GOATMILKER & DUNE SEA – 05.06.2026 – Bergen, Norway
- Posted on 08-06-2026
VENUE: Hulen
DATE: 05.06.2026
ORGANIZER: Hulen
PHOTOGRAPHER: Sander Lindholm Andersen
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Two superb Norwegian acts from Bergen and Trondheim respectively, more specifically Goatmilker and Dune Sea, paid the excellent venue that is Hulen a visit last Friday, and those of us who attended the gig were definitely in for a treat. The turnout at the event may not have been impressive as such, but the members of the audience certainly made themselves known and felt during the two atmospheric sets, which was a fantastic thing to witness, and there was a very pleasant and friendly vibe present the entire time.
Goatmilker is a truly interesting outfit in that the quartet is incredibly different to pigeonhole in terms of genre, yet the act’s compositions have a great flow to them and somehow manage to bridge any conceivable gap between thrash metal, prog metal, and stoner rock (I am using the latter term loosely here). The song material contains plenty of knotty riffs, creative arrangements, and forward-thinking ideas without coming across as convoluted or incohesive. Fans of Voivod and Mastodon could certainly do worse than checking these guys out – let me put it like that. They went on stage at roughly 21:25 and played a good solid forty-five minutes with the setlist comprising tunes from their self-titled debut album (2025) and a selection of brand-new and as-yet unreleased ones, which went down incredibly well with everyone there. The highlights of their set included “Storm (Dreams to Dust),” “Mission Log 1601,” and an epic, sprawling beast of a thing titled “Dawn of Time” (assuming my hearing was intact and that I actually got the title right). The latter was a new one and boded well for the future with its seamless blend of explosive heavy metal, prog-esque passages, and fuzz-laden workouts. In a perfect world the guitars would have been slightly higher in the mix throughout, but overall, the whole thing packed a solid sonic punch and there was absolutely no shortage of energy within the Goatmilker camp with every member chiming in with a robust, muscular performance. Their debut album is great, and their live performance was even better, which is to say that there is an awful lot of promise and potential to what they do and that these chaps could go far.
Dune Sea turned out to be a minor revelation to this scribe. As the three-piece embarked on their spaced-out odyssey through captivating soundscapes that moved seamlessly back and forth between the uplifting and the dystopian, we were enveloped by an aura that felt surreal, otherworldly, and enticing. Long instrumental parts and jam-like sections conjured up hazy visions of drifting across endless deserts, and the band simply nailed it with respect to the balance between light and shade and being both dynamic and trance-inducing simultaneously. A delightfully sensory overload at times and surprisingly heavy and crushing too, these gentlemen brought something memorable to the stage during their forty-five-minute tour de force. The final track titled “New Wave of Cosmic Heavy Metal” served as a fitting climactic finale to an excellent evening all around. And before I forget, their drummer Erik Bråten has to be one of the coolest dudes I have ever seen on stage; right on the money, totally in the pocket, and wonderfully animated. What a guy!
If one had to sum up the evening using just a handful of keywords and phrases, those would most definitely include “unadulterated joy,” “genuine passion,” and “great tracks that resonated with the audience.” As my nephew Rune remarked while the last note of Dune Sea’s set rang out, the whole evening was akin to a musically adventurous trip to the outer regions of the universe. In short, two of Norway’s finest young underground acts delivered the goods and kept us enthralled from beginning to end.