Clawfinger - Munich

It's going to be packed at the Backstage Werk on 22 October: Clawfinger are coming to Munich, and the show is sold out. I'll be there with my camera. And this time, alongside the songs that made the Swedish-Norwegian band big in the nineties, there's a new album to hear as well: "Before We All Die".

The story began in the late eighties at Rosenlund Hospital in Stockholm, where Zak Tell and Jocke Skog met at work. With Norwegian guitarists Bård Torstensen and Erlend Ottem, the band took shape. 1993 saw the release of "Deaf Dumb Blind" - a debut that made Clawfinger known internationally and is one of the early defining records of rap metal.

The guitars delivered the pressure, Zak Tell the plain words. Racism, abuse of power and social inequality were among their themes from the start. "Use Your Brain" from 1995 and "A Whole Lot of Nothing" from 2001 continued along that path.

Then things went quiet for a long time, at least as far as new albums were concerned. "Life Will Kill You" from 2007 was only followed by their eighth studio album "Before We All Die" on 20 February 2026. Clawfinger were only briefly absent from the stage during that time, though: after splitting up in 2013, they were already playing shows again in 2014. The single "Save Our Souls" came out in 2017, and on 26 May 2022 they had already played the Backstage Werk in Munich.

Now the tour is named after the new album. The band describes the record as "one part protest, one part therapy and one part middle finger". Songs like "Scum" and "Big Brother" already provide fitting headlines.

What interests me most is how much room the new songs get in the set. After all, more than three decades of band history won't all fit into one night. SICKRET are the support act, after that the stage belongs to Clawfinger.

Photos and my review will follow after the show here on Rock'n'Pics.