BUNKER II – Saturday – Parkteateret

This years edition of Bunker had quite an impressive list of names on the bill and it´s really pleasing to see that the festival is expanding. Allready looking forward to next year.

Unfortually I did get sick early in the week so I did miss the mighty Intergrity on thursday but my personal favorite booking this year was without doubt Khold.

Their grim primitive formula works very well and I have never had the change to see them live so I was stoked when they entered the stage arount 2130 on Bunker´s last day at Parkteateret (Oslo).

The attendence was a little over half full but the venue is quite small so the atmosphere was there when Gard & Company entered the stage.

Their melodic easy listening form of black metal have proven to hold the test of time since their debut "Masterpiss of Pain" back in 2001. The sound was unfortually not that great and some of the guitar got lost in the overall fuzz and that was quite irritating since Khold is all about the riffing. Vocalist Gard kept the pace up and made the performance excellent anyhow and it was a shame that they did not get a longer timeslot because even though their set was filled with both new ("100 år Gammal") and older ("Phantom) material I was still hungry for more Khold when they walked off.

Horna play sold shcool black metal that you have for sure heard before. It´s all guns blazing right out of the gate and even though their vocalist kept the theatrics alive they did not get under my skin like I was hoping to. The vocal shrieked on mosly high pitch and it got kinda monotone after a while. They had some cool riffs that where arrangend in somewhat chaotic manner. I had not heard Horna before so maybe I would have gotten more out of it if I had done my homework before Bunker.

The finns have been active since 93 so both their ability to write and perform black metal was without doubt present, it just became to much at times for me personally but some of the crowd headbangend furiously so it appeared that Horna have a strong hold on the norwegian black metal entusiasts.

Negative Plane was another unknown band in my book that hails from Florida and pushes the boundaries of black metal to unknown territories. The trio have just two full-length releases under their belt but the crowd had a good grip on their formula of unholy and grim extreme metal. To me personally they supriesed me big time! Negative Plane puts the pedal to the metal and drags you along either you want to or not. They base much of their sound on the only guitarist fittingly called Nameless Void and holy hell does he know how to handle his instrument. From merciless riffing/chugging to blasting solo´s all done to the pummeling bass of his companion D.G made their sound of noise relentless but fresh and interresting all the way.

It made an unmistakeable impression on more than just me and after their set the energy level was above the charts and the cheering could begin.

The highligth of the evening and for sure a name worth checking out.