Cult of Luna

First name on the bill on the large scene, on the small stage Rentokiller was playing at the same time. But I figured that since I wanted to see Evergrey I stayed at the big stage. A decision I kind of regret… Cult of Luna plays some weird progressive Emo-extreme Metal something… I didn't like it at all. They where tight and all, but I mean… I found it pretty boring. If you have three guitars and a keyboard they don't really have to play the exact same chord… Heard of harmonics? :(

And heard of the crowd? You know, the people who are there to watch you? :/



Evergrey

They say big bands always are late. Well in that case Evergrey must be the biggest band playing this festival. :P

Their soundcheck and stage rigging took ages! Anyway, eventually they started playing and it was worth the wait. I've always liked Evergrey, but haven't been a fan or anything. I don't even own one of their CD's. They played some songs from all albums, Recreation Day, Monday… and so on. Great singer, always in tune. Pretty funny too. According to him they are the most gay band to play this festival, and they followed that up with playing the Dilba cover I'm Sorry. :P

Since their soundcheck was late their show was late. But they where allowed to play overtime anyway. That made me miss Raising Hell. To bad. Went for dinner after that.



Krux

Since I was away eating I missed the beginning of Krux, but I've never liked them much anyway. There Doom/Heavy style doesn't fit me all that well. When I arrived they played their single from 2003 or something (their latest released album, the new one has some troubles getting out). After that they played three songs from this new un-released album. Pretty good, but as I said not really my kind of stuff. And the singer had way too tight pants if you know what I mean… errm. I left before they finished anyway.



Khoma

I read a description of Khoma somewhere and they seemed interesting so I escaped from Krux to see them. They had a cool intro where one guy comes in and plays a cello. Eventually they add 'rock instruments'. Then they replace the cello with keyboards after the first song. Whining singer… grunge meets metal in both sound and appearance. Then the same over and over again. OK live, but I doubt I'd like it on CD.



Katatonia

I don't really have much to say about these guys. First show in a long time for them and according to the singer they where a bit nervous. Well, they played their stuff and so, but no connection with the crowd pretty much. But the fans seemed happy. Had I known Nifelheim I'd left earlier…



Nifelheim

I came a bit late, so I missed their first song or so. Now, what is Nifelheim? METAL BLACK! Complete with a goat skull, black candles and animal guts (thrown at the audience) as stage props. Two shredding guitars, drums at hyper-speed and a raging growler that's probably way to old. Kicked some serious ass! One hour of non-stop Black Metal, the Trve kind, including two covers (one of Dissection). They played the small stage, but damn their support rocked! The first three rows where constantly headbanging (me included ;) ), totally wild – but not the fighting kind, just wild! NIFELHEIM! NIFELHEIM! NIFELHEIM…



I skipped Deathstars, since I figured I wouldn't like them anyway… and my feet really needed a rest by now…



Raging Speedhorn

Raging fucking speedhorn started their gig behind a great curtain, so I thought they had something fun going on there. But no… not really. For those who don't know Raging Speedhorn they play some kind of modern Black Metal (if there's such a thing?) with two growlers and pretty political lyrics. The only band from this day that I saw that got a mosh-pit going. I wasn't really impressed by their music plus they had some technical problems, for me this was just something to watch while waiting for…



Satyricon

And it's obvious they where the main act of day one. The big arena was crowded when I arrived, but still I hadn't too much trouble to get to the front rows. The big name as they are they let us wait 15 minutes longer before they entered the stage… fucking rockstars. :P

But when they did enter a roar from the crowd, quickly followed by the first song. Some problems with the mic at first, so one couldn't hear the singing for the half song, but after that all went fine. At first I thought it wasn't all that great, I had Nifelheim fresh in mind… but the longer the show went the better it became. After two or three songs all was fine again. Satyr was really personal with the crowd, politely asking if they where allowed to play some new songs. We all loudly allowed them. :P

They played 4 songs from Now, Diabolical. Really nice stuff, that'll be an album I will get soon.

Back to Satyr's friendly crowd approach. He was actually honest! I mean, how many times haven't we all heard "This city fucking rocks!"? What he said was "Oslo… det ær en kempegod by att spela live i… Køpenhamn ær også ganske bra. Stockholm… Jeg vet faktiskt inte ænnu!" ["Oslo is a great town to play live in. Copenhagen is good too. Stockholm… actually I don't know yet!"]. Since Satyricon has very rarely played here. We told him what we think of that of course. ;)

After the new songs they continued with more old songs from different albums. If Nifelheim are Trve with all their outfits and stage props, then Satyricon is at the opposite side of Black Metal. No bullshit, just play. Nevertheless they had a really good connection with the crowd, especially Satyr. When the entire hall has their hands in fists or horns in the air you know you've done something right. Great show!

The only thing I can complain at is that after the last song all went black as preparing for an encore. But no matter how much we called for more they didn't return. Divas. :P



Day 2



Battered

Day 2 kicked off really nice with the Norwegian thrashers. Too bad for Battered that they where the first band to play thou, because it was really empty at the small stage. I stood in front of the stage and had a small half-circle of people behind me. The only ones who ever stepped in front of me were photographers. So their support was kind of lame, I guess all thrashers were still sleeping. They did their best to do a good show thou, and with a more willing crowd it'd been great. Their performance rocked! The new singer adds a lot to the band and he's a pretty good frontman too. I missed the song 'Battered', but other than that they had a nice set-list (well they don't have so many songs to choose from yet…). Great start for me anyway.



Burst

Of and away to the large scene, where a lot more people had gathered. I watched them for about 30 minutes, but I hardly remember what they sound like… some kind of MTV Death Metal (Metalcore? I've never gripped that genre) with a lot of bullshit spoken in between the songs. "Spread your legs and pluck some strings, that's all it is. It's just a job for us." Bah, then you're fucking overpaid. :P



Ond Bråd Död

Instead I visited the demo-scene that opened this day. This band I love for their name alone… [Evil Hasty Death] and their homepage… [tandwerk.tk "tooth ache"]. Their music was some raw Death Metal with two growlers (one dark and one Cradle of Filthish). Pretty OK stuff for a young band like that. And cute outfits too. :P



Path of No Return

I went back to the small stage just in time to see Path of No Return who plays Death Metal a lá Gothenburg but with only one guitar (which makes it heavier). They where pretty OK, but they didn't really catch me. Their singer had loads of energy and was running around like a maniac, trying to fire the crowd. Well, they had a slightly larger crowd than Battered but still it wasn't much. Seemed most people camped at the large scene. Anyway, one guy started a mosh-pit with himself and I think he almost knocked himself out. :P



Went for dinner after that, but since Path of No Return made a really short gig I could catch…



Blindside

This band I didn't plan to see. I've heard one song which I don't like at all. But I went to the large scene to buy a Opeth shirt and dropped in to see if maybe they where better live. Of course they played that one song that I've heard, so I left for the demo-scene instead. Oddly enough this is the band I saw the least of (of the once that I saw), but I got a pick from them…



Digression Assassins

Anyway, at the demo-scene Digression Assassins just started to play their melodic Death Metal, but apparently their original singer was busy working so they had a stand in. He did fine thou. They played with lots of energy, I was especially impressed by the drummer. They had some technical difficulties thou, the drummer knocked of one of the snare-drums all the time and the guitar player lost two strings (one on each of his guitars…), so while he was changing strings we got a small forced bass-solo. Pretty good stuff anyway.



Taint

Back to the small stage again, where this South Wales band was about to start. Despite guitar problems (another broken string, borrowed equipment, "strange amp"…) they where really good one they got to play. They play some kind of progressive extreme rock or something. Lots of instrumental parts and just a few screamed lyrics. Very talented 3-some, this. Both the guitarist and the drummer impressed me a lot. I really enjoyed their gig. I'll check them out to see if they're as good on CD as well.

Actually I planned to go back to the demo-scene to see Engel (old In Flames members), but I stayed to see the entire Taint gig instead.



Amon Amarth

Now the really big names started at the big scene, Amon Amarth being the first ones out. I like Amon Amarths Viking Death Metal, but usually I get a bit bored after a while. Live however, they are much better! They sound a lot heavier, and Johan Hägg sure knows how to boost the crowd. Raising his Viking drinking horn crying "Skål för fan!" ["Cheers godammit!"] or "Visa mig Vikingahornen nu då!" ["Show me your Viking horns!"].

They played songs from all eras, mostly from Fate of Norns thou. The fans got what they wanted thou, all songs I heard they where crying for where played so I don't think they missed any faves.



"Ni är väl inte trötta ännu, va? Bolt Thrower och Opeth är ju här! Världsklass!" – Johan Hägg

["You're not tired yet, I hope? Bolt Thrower and Opeth are here! World class!"]



Bolt Thrower

Since I had noticed that all the people stayed at the large venue I decided to stay too and make sure I got a good spot for Bolt Thrower and Opeth. Sure did, first row close to the middle! :]

That meant I missed Capricorns (had a small chat with one of them during Taint by the way, cool guy) and Raised Fist. But it was worth it.

After a long wait (well, a hour for me, 13 years for some…) the Warmasters entered the stage and just started to fucking grind our ears with Death Metal. First two rows or so where headbanging with some small breaks for shouting and raised fists (we needed breaks, we're not as Metal as Bolt Thrower who played pretty much non-stop for an hour!). They played a nice mix of old and new songs, I think it was three songs from [i]Those Once Loyal[/i]. Just pure class. My neck still hurts.

By the way, I didn't know they had a female bass-player. She rocked as good as anyone thou. Great live act, them Bolt Thrower. I hope they don't wait another 13 years to come here again. That was just a blast.



Are You Loyal?



Opeth

Finally… the rest of the festival was just support acts for Opeth. I don't think I exaggerate when I say that many people bought their tickets for Opeth alone. That was noticeable from the amount of people who stayed and waited 1,5 hours after Bolt Thrower to get front row spots.

Excellent musicians they are, and they performed songs from all albums except Orchid and Morningrise. 3 songs from Ghost Reveries (Ghost of Perdition, Baying of the Hounds and Grand Conjuration). And… hell, I don't know what to say. I was euphoric for two hours. I didn't even realize until after the show that they had played twice as long as any of the other bands! And still I wish they played even longer!

It was Mikael Åkerfeldts birthday by the way, so we sang the Swedish version of Happy Birthday to him. He thought our singing sucked. :P

But nevertheless he appreciated it, and what better way to celebrate your birthday? Oh sure, he was complaining he was now old and that old men should not be up this late and especially not be playing rock/metal. But he was enjoying himself as much as anyone else, that was easy to see.

His talking in between the songs were a bit special, as he explained he is  much more sophisticated than most other bands. Big ego? Well, everything he said was distanced and said with irony and a dry humour. Like when he explained he had sold his soul to Satan and that's why he was so talented… should've seen him to understand. ^_^

Before the last song we actually manage to convince Mendez to play a bass-solo. Really nice short improvised thing, and really cool to go outside the set like that. The crowd wasn't satisfied with one solo thou so we convinced Mike to play a guitar-solo thou. Awesome blues-styled thing, loads of feeling in that solo! After that Mike went on to declare he knew everything about Heavy Metal. He is an Heavy Metal Dictionary. And therefore he challenged us to a game where he would play a riff and we should guess which one it was, if we were wrong they would play an Aqua-cover (Swedish/Greek pop-band) instead of the last song… Smoke On the Water, Iron Man… huh? What's that? Knocking at your Backdoor by Deep Purple? We blamed that one on Mike playing bad so we didn't have to listen to the cover. :P

Then he finished the game with a G'n'R riff, or so we thought. As Mike explained Slash stole that riff from him. :P

It was the first version of Deliverance which they of course played as the last song. "Röj då för fan!" ["Go wild!"].

A special mention must go to Mr Per Wiberg. On all gigs I've been to the keyboard player has been standing there playing the song almost uncaring about the rest. Not Per, he rocked as everyone else and I'm sure he'd come forth to the crowd had he not been needed behind the keys. But the entire band were awesome, many people have told me Opeth are a great live-act. Now I finally understand why. They just rule. I wasn't all that sure their music would work out live, because it is very complex stuff. But it sure did, it worked just wonderfully.





Summary

20 000 meters (the two main scenes where ~1000 m apart), a hurt ankle, an aching neck later… was it worth it? Hell yeah! This was a great event and I hope they'll make this a yearly show. It was really well executed, a great set and the sound… the sound was great! Despite some minor technical problems the sound was crystal clear at all scenes. And the atmosphere was also great, very friendly and everyone was just there to have a good time. Wild, but never hostile, not even that great pressure that sometimes occurs in the front wasn't present. I could easily keep my spot in the front by just standing there, didn't need to fight for it.

I really like the idea of a festival in the middle of the city, which means you can go home and sleep in your own bed… I do wish they'd chose two stages a bit closer to each others thou.

Two thumbs up to Close-Up Magazine for arranging a great festival!