BEYOND THE GATES – Day 2 – Bergen, Garage

Exciting day, especially because Deathhammer is on the line-up and because of the planned Possessed tribute by Nekromantheon!

Revivalist Deathhammer opens the ball with nails, greasy hair, teenage mustaches and a Sortilège T-Shirt. Any metalhead, even the non thrash-fans, not fancying Phantom Knights and Forever Ripping Fast has a serious ego or hearing problems. The buzz around the band working pretty well, many people came for their high-pitched screams. Globally a very good gig filling the expectations of the most, with a decent sound and a good presence even with an apparently well intoxicated frontman. This band should have been way higher on the bill. Very satisfying.

Swedish Degial takes over with a old school, Morbid Angel–Behemoth–Possessed influenced Blackened Death Metal. To make it clear: They are good, both on stage and CD, but don’t bring anything new to the scene. However, boring are they not, and they get the job done on stage with a near-perfect sound and a straight in the face gig. Good as a support band on any Death/Black metal show.

Hellbutcher follows with his band Necrocurse, which is more or less a Death Metal twin of his other band Nifelheim, with less leather, spikes and twin-brothers. As for Nifelheim gigs, Necrocurse really does one hell of a show and their frontman is of the type i like to move a lot and try to make my bandmates do so too. It’s old school, it’s cocky, it’s scary : Necrocurse is a must see live and i’m longing for the upcoming album.

Unpure, them too from Sweden, didn’t impress much people and were the weakest act of the evening, and I was simply not my thing. I really don’t know what to say, apart that Simon here delivers the same judgment. Maybe there is a reason why they stayed underground for 20 years.

It’s finally time for the most expected act of the evening to step on stage, Kolbotn based Nekromantheon or now that we kick asses in Obliteration, we should also start playing Thrash Metal in another band in kick ass there too. The band already bombed the Garage to the stone age last year during HITS with Vomitor and Diskord, and are back in even better form with jaw-dropping new studio candy, the masterpiece Rise, Vulcan Spectre. And the Garage (devoted) crowd wakes up again. Perfect drumming, numerous and gorgeous guitar dives and original solos, and a vocalist in top-condition. This is how thrash metal should be on stage. Having seen oldies goldies like Destruction, Kreator, Sodom, Sepultura (ha ha ha), Slayer and so on the last few years, they sure still hold the flame, but can’t hold on anymore in front of the new wave of bands the’ve inspired. Nekromantheon is here the best example. Lookinf forward to see them in Paris with Aura Noir.

It’s getting late but it’s now time for the Possessed tribute by Nekromantheon and a few guest vocalists, among others Radek from Amok, OTOH‘s frontman, a guitarist from Deathhammer, vocalists from Nekromantheon, Deathhammer and Necrocurse. It’s sure moving more than the real Possessed on stage, but Jeff Becerra can’t be blamed for this. The dynamics and superband spirit given to this tribute by the different vocalists made the whole thing very pleasant. But why didn’t the real Possessed play HITS ??

 

(thanks from Sindre for the correction – no one from Watain tagged along for the Possessed tribute)

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