It has become traditional for Norway’s annual Inferno Festival to begin with a warm up night, and this year was no exception, with Indie Recordings once more laying on an aperitif for those making the pilgrimage to Oslo.

The venue for this gig was Salt Art and Music, which is a cultural arena comprising several wooden structures including a large sauna and I was curious to see how an extreme metal show would work there. So, having flown over to Oslo that afternoon, I checked into the hotel, grabbed a beer and hotfooted it over to Salt to catch Swedish sludge infused post metal act Gloson.

A reasonable sized crowd had arrived early at the curious triangular wooden building ready to get things underway.  Before long, wave after wave of mesmerising sludge was washing over the crowd.  The sound was oppressive, claustrophobic and all encompassing.

This is not my usual cup of tea but I enjoyed Gloson and will be checking out their back catalogue, including the recently released sophomore ‘The Rift’, and I’m sure I won’t be the only one.

The legendary Nattefrost had been next on the bill, but had been forced to withdraw, citing Covid and Lyme disease within the band. He had been replaced by Norwegian death-jazz outfit Agabas.

Yep, I said death jazz, I didn’t really know what to expect. The band energetically took to the stage in a blur of patterned shirts and a saxophone. The crowd was very enthusiastic and it didn’t take long for the singer to join them stirring up an energetic pit. I have to admit that at first I wasn’t particularly keen with the saxophone seeming to grate a little and not fit with the rest of the music but as the set progressed I began to enjoy them as things all fell into place.

Between bands, the crowd retreated into the adjoining area which was reminiscent of a large Lavvu and crucially had a bar and seating. There was a party atmosphere as people caught up with friends they hadn’t seen for three years over a few beers.

The venue soon began to fill again in anticipation of tonight’s headliners Nordjevel. If I recall correctly, Nordjevel first played at Inferno back in 2016 on the small John Dee stage and then again in 2018, that time on the main stage.

Both times they were absolutely immense and they fully deserve their reputation for ferocious live shows. The band took to the stage replete with corpse paint and spikes and after a short intro launched into ‘Shadows of Morbid Hunger’ and ‘Devilry’. There was an unnerving intensity to their performance as they ripped through one track after another, jumping between their two albums and EPs.

‘Fenriir’ was a personal highlight before the set was closed with ‘Djevelen I Nord’, by which time vocalist Doedsadmiral was shirtless and covered in blood (poured over himself from a ritualistic chalice), leaving the crowd to head into the Oslo night (via the merch stall of course) thoroughly warmed up for the four days of extreme music to follow.

(Review and Photos Andy Pountney @shot_in_the_dark_photography)

 

Part 2 Here