Inferno Metal Festival - Oslo, Norway 29/3/24 ⋆ Ave Noctum

Musically, my Good Friday began with a trip to Rock In to catch Telemark’s Visegard for their matinee show and their traditional Norwegian Black Metal. The venue was packed and it was very sweaty in front of the stage by the time the band opened with ‘Skogsdømt’. There were loud cheers between songs but the band wasted no time and ploughed on with their set, focussing on newer material but occasionally reaching back a little further. Having been teased with a split release with Kirkebrann in 2021, let’s hope for some fresh material sooner rather than later.

I then headed down to Rockefeller for the opening act The Crazy World of Arthur Brown, perhaps best known for their hit single ‘Fire’ from 1968. A world apart from most acts at Inferno I was curious to experience Arthur Brown and one of his infamous live shows.

Taking to the stage in flamboyant “costumes” and with a backdrop projecting images of war and newspaper cuttings, the band delivered their psychedelic blues rock to a confused crowd! Early on in the set, song three if I recall correctly, the immortal line “I am the God of Hellfire and I bring you…..fire” led into their greatest hit with Arthur wearing a flaming headpiece to a backdrop of flames on the screen.

Some in the crowd loved it and were enthusiastically dancing while other stood looking a little perplexed. Either way, it was definitely interesting!

We were back onto more familiar territory downstairs in John Dee for German atmospheric black metal outfit Vorga. I had been very impressed by their debut ‘Striving Towards Oblivion’ and was really looking forward to catching them live for the first time and they did not disappoint!

Taking to a stage dominated by a brightly lit, neon pentagram with skull adornment the band opened with ‘The Black Age’ and they immediately struck the perfect balance between ferocity and melody. Eschewing more traditional corpse paint, the band were wearing more angular face paints which suited their image well. As ‘Cataract Mind’, ‘Argil’ and ‘Taken’ flew by, then band became more confrontational and aggressive in their approach and kept this up until the set closed with ‘Starless Sky’.

I had been waiting a while to see this band, and it was worth the wait. I hope I get the opportunity to see them again soon.

I recently had the pleasure of reviewing the new Vltimas album, and having given it a high score I was looking forward to hearing some of the material live. I didn’t have to wait long as the band took to the stage in front of the three headed eagle album artwork backdrop and opened with ‘Epic’, the title track of the new album.

David Vincent was, of course, the focal point, dressed in black and stalking the stage as ‘Diabolus Eat Sanguis’ and the groovy ‘Mephisto Manifesto’ rumbled past with an oppressive malevolence. The set gathered momentum with each passing track as the band kept a balance between the debut album and the latest offering, although set closers ‘Last Ones Alive Win Nothing’ and ‘Everlasting’ got perhaps the best response from the crowd.

The new material sounded every bit as good as I had hoped and I was grateful to have had this opportunity to see Vltimas again.

The atmosphere became even darker and more sinister downstairs in John Dee for German/Costa Rican black metal band Umbra Conscientia. Although they are a relatively new band (in the grand scheme of things), they have two albums out and tonight’s show was to be the final show on a short European tour.

There was a claustrophobic air as the band played with minimalistic red backlighting, appearing simply as silhouettes while they delivered their intense wall of black metal. They sounded primitive and barbaric in their unrelenting outpourings that were simply crushing. Primal guttural howls and roars sat atop the dense musical barrage creating a mesmerising noise that was impossible to resist with the crowd stood transfixed.

I was expecting good things from Umbra Conscientia but was simply blown away by how good they actually were, and I was not alone with many in the crowd listing these as one of their highlights of the whole weekend.

More black metal followed upstairs in Rockefeller with Carpathian Forest who brought a punky edge to proceedings. The stage was littered with the usual paraphernalia including numerous facemasks and Norwegian flags, while the band had the obligatory chains and corpsepaint and Nattefrost had his bone inverted crucifix. There was a party atmosphere in Rockefeller for the Black n’ Roll and portions of the crowd were smiling and dancing – I’m not sure black metal was meant to be like this but why not I guess!

Turbonegro cover and crowd favourite ‘All My Friends are Dead’ came mid set (complete with guest vocalist) followed by ‘Likeim’ before Nattefrost welcomed all the tourists in his indomitable manner…..”Welcome to Norway – I hope you freeze to death” before ‘The Beast in Man: The Original Sin’. This was abrasive and confrontational while also being good fun, exactly as I suspect it was intended to be.

Things took a more serious turn downstairs for Extermination Dismemberment. Their guttural grind/slam reverberated around the small room as the band threw themselves around the stage which was matched by an energetic response from the crowd.

Although their style of extremity might not have been to the taste of everyone at the festival, the Belarusians won over those that had gathered with their relentless onslaught and made themselves a lot of new fans during their short set.

Shortly before Extermination Dismemberment finished, I headed back upstairs, excited for the next band, Icelandic metal cowboys, Sólstafir. The band always deliver live with their unique brand of post metal, but tonight was to surpass all expectations and was by far the best I have ever seen them.

Their music was sublime, majestic and epic, even ethereal at time as the Rockefeller crowd became mesmerised. Of course, there are still the heavy sections too, and the juxtaposition works well. The band were in a playful mood engaging with the crowd and bantering between songs but the final three tracks of ‘Fjara’, ‘Ótta’ and ‘Goddess of the Ages’ was flawless and I had goose bumps.

By the climax of ‘Ótta’ the entire crowd were nodding their collective head in time to the hypnotic melody and then during ‘Goddess of the Ages’ vocalist Aðalbjörn Tryggvason climbed onto the barrier and balanced along it from one side of the crowd to another with the help of the front row.

Simply magnificent. They are touring Europe and the UK again in the Autumn, and I cannot recommend getting yourself a ticket highly enough.

Closing John Dee for the day were German duo Mantar. With their usual stage set up, Erinç (Drums and vocal) and Hanno (Vocal and guitars) were at either side of the stage facing each other as they pounded out their sludgy but catchy blackened metal. The room was absolutely packed with the “one in, one out” policy in force, but those lucky enough to have got in were given a treat with tracks such as ‘Hang ‘Em Low (So the Rats Can Get ‘Em)’ sounding thunderous in the tight confines of the room.

Visually, things were kept minimalistic with red and blue backlighting, keeping the band in silhouette for a majority of the time, which added to the atmosphere and impact of the music.

The final band of the day were the mighty Gorgoroth, and with Taake in Switzerland (with the usual Gorgoroth live vocalist) there was a lot of anticipation about who would take up vocal duties. The mystery was soon solved as Atterigner appeared with the band and launched into ‘Bergtrollets Hevn’.

They were as aggressive and confrontational as ever, bathed in red light unleashing one Norwegian black metal masterpiece after another. Atterigner didn’t quite have the stage presence of Hoest, but musically nothing was lost with his scathing vocals completely on point.

As Atterigner had been the vocalist on the ‘Instinctus Bestialis’ album, I did wonder whether we might be given a few from that album, but as far as I can recall, the only track aired was the magnificent ‘Kala Brahman’, which came just before the set was closed with ‘Unchain My Heart!!!’