On the last day of Blastfest, festival boss Yngve “Bolt” Christiansen had once again made a smart move. He had Wardruna open, and once again the crowd was much bigger than what one would expect at such an early hour. Wardruna are also extremely professional, if quite far removed from what one would consider metal. Although, they do have both Kvitrafn and Gaahl in their lineup, so the selling points in terms of metal are very much present. However, folk music, or the likes thereof, will in my mind never have anything to do at a metal festival, but to each his own, I guess. This became a day were I simply wasn’t able to run around and catch all the bands, but I did manage to catch most of them, and I did catch the first band at the Studio stage, which was Communic. You know, that band with members formerly in Scariot, that kinda sound like the Norwegian version of Nevermore? Well, they certainly do, and they certainly sport some technical abilities. Just like the opening act the night before, Sahg, they did their very best to get the audience started, and I think they really did a good job, at least from what I could observe.
At the mainstage prime blasphemers Carpathian Forest were ready for a auditory attack. They certainly didn’t hold back, kicking off the show with ‘The Frostbitten Woodlands Of Norway’, which is one hell of a groovy song. Then came one classic after the other. Drummer for the occasion was Jonathan A. Perez, who usually plays with Sirenia. He was able to pull off filling the drum chair as a replacement for Kobro. The more alarming thing was a Nattefrost in front that seemed to have lost his ability to scream properly. All growls and snarls and whatnot only seemed like a mixture between half-heartedness and an actual problem with his voice. Maybe the former being a result of the latter? Well, we were given convincing versions of songs like ‘Suicide Song’, ‘Knokkelmann’ and ‘Mask Of The Slave’, so no one was complaining.
Insidious Disease is one strange band. They have some really generic material, but are made up of people from Dimmu Borgir, Old Man’s Child, Morgoth, Napalm Death etc. For the occasion they also seemed to have recruited the former Blood Red Throne drummer Emil Wiksten, currently hammering down the nails for Swedish Aeon. I mean, there’s certainly nothing really holding this band back except for some really generic material. No eyebrows were raised.
Speaking of … back down at the mainstage Aborted were on stage, and that is something completely different altogether. They certainly know both how to craft interesting material, put on a good and energetic show, and really raise hell. Too bad the room was only halfway filled with people as they went on stage. Maybe technical and brutal death metal par excellence was just too much for the audience mainly comprised of Scandinavians? I simply have no idea why people didn’t show up for one of the highlights of the festival – maybe not on paper, but their actual performance was flawless! Having missed out on Enthroned, I got ready for stallwarts of the death metal genre, Vader. I have seen them a couple of times before, and every single time they have been really impressive. Somehow that didn’t seem to be the case this time around. I can’t really put my finger on it, but something just seemed off about them. Maybe it was the volume levels again, just like with Hypocrisy. It just seemed a little tame and polished.
Belphegor suffered from the same thing as Enthroned, although with Belphegor I actually got a short glimpse of them, but there was just too big a crowd to get a proper look. Back down at the mainstage, My Dying Bride were ready for their third ever appearance in Bergen. They started off a bit slow with ‘Kneel Till Doomsday’, ‘The Raven And The Rose’ and a song which I never get why is included in their set, seeing it as it is one of their weaker ones, ‘Like Gods Of The Sun’. Then again, after that, things really picked up, and they ended their set with a cavalcade of ‘Turn Loose The Swans’, ‘She Is The Dark’ and ‘The Dreadful Hours’, leaving me, paradoxically enough, with a big smile, in a euphoric trance-like state, and well on my way into blackout drunkenness. And remember good people of the world: next year (19-21th of February 2015) Yngve is doing things even bigger, with three full days at this year’s main venue. Also, where else do you get to stumble into King Ov Hell, Infernus, Abbath, Demonaz, Gerhard of Einherjer, Grutle of Enslaved and a whole host of other cult names casually hanging out in the bar? Actually, after helping Yngve move some stock and the backline just earlier today, getting a little insight into the things that are planned for the next edition: GET YOUR TICKETS NOW!
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Words: Pål Lystrup
Photos: StiPa Photography