sweden rock festival

Fan-filmed video footage of FIREWIND 's June 7 performance at this year's edition of the Sweden Rock Festival in Sölvesborg, Sweden can be seen below. Vocalist Apollo Papathanasio left FIREWIND in January and has been temporarily replaced by American singer Kelly Sundown Carpenter(BEYOND TWILIGHT, OUTWORLD, DARKOLOGY, ADAGIO). In a recent interview with Metal Assault, Gus G. stated about Apollo's departure: "People following the band for the past few years would know that we've had different session guys at the live shows even when Apollowas in the band because he just had to skip a few tours during the year. So whenever the schedule was getting too heavy for him and he would have to take care of stuff back home, we had to get other guys. So this time, he had to skip again and he was like, 'You know, instead of holding you guys back, I might as well just quit.' I think he did the right thing for him, for us as well, because we can only do that [getting session vocalists] so many times and we're better off trying to find a new permanent guy instead of getting replacements for a tour. So at least now we know that we have to find somebody new, and in a sense it's a bit sad, but at the same time it's some sort of relief." Asked if Carpenter is going to be the permanent replacement forPapathanasio, Gus said: "We don't know yet. We're not going to rush that decision. We're really happy with what he's doing on stage; he's doing a really good job. But we have this tour and then we have a few festivals back home and then FIREWIND might be on hiatus for a while, so we're going to see what we're going to do."