Norway is Black Metal.
Black Metal is Norway.
And Norway is Black Metal.
I surely had these words in mind, five years ago, when I came to Norway for the first time, listening to Filosofem integrally covered with my hair in the sleeping car of the train.
A too strong listening, five years of intense mental development or a too serious devotion to The Goddess of Doom, Christina Ricci must had soften the (church burning) fire. And I was almost never thinking about visiting Varg Vikernes in his 4 stars prison during my night nose to nose with that ushanka wearing Italian-speaking Russian.
But here came the saviour 180€ kick in the ass :
.gif)
THE INFERNO FESTIVALDay 1: "Club day" Wednesday 4 May
The first day is the "Club day" - 17 bands in 7 bars & clubs - but first we have to pick up our tickets in the Royal Christiania Hotel, the well-named official hotel of the festival.Here we meet our first fellow long-haired companions. Our unorthodox habits make us take more time that first predicted to convince the staff that we actually paid the several hundreds of euros and we spend significant time in front of the Easter egg at the reception (a quite tempting thing like that, to be found in every - open - shop or facility during Easter holidays).
We arrive just in time at the John Dee, part of the festival main host, to see its last concert of the evening: Nekromantheon, our first Norwegian band, playing a great 80s-style Black Metal. A shame it finishes that soon, but this first preview is a harbinger of great taste to come!
After a short stay in the Rock In and an even shorter Banjo-led Black Metal listening, we move to the biggest band of the night: Earth at the famous Victoria Live Jazz Club, in the Karl Johans Gate.
The room is full and we must wait 20 minutes - the first song to end - before getting in.
Don't trust that picture, the Americans stays loyal to their immobile drone: a 30 minutes long shoot was needed to achieve that effect. As a matter of fact, at least half the audience was sleeping at the end of the set (including half of us). But it was the most pleasant sleep!
All in all, even if we didn't see a lot of bands, this first night was a very promising preview of the coming days and we should definitely return to the Victoria!
Day 2: "Church of Misery" Thrusday 5 May
Trollfest
Our first concert in the big stage of the Rockfeller is the Folk Norwegian Black Metal band. With a big dozen of big dudes on the stage, it sure is an impressive sight.
This is definitely not True Black Metal but these bearded friends who want to party and drink beers can make the audience.
The traditional Norwegian mandolins are played by the two Snatch's gypsy looking guys. Sometimes hard to hear behind the ten other guitars but still bring some fjord freshness.
Undying Inc.
Let's go downstairs on the second stage, the John Dee pub/club, for Undying Inc. from India.
Undying Inc. plays a classic Blackened Death Metal but despite a good presence, they were much less convincing that on the myspace...
