INFERNO FESTIVAL 2017 – Day three #2 – Rockefeller & John Dee

Kicking off the last day on Rockefeller was the Fosen based band, Slagmaur. This band basically didn’t hold anything back on their stage show. From the «opening shot» when the carpets were pulled back, everyone could still see that this was going to be extreme. Two people placed on tables on each end of the stage, with nooses around their necks is a pretty interesting sight, and it obviously raised alot of questions from the audience. The band entered and played a pretty decent show before they after the first song decided to hang the first person. They played one more song and then they hanged the second. It was all in all a pretty spectacular and extreme event, however: the band wasn’t nearly finished. Towards the end of their show they lowered down an inverted cross that had been hanging above the band all the time. They went on to crucify one person on the cross, before setting fire to the poor soul. Basically a witch burning taking place on front of a huge audience. This will go down as one of the most extreme live shows ever performed, and it was all in good fun. Musically, Slagmaur is doing a good job, but the whole performance was in the end overshadowed by the hangings and the burning. Maybe a little gimmicky, but it worked!

Next up on John Dee was the Icelandic band Zhrine. This band is very interesting because let’s all face it: The guys do not look like they play in a metal band. The vocalist looks mostly like he would be more comfortable at an EDM party, rather than inferno, so your brain gets a hard time connecting the sound of his death metal growls to his face. The sound was ok, and the music of the band is great. Zhrine definitely gave a tight show that will be remembered by those who saw it. The band has alot of atmosphere and they played a kick ass show, but they seemed incredibly underappreciated by the Inferno audience. John Dee wasn’t as packed as it was with some of the other bands, which is sad, because this band deserves so much bigger crowds! Let’s just all hope they come back another year!

The problem with Primordial is basically that they haven’t really evolved for quite some time. They look and feel and sound exactly like they did six or seven years ago. Obviously bands like to hold on to their identity, but it is possible to do so without standing completely still. The point is that if you have seen Primordial live, even if it were five years ago, then you can expect more or less the exact same show now, and not neccessarily in the best of ways. The band is not bad, and for people that saw them for the first time, it probably felt great, because honestly it was, however it is just that after five times, this band loses their magic, somewhat. They played most of their best songs, and their core fans really seemed to enjoy it, and the sound was quite good.

If you listen to Behemoth, but want something a little bit more to the Death Metal side of the whole «Blackened Death Metal» genre, then Belphegor is definitely a great place to start! They looked extreme and sounded even more extreme. Tight, fast paced and full of energy, Belphegor delivered one of the most spectacular shows of the festival, and there is no doubt that the audience loved it. This performance seemed like a love letter to the Blackened Death fans, and it was a rather long love letter. The show felt like it lasted for quite some time, which doesn’t need to be bad. However they did get somewhat repetetive around half way through their show. It did start to feel a bit like the band were dragging out the time towards the end, but for the most part it was enjoyable. The sound in the room was ok, could have been a little bit better, and the lights on stage weren’t that interesting.

And so it was the big one… The last act… The one and only Abbath! He starts off his show with a rather goofy intro track, beforeentering the stage with a torch and a horn. He went on to blow some flames before playing a couple of songs. That was it though… he played maybe four songs before throwing his guitar on the stage floor and walking off like an angry child. The rest of the band looked baffled. King tried to play some stuff on his bass before leaving, and Creature played a couple minutes long drum solo before he also left. People were left standing for quite a while before Tore Bratseth (Old Funeral, Bömbers etc..) came out and announced that the show was over and that the band would release a statement in the next couple of days.

Let’s be honest for a moment: Abbath should for his own sake and for his fans sake just hang it up at this point. He is not the artist he used to be, and he stopped being interesting quite some time ago. When he treats fans, that in some cases come from Brazil or Canada to Oslo in order to see him, like this, well, then he has nothing to do on a stage anymore. There is almost no excuse that is good enough to right a stunt like that, and he should in all honesty have to take the consequences for it and just quit. Shelf the whole band and retire!

So Abbath disappointed, but the rest of Inferno 2017 was great! All the fans and events and whatnot is what makes this festival so much fun, so let’s all just look forward to 2018!

http://infernofestival.net/