Tour Report: Heavy Metal Forces United - HITTEN & AMBUSH

Our friends in Hitten, one of the best bands of New Wave Of Traditional Heavy Metal, based in Spain and having just released their second album "State of Shock",  just returned from their European Tour with Ambush. The band was kind enough to send us the tour report, so enjoy it!

An awesome experience. That's what this last tour has meant to us. Heavy Metal Forces United has taken us, Hitten, and our Swedish brothers Ambush, through all over Europe. 18 concerts, 18 cities, 7 countries. Big Deal.

It all started on March 9th. At 9 o'clock in the morning we all met in our rehearsal place. Time to collect and pack up all the stuff (drums, amps, instruments, merchandise, luggage...) in the van, say goodbye to our friends and family, etc. When all is ready we hit the road and head to Barcelona, our first stop. We got the city and we made the typical route we would do from that day on in almost every cities: 1) Hostel/resting place, leave the luggage and take a rest if there's enough time, 2) go the venue, unload all the stuff and set up all the equipment, 3) sound-check, 4) dinner, warming-up and pre-concert stuff, 5) CONCERT! 6) pack all the stuff and equipment, 7) party and crazy anecdotes (very important part in this tour!) and 8) sleep all you can in order to hit the road and repeat the same process the next day.

When we got to the venue, Rocksound, we met the Swedish guys and since then there was a very good feeling with them, and all along the tour. Great musicians and great people. We miss you guys!

After all the working-time, it was time for the concert, and we were very happy with it. The venue was really crowded, a lot of metalheads enjoyed our first Heavy Metal show of this tour. Everything went right, though it was the first concert and there were, of course, things that we could improve and work on. Typical stuff. After a beer drinking night, speaking English, and trying to find a good parking for the van we could finally get to the hostel and rest, ending the beginning of our adventure.

From that day on we had 11 concerts in a row, each day, until our first day-off, which would be in Hamburg at a spa! Great moments! Vitoria was really cool. A very good venue with an excellent and very kind crew. The sound was also very good and we had a lot of audience too! Burgos meant a little step-up for our performances. We will surely remember the dinner that day (so tasteful burgers!) and of course, the cold... such a cold city! Even the Swedish guys were freezing!

In Madrid we did another great show, surrounded by friends and other bands we knew from before. We also had great party 'til sunrise.

Next day was time to cross the border; Bordeaux, Nantes, and Reims awaited but in general France wasn't what we expected. Too much money spent in highway tolls, bad days for the shows (Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday). We will come back and get things better, for sure! We also appreciate the treatment we had there in the venues from the staff and owners.

Lots of good moments in the Netherlands and Belgium. Definitely great concerts in Tilburg, Antwerp and Kuurne (we will never forget “the laughing night”) or the perfect welcome in Enschede, with our sweet brother in Distillator. We love you, Julays!

Germany is indeed one of the Heavy Metal fortresses in Europe. And yeah, you can notice it! We had great success in German lands (Braunschweig, Hamburg and Oldenburg). Awesome shows, perfect sound, really devoted audience and very good sales! We are really looking forward to come back soon and keep on delivering Heavy Metal!

When we finished our shows in Germany we only had 2 shows left; in Olten (Switzerland) and in Milano (Italy) but this time we would have to continue on our own because due to some throat problems, the singer of Ambush couldn't make it anymore and the band had to return to Sweden sooner as expected. We missed them a lot the rest of the tour but... we had to keep on working!

In Switzerland we made one of the best shows of the tour, with a great performance, lot of people in the audience and furthermore a really really good treatment from the staff in the venue, where we also had a fantastic day-off! The post-concert party was also EPIC!

The finishing touch came in Milano, taking part in the Easter Desaster Festival, along with some Italian bands, though they were a bit more thrash-oriented, and so was the audience. We had bad weather in Italy so we couldn't have much party there but some of us wanted to the use our time to visit the magnificent Duomo, while the other members took a rest of a such exhausting tour.  

The next day we decided not to sleep in Barcelona, in our way to Murcia, as we had expected. At 11 am we left Milano, and we drove all the way home, where we arrived at 5 am. A really exhausting and hard trip, with a lot of accumulated tiredness but full of joy for all the things we had achieved, all the people we had met, thousands of funny anecdotes and good moments, and really good vibes and feelings. We also want to thank David the huge effort he made replacing Aitor on vocals on this tour, risking his own vocal chords at some times. Without him, this couldn't have been possible. A really professional singer. Thank you so much, man!

Heavy Metal Forces United had ended but there will be more opportunities to take our music to as many places as we can. We are already working on a second tour for our album, “State Of Shock”, expected for October, November and December along with our mates of Leather Heart, from Madrid. Stay alert! We will see you on the stages! 

LONG LIFE TO HEAVY METAL!

HITTEN.

The new HITTEN album "State Of Shock" is out now on CD format by No Remorse Records and on vinyl format by High Roller Records.

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