INFERNO FESTIVAL 11 – Day one – Club Day

Wednesday – the day of Mercury. Mercury is dense, right? Well considering that Inferno sells up to 1500 tickets and each of the club venues holds between 200 and 400 people, it felt very dense in some places. This night is a good example of the recent growth of Inferno and how it especially benefits the foreign element – once the initial head scratching over just where Rockin is or where Unholy is has been overcome, it is the perfect way to undertaking real Heavy Metal sight seeing – the inside of dark clubs filled by darker minds, where there is almost as much sweat on the walls as there is in cleavage (boob and bum, we are equal opportunity pervs) and the sort of joints where the "Me Tarzan, you Jane" approach might actually get you laid. That’s the polite element, the not so polite we leave to your imagination. Inferno’s opening day and the Devil cried a white tear.

(Roy Kristensen) Opening the always crowded John Dee on Wednesday, Norwegian Insense have aims to carry the torch all the way through… I guess they first take Berlin, and then Manhatten. Anywhooo, the band’s blend of aggressive metal filled with a few good hooks seemed to make the audience quite happy. The clean vocals are not Insense’s prime selling point, in contradiction to the more Pantera-ish angry shouts. And with musicians that do their best to make Insense appear tougher than the rest, the crowd seemed pleased. Of course there were a few of us awaiting the band to come, but Insense did shorten the wait and to my surprise, since it’s not my favourite brand of metal, I had quite a good time at the venue. A decent sound did justice to the band’s power, because if the sound is low and unclean, Insense will not be a joyful meeting. With such a fine sound, the anticipation for the follower increased.

 

OBLITERATION
http://www.myspace.com/obliterationnorway

(Roy Kristensen) No doubts that the Norwegian youngsters have a bright future. Or should we say dark, since their music is filled with great hooks and turns, yet there is less light than in my closed refrigerator. Obliteration’s music is dirty to the core. The sound is dirty to the core. And the audience, which I suppose have seen this band numerous time already since Obliteration is kind of the capitals household extreme live band, seemed to have a jolly good death metal time. Some bands do play their death metal with a F-16 up their asses, but Obliteration know how to make the music varied, yet still within the same sphere. And judging from the new song they played (sorry, don’t remember the name) the new material will not stand back in quality compared to the super "Nekropsalms". The good thing about Obliteration playing at the Inferno Festival is that you know you’re up for at least one great gig during the four full days. Make sure you’ll be there when their next albums is alive and undead.

 

 

(Roy Kristensen) Having heard good things about this band on beforehand, it was with some anticipation we run to Rock In to get a good dose of metal. Though, I must admit that Resonaut was kind of boring. Drone metal, or whatever it’s called, is seemingly not my cup of tea. The sound was excellent, the place was packed, only a few people saw anything… Ah, the great things about club concerts! However, being 6 feet and seeing nothing doesn’t matter, since the guys were just standing there concentrating on jamming out a few tunes, with just a little variation. Jamming? What the heck do I know? The band is probably about dreaming and escaping, but to me they were draining. Not draining blood… But I’m dead sure if you’re up for such kind of metal, this was as good a show as anything else. And brining Resonaut into the Inferno bill just adds to the variation.

 

 

(Paul Kearns) «Oh man, why are Alcest playing at Rock In?». This question was put to me several times in the lead up to Inferno this year. Not that I should have known more than anyone else but as our dark lord would have it, I did manage to get the lowdown from Lars, one of the Inferno bookers. The club day runs several venues in tandem, Rock In being one of those. It also turns out that the Inferno folk enlist South Of Heaven (other booking folk) to take care of the Rock In line up. So for those miffed by the fact Alcest were playing in a 200 plus capacity venue? Blame South Of Heaven. High fives all around for them actually, Alcest was the booking of the festival I felt.
However, having them in Rock In bordered past very uncomfortable on this Holy Wednesday night – the place was fucking rammed…in fact rammed to such extent that by halfway through their set Alcest were hosts to a far more relaxed environment as, luckily, enough sould departed so that their remaining spectators could enjoy the experience more.
Alcest, what does a girl say? Along with Anathema they released by far the best album of 2010 and I was dying to see them. The result was a little disappointing. Not due to anything on the part of the band but being that an event like this (first live encounter with a band whose spell you’ve fallen under) is based partially upon those first few moments. Rock In’s low stage and sardine train conditions during those moments and the ones after effectively nullified this. Too bad.
That aside, Alcest were fantastic. I will be certain that my next encounter with them will not suffer the same pitfalls….I suppose all I can say is…I love Alcest. Musically. And…..

 

 

(Rune Grande) The first band I got to experience at Blå was Trap Them, a band I didn’t have much knowledge of from before, and I do not think I’m going to increase my knowledge of the band any further in hindsight either. Hardcore is and has never been my favorite genre and it is especially the screaming vocals I struggle most with. In a band like Hate Them, is just the vocals of this type and I am becoming more interested in escape than to judge what the band does on stage. I do however notice that the band creates a good life, the sound is awesome and they do what they are hired for, they warm up the audience for what will come: Rotten Sound.

 

 

(Rune Grande) Rotten Sound played at the Inferno in 2007 and now they were back to feed the Inferno people with a powerful dose of grindcore. The band’s lead singer Keijo Niinimaa is a skilled front man with no less than 17 years of experience. The band has not quite achieved the great success, but it appears that the label switch to Relapse in some case lead to more touring and hopefully some degree of success. But enough about that, Rotten Sound had a great sound, Niinimaa was commander on the scene and now there was a lot of people inside Blå. The band plays a mix of fast grindcore, heavy slower stretches, even faster grindcore and some mid tempos parties. The band creates a great life and introduces this year’s Easter in an excellent manner. Here we go again.

www.infernofestival.net
www.rockefeller.no