BLASTFEST 2015 – Day 2 – Bergen, Garage + USF Verftet

Day 2 – The grand opening 

The only problem about a festival of the scale of BLASTFEST is that when you have as many bands as this to go through, you will have to get up early.

DJEVELKULT is not a very old band, but boy could they be! The whole atmosphere of the band screams "90’s black metal" in a very good way. The way they are presented to the crowd reminds alot of the old Gorgoroth both in style and in the way they act. Musically, it seems like a brutal mix of different black metal styles. Nothing more to say about it. Good band, good performance.

The band HECATE ENTHRONED from the UK, is a bit older (1993). The vocalist of this band is probably one of the better ones out there, with a shrieking way that could tear souls apart. This seems like what all symphonic black metal would be if it wasn’t for Dimmu Borgir and the fact that they ended up shaping most other bands with their much more influencial music. Whether that’s bad or not, is up to the listeners to decide.

 

Without a doubt one of the coolest logos of the festival. DEN SAAKALDTE is not too old, but the members are highly respected in the metal scene. Not a very visual band, but that isn’t always necessary. The music speaks for itself, and this band knows how to make music with an extra atmospheric edge. The audience were also lucky enough to hear brand new material

USF 

If it’s one thing ROTTING CHRIST should be teaching new listeners, it’s the "not to judge a book by its cover" lesson. Seeing the logo of the band, most people that knows about these kind of logos would automatically draw the conclusion that Rotting Christ is an unforgiving, hard, brutal Death Metal band. However, the band is quite groovy and alot of fun to hear and see. Probably the best band to start off a festival like this. Techncally very skilled musicians + good feeling = Rotting Christ

Industrial metal is a very polarising style of metal. Alot of people love it and alot of people don’t. This also goes for the Swiss band, SAMAEL. With 10 releases on their backs, they are a band with alot of mixed people in the audience, which is a good thing. Samael delivers alot live, but some people might be thrown off by the fact that most of their drums are electronic sounds created by a keyboard. However, it seemed like a cool way to break out of some labels and styles. Samaels performance was incredibly tight, and alot of artists should look at them as an inspirational source for some healthy change. Definetly one of the more enjoyable performances of the festival.

 

One of the greatest live bands of the Beyond the Gates festival in Bergen in August, PRIMORDIAL, was also booked for BLASTFEST. If there has ever been a good desicion from the bookking department of the festival, it’s this one. The thing about Primordial is that they offer one of the most mindblowingly weird moments if someone sees them live for the first time. When the vocalist in a band is all painted up in corpse paint, then one would also expect a growling (or shrieking) vocal performance, but Primordial has taken the whole experience in another direction and serves their audience clean singing along with rock hard music. A metal band for the history books. Very tight, good setlist and a very good control of their audience.

ORANGE GOBLIN has the presence of a standard metal band. And now we’re talking heavy metal, not any extreme metal. This band was indeed one of the most fun ones to see live, and boy, it looked like they were having a really great time as well. A bit cheesy, but all in good spirit, these Brits are welcome to come back any time, because the experience was down right great.

 

If it is one band that has been hyped so far beyond their own ability that it’s almost unrecognizable, it’s probably WATAIN! This band shows absolutely no originality what so ever, neither in their music, nor in their live performance. The band is not horrible by itself, just insanely boring to look at and listen to. Anyone who have ever seen a 90’s black metal band live before have also seen everything Watain brings to the table, and don’t think for a second that what they are doing is originally their idea. Alot of people are drawn to their music and live shows, which is weird, seeing as it is not something that challenges their audience. Seems more like them relying on blood and sheep heads to do the job for them. An easy band for people who are not looking for something grand or intelligent to chew on.

MOONSORROW was a good band to end the evening with, seeing as they are a very interesting band, musically. Known for their very long and ambient songs, this was a pleassure of the rare kind. One could only wish for more bands to be musically evolved to the same level as Moonsorrow. Truly astonishing.

Day 2 was over all a good day. Some turbulance with the different performances, but mostly great. One problem that appeared on USF this day (and that also repeated itself through out the festival) was the lack of space in the Studio stage. Alot of people travelled quite long and had to drop certan bands because they would end up in a que longer than the Chineese wall. The production team should maybe see if they could do some arrangements with projecting the gigs in the Studio stage on the monitors around USF, or maybe make some difference in the tickets for next year. All in all a good day!