Author Andy Pountney
Easter Sunday began with a walk around the Oslo Opera House and the waterfront area, before catching up with a couple of friends over a beer before heading down to the venue in time for Urgehal. They were, of course,… Continue Reading →
Many of the festival goers were bleary eyed on Saturday morning either due to the fire alarm causing an evacuation of the hotel at 3am, or still being out partying at that time! I grabbed a coffee and then headed… Continue Reading →
Keen to make the most of my time in Oslo, I grabbed the opportunity to visit the ‘Bad vibes – The sound of emotions in Norwegian black metal’ exhibition at the Norwegian National Library before the festival began. This exhibition… Continue Reading →
While Easter is a time for religious worship for many, or perhaps overindulgence in chocolate, for the extreme metal community it means making the annual pilgrimage to Oslo for the unrivalled Inferno Festival, and this year was my tenth consecutive… Continue Reading →
For many fans of extreme metal, Easter has become synonymous with the Inferno Metal Festival in Oslo, and it is traditional for this awesome festival to begin with a warm up night, whether it be the Inferno “club night” a… Continue Reading →
It is perhaps getting a little repetitive to talk about Covid, the lockdowns and the impact of coming to terms with a new norm as society reopened had on peoples’ mental health but that doesn’t mean that the subject is… Continue Reading →
It was a bitterly cold evening in Leeds this night, the hardy throng that had queued up outside some half hour or so before doors endured sleet and snow with the wind knifing through you, whereas as I went into… Continue Reading →
The Collins dictionary defines the Czech word ‘Litost’ as ‘a state of agony and torment created by the sudden sight of one’s own misery’……Cheerful stuff indeed, but actually it is the perfect moniker for this Spanish outfit who create a… Continue Reading →
While they have have perhaps not reached the household name status of Black Sabbath or Iron Maiden, Paradise Lost are one of the most influential and important metal bands to hail from our shores, and in many ways can be held… Continue Reading →
It has been a while since a band made me sit up and pay attention as much as Limbes’ latest release did. There I was expecting a polished, melodic atmospheric black metal album, but instead I had my face ripped… Continue Reading →
It took me a while to write this review due to ever increasing work commitments, but that meant that I had time to fully appreciate and inwardly digest this majestic beauty as I revisited it, being smothered more each time… Continue Reading →
Although Haavard may be a new name to us, its mastermind and legacy will certainly be familiar through his other ventures. You see, Håvard Jørgensen, who is the main man for Haavard, was a key member of Ulver until 2001… Continue Reading →