which is the band’s latest single released last March. Back to Dawn Of The Emperor with the title track before playing their 2024 single ‘Legacy Of Valour’. Finishing their set with ‘The Black Hand’ which since it was released as a single in 2018 became one of the fans favourite and not only in Malta as we found out from the cheers and the reception the band received.
Post-show, there were autographs, photos, a sort of spontaneous meet and greet while in the meantime Free Fall took the stage. Sadly, we had to hit the road straight away. We were still hyped from the performance especially the band, of course and we were making good time and by 6.45pm we were in Austria.
At 10pm we managed to find an open restaurant (after a sort of long search on the internet), and we found it in the nick of time as it was nearly closing time. This was in Graz (again) and the restaurant was a Heinz chain restaurant which I highly recommend.
Monday, July 14th. The final stretch. Several groggy espresso stops and by 10:30am, our last pitstop. Around noon we drove past Monte Soratte, famously shaped like Mussolini face lying down. Yes, really. Beneath it: secret WWII bunkers, pagan lore, and more historical spookiness than we expected.
During the drive back into Nemi we passed lake Nemi which is famous for its great sunken Roman ships built under Caligula. In 1927, Il Duce Benito Mussolini, President of the Council of Ministers, ordered Guido Ucelli to drain the lake and recover the ships. On 10 November 1931, the Minister of Public Works ordered the project, and all research abandoned, but on 19 February 1932, the Navy Ministry, which had been a partner in the recovery, petitioned Mussolini to resume the project. A purpose-built museum constructed over both ships was inaugurated in January 1936. Unfortunately, the ships were destroyed by fire during World War II on the night of 31 May 1944.
We were famished from the long journey, so we tried returning to Ristorante Le Colombe. Closed—it was Monday, the Italian day of culinary mourning. Third restaurant was the charm, and after a final Roman feast at Da Sora Lella in Ariccia (another restaurant that I also highly recommend), we packed up, rested a bit, and headed to the airport.
One last twist? The guy at the automatic baggage area became an Angelcrypt fan. Who knows—maybe we’ll spot him in a mosh pit soon.
Flight home was smooth. Adventure over.
Angelcrypt shall be on the road again from the 12th of September in Breda, The Netherlands till the 21st September, with 10 dates taking them through The Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland and Italy.
Me…I was on the road again on Wednesday 21st July towards Tolminator with press accreditation in hand, but maybe that’s another story for some other time!
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