VULTURE INDUSTRIES – Bergen – Hulen

On a somewhat sunny and warm Thursday evening in September three bands were scheduled to perform at the old and atmospheric venue in Bergen named Hulen, those three bands being Royal Rooster, Dordeduh and Vulture Industries. I was quite excited about the idea of watching Vulture Industries perform as I like a couple of their albums a lot, and every time they have performed in Bergen these last few years I have been out of town. However, now was the time to remedy that, but as it turned out I was in for a bit of a treat, because all three bands actually ended up delivering entertaining and cool shows. One of the things I liked the most was that all three bands were completely different to each other and did not sound alike at all. Royal Rooster is a Norwegian hard rock band that draws heavily on 70s outfits such as Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple and Rainbow among others. Dordeduh, on the other hand, is a progressive black metal band of sorts comprised of former members of the Romanian act Negura Bunget. The Norwegian entity Vulture Industries performs weird, theatrical and strangely dramatic avantgarde metal.

At 21:40 the four members of Royal Rooster kicked off their show, and while they appeared a bit nervous at first they gradually eased into the whole thing and everything went pretty well from then on. The songs were, as I pointed out before, heavily rooted in 70s hard rock with a few psychedelic 60s undertones to them, and having the guitarist as well as the bassist and the Hammond organ player all do their fair share of vocal parts worked quite well. The solos were melodic and there were a lot of groovy riffs present in their songs. All four members obviously also had a sense of humor and sarcasm judging from what they uttered from the stage. "Voodoo Queen" was probably the highlight of their show and the crowd did seem to be into the music, so all in all I was pleasantly surprised by this act.

Dordeduh took the stage at 22:35 while a dark ambient-like piece set the mood for their mysterious and atmospheric show. The music had a lot of quality to it. It was moody and trance-like in places and at the same time it was very varied, organic and dynamic. There were lots of things going on and yet every song the four-piece played was strangely catchy. There were a lot of mellow parts and then suddenly the band would burst into these extremely aggressive and massively heavy soundscapes. I loved it! The Eastern-influenced melodies, chants and clean vocals added a nice touch and while Dordeduh may be said to be epic, they were never annoyingly pompous. A captivating and fascinating band to watch for sure!

 

Vulture Industries launched into their set at approximately 23:45 and from the get-go we were treated to a highly professional, intense and competent outfit. The vocalist, Bjørnar E. Nilsen, was all drama and theatricality, pretty much acting like some lunatic genius most of the time, but he got the crowd going and he sang well that night. The carnivalesque atmosphere of their albums was definitely evoked on the stage, and the band was pretty damn tight. It was a lot of fun wathing the five-piece in such an intimate setting, and it was definitely a captivating and energetic show. Especially the songs "The Tower", "The Pulse of Bliss" and "The Hound" stood out and were performed and delivered with passion and conviction. "The Bolted Door" also ruled! Not that many people were there, but the ones that were definitely dug the show, me included.

 

All in all I must say that this was a great show all around. As I pointed out earlier on, being able to watch three completely different bands perform with each of them delivering the goods was a treat for me, and the sound was decent from where I was standing most of the time. Definitely a night to remember.