KARMØYGEDDON 2017 – Day 2 – Kopervik

The plans from before the festival were to wake up early, stroll around, do some sightseeing, enjoy Norwegian West coast beauties and viking history. The battle was quickly lost when the really great looking clear skies were only due quite heavy winds that made the bed and pillow look extremely welcoming. So Friday started with breakfast, shower, a nap and then the short trip from MS Sandnes boat hotel to the festival area and be there just in time for Evig Natt on the Scandic stage. Since the band members actually originate from Karmøy, the crowd was gathered in decent numbers for the early hour and showed a lot of warm support, that got even warmer when Lindsay Schoolcraft from Cradle of Filth joined them for a song never performed live before. I thought the concert would be a ‘classic’ goth female fronted one, but actually the band has an interesting way of keeping away from the stereotypes and making dark and ambient beautiful music.

Less beauty was to be found in the melodic black/death metal combo of Aspherium, but for the lover of technical elements there was surely something beautiful in watching the skilled musicians delivering their modern sounding compositions. A band who should have a chance of growing a lot if they pick on the right paths in the career. Artillery followed on the small stage and delivered a wake up dose of thrash filled with energy and fast riffs and with a tint of good old fashioned tunes. It seemed to bring headbangers to life and attract more and more people in.

A bit of a contrast from the intense thrash on the small stage to the dreamy Alcest tunes on the main stage. The French band has replaced the Aussies in Ne Obliviscaris on the last hundreds of meters, and I’m sure one could easily find both pros and cons for each band. Alcest’s music has a way of messing up with your senses as it barely bothers to stand still in one direction and quickly steers you around between haunting and eerie melodies and then drowns you fast into insane fast and technical parts. I personally can never watch a full show of theirs, but as long as I manage, I have plenty to admire from the talented musicians.

Up next there’s more melodic death metal from the Swedes in Dark Tranquillity and the very charismatic Mikael Stanne who is constantly on the move, showing love to the crowd, kneeling, headbanging and overall just getting all the attention. A band with a solid stage experience which is obvious within every move. While not a favorite of mine, I admit they do know how to deliver a good show.

A short trip to the small stage so I could catch a bit of Art of Deception‘s concert and spot another promising young Norwegian act. They enjoy being on stage and have really nice mix of jazzy or blues elements introduced in the metal sound. They seem to only have one album out in 2016 but I’m pretty sure time will bring much more of interest from this Stavanger based project.

Main stage is taken over by the German power metallers in Primal Fear and after photographing them for the allowed three songs and being judgmental about the body builder allure of Ralf Scheepers, I decide this is not music I’d listen to very often so I go and fetch me some dinner. I return in time for Marduk as it was about time for some devastating black metal on the main stage. While they do wear body paint and try to have a mean image, at least that evening they let the music do most of the talking and raise the level of evilness through the insane blasts, riffs and growls.

The Greeks in SepticFlesh played up next and I’m yet to see them putting out a disappointing show. While not necessarily clockwork interpretation every second, they do have a fierce stage appearance that demands respect and can even give goosebumps. The music feels like a force of nature and the intense looks on the face of Spiros Antoniou surely makes it feel like it’s the soundtrack of mount Olympus.

Last one for Friday (for me at least, more followed afterwards but I had to skip them) were Saxon and their good old fashioned heavy metal with a history of over 20 albums and even double as much of musical activity. Reminiscent of both Maiden and Motörhead at times, Saxon plays a cold and straight British heavy metal and the setlist contains hits both for new and old fans and it’s rarely a disappointment for anyone.