My First Time at Norway’s Inferno Festival (Field Report & Hail Satan)
My first time at Inferno Festival in Norway has been an eye-opening experience. I had never been in Norway first of all, but witnessing a black metal festival *in* Norway is something I had to do, given my passion for this genre of extreme metal.
While the origins of black metal are certainly unclear, Norway played a pivotal role in the early nineties with bands like Mayhem, Darkthrone, Burzum, Immortal, Emperor, Satyricon and Gorgoroth, just to name a few. So, in a way, Norway feels like the mecca of black metal, if you allow me this far-fetched analogy.
For the uninitiated, black metal is one of the most extreme sub-genres of metal, not only musically (highly distorted guitars & shrieking vocals, mostly), but also in imagery (corpse paint, rituals on stage) and beliefs (Satanism, occultism, paganism, misanthropy). I strongly recommend reading Wikipedia entry on Black Metal for a quick summary and some really ridiculous-looking people.
The festival celebrated its 18th edition, in the Rockefeller of Oslo, the Norwegian capital. The four days of the festival contained nine bands each, which ensured a proper dose of extreme metal. About 80% of the bands played pure black metal or sub-genres (melodic, occult, avant-garde, etc.) whilst others played other forms of mostly extreme metal, alternating between the main stage and a smaller one, with very little overlapping.
Want more detail? Let’s get into it!
First day: With full force
The first day kicked off with Odium, a band of ex-members of Emperor, Myrkskog & others, which, funnily enough, had only released an album in 1998. This kind of surprises are kind of an unwritten law at Inferno Festival, for what I’ve been told, and we have seen many of them during the festival.
However, not quite as extraordinary as the spectacular show Odium put after fuck-knows how many years without playing. Certainly, they won’t have played a lot of gigs in the last twenty years, but the show was one of the most amazing of the festival, and for us, it was the first one only. They set the bar stupidly high. Bonus points for the space-themed videos.
Seems like in previous editions, the first day (Thursday) consisted almost entirely of local up-and-coming bands, but this year was probably the best day, as you will see.
The second band, Erimha (Sumerian for “army”), however, failed to impress. After Odium, even some of the biggest names would’ve paled in comparison. Their mix of black & death metal, combined with a rather bland performance and a most ridicule set of costumes, left us disappointed and we headed back to the main stage for the mighty Naglfar.
Naglfar are one of my favourite black metal bands. Hailing from Sweden, they’ve been very active in the business of releasing albums. Teras is their last one, dating back to 2012. Their concert was good in general lines, but left me unimpressed, largely caused because of the technical sound problems throughout the set. I especially enjoyed really good songs like Bring Out Your Dead, And the World Shall Be Your Grave and Black God Aftermath.
Back to the smaller stage to watch the Dutch band Dodecahedron, who played an impressive combination of avant-garde black metal with some brutal death & progressive sounds that blew all the audience away. Their classy alternance between really slow & ambient songs with crushing fast-paced ones felt like a breeze of fresh air in a genre of metal which is very reluctant of change & innovation.
Pumped up by this concert, we headed back to the main stage for one of the last additions to the line-up: Shining. They replaced Katatonia, who cancelled the last leg of their tour due to going into an immediate hiatus. As much as I love Katatonia, I came to see extreme bands, and Shining seemed like a better fit.
Shining put on a very controversial show. They’re capable of both the best and the worst, and whilst they’re truly talented musicians, they seem to fuck up because of Niklas’ (vocalist) attitude & ego. His clean vocals didn’t sound at all, at times felt like intentional, and he kept on disturbing the photographers. However, I must concede that I thoroughly enjoyed the show, both performance-wise and setlist-wise, as I reckon it was a very balanced set, including their usual cover of Ohm.
Ears still ringing, I must admit I went largely uninterested to watch Uada. I had no time to check them out before the festival, and the prospect of a melodic black metal band wasn’t very appealing. However, truth be told, I was blown away by their bluntness & crushing set. I was left wondering where was the “melodic” in their style, and I also found their attire really cool, entirely covered with their tunics & without speaking for the entire show. I will not be able to compile a top-5 of bands that played in this festival, but they would surely make it to that list.
Next, we watched Dark Funeral destroy the main stage. Hailing from Sweden, they’re probably along with Marduk the most well-known Swedish black metal band. To me, they’re a bit like the Motörhead of black metal: if you like one album, you’ll like them all, as they pretty much sound the same. But that’s something I appreciate in certain bands, and Dark Funeral is one of them.
Don’t change, buddies.
Vobiscum Satanas, My Funeral, Unchain My Soul, Secrets of the Black Arts and some other of their best songs completed a very interesting set that felt good to me, but probably not too much to others who have seen them more than once. As many other cool things happening during the festival, they were celebrating their 25th anniversary on stage, with an excellent shape. Heljarmadr, the vocalist, left us really impressed with his voice, pristine throughout this very challenging setlist.
Before the main act for the night, we had to experience One Tail, One Head, a band that funnily enough, hasn’t released any full-length since their inception in 2006. I probably know: they’re nuts.
Upon walking on stage, the singer proceeded to tear his hair and throw it to the audience. I questioned my friends about his frenetic & generally overly-excited performance, but they told me “he’s always like this”. Probably, the punkest show of the entire festival, and something worth watching again, but the performance was a bit cliché to me and left early to grab a munch.
The last show of the night was for Obituary, the USA death metallers. They’ve been playing for 30 years but they hadn’t played in Norway for a long time. 14 years to be precise.
You could see they were excited about it, as they put on a really good show. I’m not a fan of their music, and even less so after I saw them for the first time in San Francisco a couple of years prior, where they played a really bad show, where the frontman was singing half of the songs — if even. I must say, that this time it was really different, and they really wrapped up a very tough & challenging first day like it’s meant to be.
Second day: All hail the mighty Emperor
Like on the first day, we were surprised again by the first band.
Mephorash, an occultist black metal band from Sweden, deployed the best stage attrezzo of the entire festival for their ritualesque show. Even if I tend to abhor this kind of shows (it looked like a black mass), their music was truly astounding and was really in accordance with the entire performance.
An impressive combination of two voices plus a really heavy melodic black metal was a good way to kick off the first day. Definitely recommended.
On the other hand, and unlike the first day, the second band was really worth watching too. Haling from the Netherlands, the avant-garde/technical death metal band Ulsect (almost bordering on metalcore) felt good for a change.
Neurosis-like ambience, lots of Converge in the songwriting & playing style, an incredible voice, and a lot of djent, throw it in the blender, and you’ve got an Ulsect show. Again, good for a change and very solid how, but definitely nothing to write home about.
I admit I was anxious to see the Icelandic Auðn.
Dressed up like the owners of the most hipster artisanal coffee place in Stockholm who formed a Refused tribute band, the Icelanders completely demolished the place with their atmospheric black metal.
After their set, I felt like I should punish myself to bleeding for not having seen them before. One of the best live acts I’ve ever seen, and definitely one of the best — if not the best — of the entire festival. A festival, I must add, they seemed to enjoy a lot: they hung out in the audience for the entire four days to watch the other bands.
I didn’t expect the best of Wiegedood, the Belgian black metallers, for no reason in particular other than having had too much luck with the preceding bands.
Also, the smaller stage had been a bit disappointing because of the sound (so far, only Uada completed a show without any technical flaw), but Wiegedood quickly matched them.
They alternated doom-like long melodic pauses with furious fast-paced tracks in the blink of an eye, which made it a really interesting show to watch. Even more impressive, taking into account that they were a power trio capable of pulling off some of the best atmospheres during their show. A most pleasant surprise, in my book.
After them, another band I really wanted to see: Origin. The brutal technical death metallers (sounds kinda ridiculous, but that what it is) proceeded to viciously rape our faces with their impressive show. A dazzling display of talent, brutality (sometimes they bordered on grindcore) and frontman skills by mr. Jason Keyser.
All of them are brilliant talents, and their technique left many a jaw open wide for the entire set. Also, not only can they play, but they also sing whilst playing, which makes it even more incredible.
After an apology for what’s happening in the US (guess they meant Trump?), they successfully created the first mosh pit of the festival, and wrapped up their brutal show with a pretty good wall of death. Pretty good for Norway, and pretty good for a black metal crowd, to be honest.
I decided to skip Electric Earth in favour of a much-needed hamburger. Oh, not a top-notch hamburger, but pretty good for festival food. The Rockefeller open-air terrace was home to this fast food tent & the festival smokers. Also, another thing worth mentioning is that water is free. Best. Decision. Ever. Thank you, Inferno Festival.
Enter Emperor.
All hail the mighty Emperor! Once a church-burning & crime-ridden black metal band, of the original Norwegian first wave of black metal bands, now it’s a side project of singer Ihsahn, which reached the cult status amongst the genre. Ihsahn, once a corpse-painted anti-christian conspirator, now wears short-sleeved black shirts, a bun and hipster glasses.
Emperor had also a special setlist for us. Celebrating the 20th anniversary of their second album Anthems to the Welkin at Dusk, they were the icing on the cake and the most-awaited show of the entire festival. Also, being Norwegian, felt especially moving for them, who had kind words for the foreigners (they spoke in English) and shared a few stories of their beginnings & growing up as a band.
I had seen Emperor performing at Rockfest Barcelona in mid-2017. Even with the daylight, they blew me away, but this time was more special: fully dark, in a black metal festival, with a special setlist, really dark, playing home, and with an extremely packed audience (couldn’t even move). I couldn’t ask for more. It is a band I’ll see as many times as I can.
After them, going back to the smaller stage, we saw Necrophobic, the Swedish death/black metallers. I had really high expectations largely due to my buddy insisting on them being the best live act of the festival, and coming from such an intense day (even more so after Emperor), I was left a bit let down.
Granted, they have a really good show, with a powerful set and they really connected with the audience, which shows they’ve been around for a long time, but I was still reminiscing of the previous show. Couldn’t help it.
But the biggest disappointment of the second night was Fleshgod Apocalypse. The Italian symphonic/technical death metal band suffered from some illnesses and they struggled throughout the set. Too bad, because their stage looked really amazing, even if a bit too cheesy for me.
The main vocalist seemed to have lost his voice partially, whilst the bassist (usually providing some backing vocals & high-pitched choruses) was also sub-par. There were also some sound issues here and there, and only the guitar player seemed to have a good time and excel at what he was doing, along with the opera singer, who was simply flawless.
At the signing session during the third day, an Italian friend of mine told me that they were down with some sickness. Completely out of luck, they were also robbed of all of their material a few days after in Sweden. I hope they bounce back as soon as possible from this.
Third day: A bit of a break (for a good excuse)
Out of the four days, the third one had the weakest lineup, so we decided we’d skip a couple of bands to chill & visit the most iconic black metal destination on planet Earth.
The day opened up with Nordjevel, a Norwegian black metal band, which was the first one to use fire & random explosions on stage. The opening band from the second day, Mephorash, had used candles for their rituals, but this one was more like a war scenario.
Nordjevel’s music is pretty standard, straight-forward generic black metal. Their performance was great, but they’re just another generic black metal band, with generic corpsepaint, generic outfits and generic lyrics about Norway, Satan, and how everyone must be killed. Nothing new under the (black) sun.
Since we were not interested in the next three bands, we set forth to our peregrination to the Black Metal Museum (sic).
Turns out, that the original guitar player for Mayhem Øystein Aarseth, aka Euronymous, owned a record store called Helvete (Swedish for “Hell”). In the underground part of the store, there’s a backdoor with a Venom flag that, when opened, leads to the so-called “Black Metal Museum”.
I don’t know about you, but I wouldn’t have found this by myself. I am not the kind of person who opens backdoors in other people’s stores.
This “museum” has got some really old memorabilia (masks, costumers, Euroymous’ workout stuff, first-print t-shirts, etc.) and the room where some of the first Norwegian bands such as Mayhem, Burzum, Emperor and Thorns used to gather to compose songs & conspire against Christianism.
The shop is nowadays called Neseblod (Norwegian for “Nosebleed”) and is a bit far away from the centre. However, it’s got an amazing selection of limited edition vinyls, t-shirts and other hard-to-find stuff. It also closes at 6 pm sharp, so make sure you plan ahead.
Back to the festival, we made it in time to watch Memoriam, a British death metal band. At times, they sounded like Bolt Thrower, at times like Napalm Death, so you get an idea. Coincidentally, both UK bands (them and Napalm Death) made their proper statements against fascism — quite controversial in a Black Metal festival.
Their performance was very solid and I’m sure it convinced pretty much everyone in the room.
One pretty remarkable point was when the singer dedicated a song to his mom, who suffered from dementia. The song is Nothing Remains, from their latest album. An unusual concession, given how rare is for extreme metal bands to open up about this kind of feelings.
Death metal was also the style of the next band: Vanhelgd. Hailing from Sweden, they pleased the audience with a quite unimaginative but pretty good two-voiced death metal. History books will not write about them, but I quite enjoyed their show.
We left early to get a good spot to see the main attraction of the day for many, Ihsahn. After having played with Emperor the night before, he came with his solo band to deliver a very risky set, given how emotional it was. He definitely knows he’s earned the cult status with Emperor, and he earned to do whatever the fuck he wants.
When he will invent black metal reggaeton, we will have to admit that he’s a fucking genius.
The show was mostly progressive songs, with his traditional shrieking here and there, and a couple of really soft songs, which were shocking for a black metal festival, to say the least.
Two things stand out from his performance: first of all, his voice was in pristine condition. Maybe not surprising, because he’s an excellent singer, but we’ve got to remember that he had sung barely 24h before with Emperor a quite demanding set.
Second, for the last few songs they brought a saxophone player on stage, which provided a truly fantastic blend of extreme progressive metal and this characteristic instrument. You might have heard bands like Solefald, who use this pretty often, but not with this excellence, in my opinion.
We skipped Ahab, the German funeral doom metal band because really, who wants to see funeral doom metal played live. Even though they’re one of my favourite bands in the genre, I could think of ten thousand better things to do while they were playing, like, for instance, eating dinner. To compensate, I bought one of their t-shirts (check them out, they’re all amazing).
Last, but not least, we wrapped up the third day with Satyricon, another iconic Metal band from Norway. They also have sort of earned their cult status, albeit through a different path than Emperor.
Satyricon started with black metal, although they very early drifted into their own sound, which some insist on calling it “Dark Metal” or even “Dark Suicide Black Metal”, as it lacks most of the black metal elements. For me, Satyricon have understood that Black Metal transcends the music itself, and it’s more like an attitude instead. Pretty much like Punk.
Their uninterrupted career, which started in 1991, has earned them a really good stage presence, and hands down Satyr has been the best frontman of all the festival: he connected with the audience from the get-go, had nice words in English for the non-Norwegian speakers, told a couple of jokes and generally stole the show.
Although they had some sound problems, especially when playing their most well-known classic Mother North, they sounded fantastic throughout the show, and made some of their most boring songs from recent albums sound memorable. It’s also worth pointing out that Satyr seemed to get all emotional for being the last show of their tour.
They played some really old songs (like the aforementioned Mother North or Walk the Path of Sorrow), some new songs (Deep Calleth Upon Deep) and some of their in-between classics like Fuel For Hatred, where he requested a mosh pit.
It was a hell of a show to wrap up the third night.
Fourth day: the best is yet to come
One would think that a Sunday night would be reserved for mellower bands or smaller names.
One would, also, be very wrong.
Djevel was the first band (for the record, “djevel” means “Devil” in Norwegian), a Norwegian Black Metal act. I remember being blown away by their brutality, especially in their voice, but not much more. A good surprise.
I decided to skip Empyreal, the winners of this year’s contest to go catch up with a friend, and went straight to see Tsjuder.
Hats off to them: Tsjuder are one of the most solid black metal bands out there, and they really embody what traditional Norwegian black metal is all about: raw, fast, brutal music and tonnes of aggression.
It was a known fact that they were preparing a special surprise, which was to bring the founding bassist of Bathory, Frederick “Freddan” Melander to play three Bathory classics: The Return of Darkness and Evil, Sacrifice and Satan, My Master. They even replaced their background banner for a Bathory one.
Next, we checked out the Icelandic black metal band Naðra. They started with some heavy technical problems in the first two songs, but then bounced back to pull one of the most brutal sets in the entire festival. If there had been a country contest in the festival, Iceland would’ve won. I did not know this band before and I left their concert wanting to tattoo my entire body with their lyrics, logos or just anything about them.
But one of the main dishes of the day was the almighty Napalm Death. For many, the creators of Grindcore, Napalm Death actually formed as a punk band in the 80’s, but then transitioned to mix hardcore punk and extreme death metal into a very original formula.
Being an essentially punk-as-fuck band, they played everything 2x faster than on the records, not giving a shit about whether they play it right or not, which is kind of the appeal when seeing them. It’s more about the message, and believe me, they gave a few messages: honoured Swedish hardcore punk bands they drew inspiration from, bashed their record label for putting out “another compilation album of shit [we] had forgotten about”, stood for anti-fascism, and generally making us laugh with Barney’s ultra-British humour.
A most memorable set (23 freaking songs), including their iconic rendition of Dead Kennedys’ Nazi Punks Fuck Off.
There are a million things one wants to listen after a Grindcore show: either to calm down or to keep pumped up, but definitely this list does not include Doom Stoner Metal with psychedelic videos played on loop in the background, like Electric Wizard. It took us barely two songs to decide that it was time for a short break to grab a munch and to move to the smaller stage to see Grave.
The Swedish death metallers played a set consisting of mostly their demo songs from Into the Grave, another of the surprise sets this festival is well-known for. They packed the smaller room and gave their best in a downright fantastic show, which on a scale from 0 to 10, it would have probably earned a 12 or a 13. That show won’t be easy to forget.
And, to wrap up, one of the most awaited concerts of the festival: Carpathian Forest.
The Norwegians had been a long time without playing regularly. Give or take, they hadn’t toured properly since 2004, so everyone expected a special show. Indeed they gave it.
I was initially let down by the shit stage decoration they used. I could’ve bought better stuff in a thrift store with 10 bucks. It looked poor & miserable, and certainly laughable at.
However, they gave a really solid show, including their typical The Cure cover of A Forest, songs from their demos and a couple of new songs: Rock’n’Roll Glory Hole and a Turbonegro cover of their famous All My Friends Are Dead (see the video here — courtesy of yours truly). Their Black ‘n Roll music was a perfect match to wrap up the festival, including throwing hanging ropes to the audience and some harmonica playing and an all-around fantastic show that delighted fans and pundits alike.
I really enjoyed this edition of the festival so much that I have already bought next year’s tickets.
Thank you Inferno Festival for this wonderful opportunity to see so many incredible bands in four packed days! See you next year!
