Pre-Inferno Concert
After travelling 500 km by car we arrived in Drammen for the Pre-Inferno concert. Silent Vanquish, Koldbrann and Mayhem were the entertainers for the evening. As always, things take longer than you expect, and this roadtrip was no exception. Things looked a bit bleak there for a while, but we arrived twenty minutes before Koldbrann were to enter the stage, and only missed the first band. Time for a beer and general anticipation, plus checking out the merchandise, of course. General excitement all around. Another beer. And then Koldbrann, one of the two highlights of the evening, entered the stage. Ever since I got my hands on their debutalbum back in 2003 I've wanted to see these guys live, and this show did indeed stand up to all my expectations. Aggression, corpsepaint, spikes and that great sound reminding you of the 1990ies, and the early days of Black Metal. What else could one want after several hours in a car? Mannevond's vocals are almost better live. If you ever have the chance to see these guys perform, there is no excuse not to! Not only are they excellent on stage, they are also really great guys offstage.
After some waiting (and another beer) it was time for Mayhem to take the stage. With Attila back on vocals, this was sure to be something out of the ordinary!
Day 1
After some food (and drink) it was time for one of the highlights of the festival, for me at least, Nebular Mystic entered the small stage at John Dee. Half an hour of aggressive Black Metal, is something you most certainly won't hear me complain about. This up and coming band seemed to be the one that the press was focusing the most on, of all the bands at the festival. Unfortunately I was going to do an interview halfway through their set, but when I got to the appointed place he was keeping busy with other things, and then he disappeared. A bit annoying, but what can you do, eh? The half I did see was most excellent, at least. Be sure to check out their recently released debut, "Necrotic"!
After the Black Metal assault of Nebular Mystic it was time for the old troll himself, Mortiis and his Gothic brand of Metal. Of all the artists, he was probably the one that was most out of place here, but he delivered a good show, despite him throwing the microphone stand around all the time, and he got a good response from the crowd I thought. His show suffered somewhat, because of the industrial elements being less audible, I thought. Still, quite enjoyable. After Mortiis I went to have a chat with Nebular Mystic, who proved to be rather not at all talkative. They had done numerous interviews already, and seemed rather beat. Still, it was an amusing interview to do, though it will never see the light of day, and after practically pulling the answers out of them I went down to John Dee for some serious Death Metal with Gorelord.
Featuring the very busy Frediablo in their ranks, this could have been quite interesting. Unfortunately it got a bit tedious after a few songs. This could be because I am more of a Black Metal person, I don't know, but I do enjoy some Death Metal as well, of course. I would say that Gorelord's fleshy sound is a bit more enjoyable on CD than on stage. However, I did have to check them out, of course. That's what festivals are for! Time to head up the stairs again.
At Rockefeller Lamented Souls were getting ready to go onstage. This Doom outfit has gotten some attention lately, what with finally releaseing their long finished album, The Origins of Misery, featuring all the material they have released so far. Also, since this is a band featuring Simen Hestnæs of Arcturus and Dimmu Borgir fame, that has added to the hype, and this was something I was looking forward to see. However, I must say that this didn't get as interesting as I'd hoped. This isn't really great live music, and since people had been drinking for many an hour at this point, this unfortunately just felt a bit out of place.
Taking over the main stage after Lamented Souls was Swedish Viking/Death Metallers Amon Amarth. After a not too impressive start (did the drummer forget to warm up, or what?!), they eventually got the hang of it and delivered an over all ok show. Though, as with most all of the shows on the Rockefeller stage, I felt that the sound was lacking somewhat. These guys are not entirely my cup of tea though, a bit too melodic at times, and following this performance was this day's headliner Morbid Angel with David Vincent back on vocals.
After having cancelled all interviews earlier, since they were sleeping most of the day away (or just didn't feel like answering a lot of questions, who knows), they entered the stage at 01.00. Much to my surprise they started off the show with "Rapture", their biggest hit. A most excellent beginning. Where do they go from there, you ask? Well, they continued to play all the classic songs, of course. Practically every song you've ever wanted to hear live from their four first albums. These guys still kick ass after all these years. A very good show indeed. David Vincent is back where he belongs, but how he can stand playing in a tight latex shirt is beyond me.
Day 2
On day two there was little activity on my part. I was feeling rather bad (from too much Jack Daniel's in the car before the festival opened for the day, and a bit of a cold), and still rather tired after the previous day as well. I saw the essentials, and slightly more, but that was it. The first band I even considered watching was Grimfist at 19.45. This is yet another band featuring Frediablo. That guy sure is keeping busy, though he has recently removed himself from some of the bands. These guys were not really what I was after, though. Again, Norwegian Death Metal and all that. And since Horgh left for Hypocrisy it wasn't as interesting to see them anymore. Be sure to check out their recent "10 Steps to Hell" album, though. Very good one, that.
It was time for some more Chicken Shwarma instead, before Aura Noir, featuring Blasphemer of Mayhem in their ranks, entered the Rockefeller stage. This was something that I was a bit unsure as to what to expect. I am not so fond of their albums, and the whole Thrashing Black Metal thing just isn't my cup of tea, but I thought I'd give them a try. This proved to be a really good idea, since they absolutely crushed live. Fast and furious, and aggressive as Hell! Just what I needed. Czral's drumming is also always interesting to see. I sure hope he recovers from his fall, and is able to get back on stage and behind the drumkit soon. This is a band that I would love to see again! Still can't stand their albums, though.
Then it was time for another of the many highlights of the festival (after the very unfortunate appearance of the Dirty Sanchez maniacs. What a bunch of sad characters.), Arcturus. Now fronted by Simen Hestnæs, who did some vocals on the "La Masquerade Infernale" album, this was something that I assumed would be very interesting. I had rather high hopes for this, but it exceeded my high est expectations, I must say. They put on an amazing show, played basically all the songs I wanted to hear, with material from all of their albums, as well as the track "Demon Painter" off of their new album "Sideshow Symphonies", and during "Chaos Path" they had the stage full of vaudeville characters. A great show indeed. Simen did an amazing job with the vocals, and it was quite some time since I saw anything that had a show even remotely as memorable as this one.
This evenings headliner Candlemass was up next. These old Doomsters were quite the rage in the late eighties, and I thought I'd watch a song or two, since I listened to them way back when. Sadly, this was not as good as I had hoped. Maybe it was me, I have gone quite a long way since listening to these guys, or maybe some things are just better left in the grave, what do I know. In any case the theatric vocals of Messiah Marcolin, and the slow pace of the music didn't do it for us, so we decided to call it a night after about half a song, and left for the hotel.
Day 3
On day three there was a bit more activity, on my part. I was feeling better than the day before, and so I was a bit more motivated, as well. The first band I saw this day was Nattefrost, and they were probably the most fun of all the bands at the festival. Not too serious (lyric and image wise), crushing Black Metal in the vein of Carpathian Forest (obviously) for half an hour. Who could possibly dislike that? Entering the stage in corpse paint, high heeled boots, fake breasts, string underwear and all smeared in blood was hard to beat for the other bands. What class! Luckily they also played the amazing track "Sluts of Hell", the highlight of any given festival or live event. This was one of the few bands that actually kept their outfit and corpse paint on offstage, after the show. It's always a good thing to not take yourself too seriously.
It was now time for me to interview Gehenna. The interview was a success, and we chatted on a bit after the interview as well. Very nice people, the Gehenna's. (the interview has since been lost, unfortunately.) While I was doing the interview, Swedish Death Metallers Grave had taken the Rockefeller stage, and as I got out into the venue again, they performed the only song I really wanted to hear with them, "Soulless". That's good timing, I must say. This track was about all I could take from these guys, for some reason it seemed that almost all of the Death Metal bands playing here this year just weren't any great livebands. Most of them were just standing there playing their songs. Usually no spikes, and not that aggressive either.
But then again, even Black Metal bands can be rather non aggressive, as Greece's Naer Mataron unfortunately proved to me. I was expecting a bit more from them. I had heard one of their albums a while back, and that was actually quite good, having some aggression in it and all. Live it was quite a different story. Melodic Black Metal seems to be all the rage around the world, these days, but me I've never really understood why, and these guys were rather a bit more melodic than I expected them to be. Sure, they could handle their instruments well, but it just doesn't do it for me, so after a few songs I left for the next disappointment of the evening, namely Green Carnation.
I first heard their "Journey to the End of the Night" album a few years ago, and really enjoyed it. When it comes to progressive Black Metal, I am all ears. Then they did their one hour long, single track album, and had lost the edge in their music that I enjoyed, and after that I pretty much lost track of them. And here they are, playing the festival I'm attending, so I thought I'd see their performance and get something out of it. Unfortunately this was not very impressive at all to see, just rather uninteresting, really, so we went to get some Chicken Shwarma goodness instead, before another one of the highlights of the festival, namely Tsjuder, were to enter the John Dee stage.
 |
| Koldbrann |
After some waiting (and another beer) it was time for Mayhem to take the stage. With Attila back on vocals, this was sure to be something out of the ordinary!
 |
| Attila |
Attila live is a rather strange experience. He does some really weird noises inbetween the songs, but his vocals are excellent. He manages to sound like Maniac on the tracks where he did the vocals, as well as do his own vocals on the De Mysteriis tracks. Very impressive. The highlight of the set, for me at least, was "Life Eternal". Incredible song on the album, and just as good live. Attila seemed to be slightly out of place on the stage for a good part of the show, but after a while he got used to it (or maybe I got used to it, who knows). In the beginning of the second encore Blasphemer's guitar stopped working, which made for an interesting ending of the show. First there was bass, vocals and drums, but after a while it was clear that the guitar was not going to be fixed. Exit Blasphemer. After a few moments Necrobutcher stopped playing and walked off the stage. Now there were only drums and vocals, and then Hellhammer stopped playing, got up and left the stage together with Attila. Quite an odd ending, but also a bit amusing to see. After Mayhem left the stage it was time to do some work. An interview with Mannevond was done, and after this it was time to leave.
Accomodations in Drammen at 3 AM aren't that many, so we decided to give the car a go. Now, three people in a not too big a car is something that is manageable. Not something that is really amazingly comfortable, but it is possible to get some semblance of rest, at least. Our driver repeatedly asked me on the way up "So, where do we sleep in Drammen?" and my answer to this was always "It'll be solved, one way or the other." This was not the answer he wanted to hear, and as he has later stated, he was not in the least bit happy with this vague concept of travelling and accomodations. But it all worked out, after all.
After a rather uncomfortable and not too warm night in the car, we left for Oslo rather early the next day to get our press passes and get ready for three days of beer, interviews and loads of music. And Jack Daniel's. And beer.
Day 1
Driving in Oslo isn't as much fun as one would think. Lots of one way streets and dead ends. This is most likely something they have done just to generally annoy anyone who's not familiar with the
streets in Oslo. We decided to leave the car by the railway station and go by foot in the direction of the venue. This proved to be much easier than we had thought at first (ok, ok, yes we asked for directions), and suddenly, dramatically, we were in the right place. We walked in to get our stuff, and then we went off to get a bite to eat, after which we'd move the car. We had a plan. Food was taken
care of at a place called New Lille Amir, and this was our first encounter with the amazing Chicken Shwarma that they serve there. This was practically the only place we ate at for the entire festival. I could eat myself to death on those things. After this most refreshing and tasty meal, we moved the car closer to Rockefeller, finding a spot just 50 meters from the venue. Excellent! And now it was time for what we went all this way for, in the first place, the Inferno Festival! Rockefeller is a great place to have this indoor festival at. There are actually two stages in the building. There is the big stage at Rockefeller, and there's the smaller stage downstairs at John Dee. What's really great is that you don't have to go outside to go between the two. Most excellent, since Norway is a bit chilly in March. And remember, all pubs and venues are non-smoking, so be prepared to go outside, or up to the roof if you want some nicotine in your bloodstream.
Opening the entire festival down at John Dee was Taakeferd, probably the Black Metal band that is from the farthest north, being from Tromsø on the Norwegian coast. Taakeferd have been playing for a while, and I had heard some of their material before, but this was much better than I remembered, and it worked very well live. Fast Black Metal with a slightly melodic feel to them at times. The great thing about Black Metal live is of course the corpsepaint, and Taakeferd was no disappointment in that respect either.
 |
| Taakeferd |
After about half an hour they left the stage, and it was time to go upstairs to the bigger stage at Rockefeller and one of the three bands I didn't see that day, namely Chton, featuring members of Manes and a former member of Lumsk, play a kind of Death Metal that I'm not too fond of. More often than not I find that Norwegian Death Metal lacks something essential to the mix, just as many American Black Metal bands can't seem to get that Black Metal feeling right, so I skipped this and went for a bite to eat instead.
 |
| Nebular Mystic |
After the Black Metal assault of Nebular Mystic it was time for the old troll himself, Mortiis and his Gothic brand of Metal. Of all the artists, he was probably the one that was most out of place here, but he delivered a good show, despite him throwing the microphone stand around all the time, and he got a good response from the crowd I thought. His show suffered somewhat, because of the industrial elements being less audible, I thought. Still, quite enjoyable. After Mortiis I went to have a chat with Nebular Mystic, who proved to be rather not at all talkative. They had done numerous interviews already, and seemed rather beat. Still, it was an amusing interview to do, though it will never see the light of day, and after practically pulling the answers out of them I went down to John Dee for some serious Death Metal with Gorelord.
Featuring the very busy Frediablo in their ranks, this could have been quite interesting. Unfortunately it got a bit tedious after a few songs. This could be because I am more of a Black Metal person, I don't know, but I do enjoy some Death Metal as well, of course. I would say that Gorelord's fleshy sound is a bit more enjoyable on CD than on stage. However, I did have to check them out, of course. That's what festivals are for! Time to head up the stairs again.
 |
| Lamennted Souls |
Taking over the main stage after Lamented Souls was Swedish Viking/Death Metallers Amon Amarth. After a not too impressive start (did the drummer forget to warm up, or what?!), they eventually got the hang of it and delivered an over all ok show. Though, as with most all of the shows on the Rockefeller stage, I felt that the sound was lacking somewhat. These guys are not entirely my cup of tea though, a bit too melodic at times, and following this performance was this day's headliner Morbid Angel with David Vincent back on vocals.
 |
| Morbid Angel |
After having cancelled all interviews earlier, since they were sleeping most of the day away (or just didn't feel like answering a lot of questions, who knows), they entered the stage at 01.00. Much to my surprise they started off the show with "Rapture", their biggest hit. A most excellent beginning. Where do they go from there, you ask? Well, they continued to play all the classic songs, of course. Practically every song you've ever wanted to hear live from their four first albums. These guys still kick ass after all these years. A very good show indeed. David Vincent is back where he belongs, but how he can stand playing in a tight latex shirt is beyond me.
This was a very tiring day. Morbid Angel left the stage at a bit after 2 AM, and after a night in the car, with not too much sleep it was time to head for the hotel, finally. Luckily, the hotel we stayed at (with the fitting name "Edderkoppen", "The Spider") wasn't far away, so after a short walk we were home. Sleep!
Day 2
On day two there was little activity on my part. I was feeling rather bad (from too much Jack Daniel's in the car before the festival opened for the day, and a bit of a cold), and still rather tired after the previous day as well. I saw the essentials, and slightly more, but that was it. The first band I even considered watching was Grimfist at 19.45. This is yet another band featuring Frediablo. That guy sure is keeping busy, though he has recently removed himself from some of the bands. These guys were not really what I was after, though. Again, Norwegian Death Metal and all that. And since Horgh left for Hypocrisy it wasn't as interesting to see them anymore. Be sure to check out their recent "10 Steps to Hell" album, though. Very good one, that.
 |
| Aura Noir |
 |
| Arcturus |
This evenings headliner Candlemass was up next. These old Doomsters were quite the rage in the late eighties, and I thought I'd watch a song or two, since I listened to them way back when. Sadly, this was not as good as I had hoped. Maybe it was me, I have gone quite a long way since listening to these guys, or maybe some things are just better left in the grave, what do I know. In any case the theatric vocals of Messiah Marcolin, and the slow pace of the music didn't do it for us, so we decided to call it a night after about half a song, and left for the hotel.
Day 3
 |
| Nattefrost |
 |
| Grave |
But then again, even Black Metal bands can be rather non aggressive, as Greece's Naer Mataron unfortunately proved to me. I was expecting a bit more from them. I had heard one of their albums a while back, and that was actually quite good, having some aggression in it and all. Live it was quite a different story. Melodic Black Metal seems to be all the rage around the world, these days, but me I've never really understood why, and these guys were rather a bit more melodic than I expected them to be. Sure, they could handle their instruments well, but it just doesn't do it for me, so after a few songs I left for the next disappointment of the evening, namely Green Carnation.
 |
| Tsjuder |
I saw these guys in Copenhagen when they played there with Carpathian Forest (an interview we conducted back then is also lost to history.) and was looking forward to seeing them again. A really great show, this was. Raging Black Metal in the old vein, just as it should be! Corpse paint, spikes and brutality. These guys sure know how to rip! Also you noticed that they were appreciated, this was the only band that completely filled up the smaller venue, and they had to stop people from going down there, and let people in as people left, it was so full. Not at all bad. The festival's end was now drawing nigh, but there were still a few interesting bands left to see, and the first one out of these was Gehenna, on the Rockefeller stage.
 |
| Gehenna |
This wasn't as great as it could have been, unfortunately. The sound was a bit too unclear (again), but there were definitely a few great moments, like "Deadlights" and "Grenade Prayer". I do quite enjoy their unique, slow and heavy Black Metal. Over all it was great to see them live, despite the sound being what it was. Check out their latest album "WW", featuring the drumming of Frost of Satyricon. A very moody and aggressive album.
After this it was time for the final band of this years festival, and headliner for this evening, namely reactivated Swedish MLO Death / Black Metallers Dissection. They perfomed a very professional show, and of course seeing some of the old classics live wasn't at all bad. They sure knew what they were
doing, and they had a professional air about them, almost as if they were born for performing on stage. As an added bonus Attila joined them on stage to perform the vocals on "Elisabeth Bathory", since it is a Tormentor cover (he kept himself busy with doing vocals for Sunn 0))) as well, but those guys had to wait, they were playing the Roskilde Festival later in the year as well, and seeing a drone band in the small John Dee venue was not something I would do.). These guys are not my absolute favourites, a bit too melodic for my taste, but I did enjoy what I saw before we left for the hotel, this last night in Oslo.
 |
| Dissection |
In conclusion, I must say that this is one Hell of an event. Great fun and great bands. It's great to just walk around in the crowd and see many of the people that are part of the Norwegian scene. I strongly urge anyone with the possibility to go here to do so. And bring lots of cash. Norway is expensive, but oh so fun. And 20 bands in four days is a Hell of a lot of entertainment.
Ann Frestad of Khaoz Productionz should have a standing ovation for her efforts and kindness. And maybe a medal, too. She sure knows her stuff.
By :Vragh:
No comments:
Post a Comment