BLASTFEST 2015 – Day 1 – Bergen, Cruise + Garage

Day 1 – Cruising Bergen 

One of the most interesting things about the second edition of BLASTFEST, was definetly the addition of the Showline cruise. A trip that only aprox. 200 people were allowed to join.

The first band playing on this cruise, was the psychedelic band PURPLE HILL WITCH. The band itself sounded quite ok, with an old school sound to their music. They also seemed like some quite skilled musicians. However, they were not very interesting or innovative. The singer should also really take a course in how to sing with clean vocals. Singers that are not good at singing is quite possible one of the worst things in music. Ever.

ASPHERIUM was completely different. Maybe not the most interesting band to watch, but goddamn did they make up for it with some awesome music! Very technical and progressive. The band was very tight, even if they hadn’t slept in something like 28 hours. That is a special talent right there. This band is an upcoming star on the Norwegian metal sky. Let’s just hope that they’ll keep it up long enough for people to get the knowledge of their existence.

 

Due to the sad fact that Grimfist cancelled, THE 3RD ATTEMPT got the honor of being the last band on the fjord cruise. The expectations for this band were probably quite high for alot of people, seeing as the founders are former members of the black metal legend, Carpathian Forest. The band came on stage and gave an absolutely wonderful, memorable performance. They were sort of the opposite of Aspherium, since the music was not the most original or interesting music, but boy did they have their style right. The vocalist, "Kaahrl Ødemark" especially. Alot of artists could take a page out of his book of corpse paint design! The 3^rd Attempt does truly have alot of potential, and it will be very interesting to see where this band ends up.

HOEST (Taake) was also guesting the trip, as the cruises very own DJ. The music was quite interesting, but it seemed like it was alot of his own material that was getting played. Nothing wrong with that, but a weird choice, maybe.

Even tho the cruise was about half an hour late, most people there probably enjoyed themselves quite alot. It came back to the docks safe and sound, and (most of) the guests were ready to take the festival over to Garage!

Garage 

One of the main stages of the festival was Garage, and this is where one of the absolutely darkest bands of the whole festival played. KALL, hailing from Sweden, is basically the "sequel" to the band Lifelover. A ressurection, not just of the band, but also the sinister atmosphere. What a great performance! Dark and depressive, and with a special kind of preassure that none of the other bands of the evening managed to create.

NAER MATARON from Greece was a complete 180 compared to Kall. No soul in the music, no atmosphere and it basically felt like noise. Visually a bit more attractive, but Kall also beat them there, because of the corelation between their scene presence and the atmosphere. Naer Mataron could have stayed at home without being too missed.

 

GEHENNA from Norway did an amazing job, as one would expect them to. Musically far from the same intensity as Kall, but Gehenna got experience on their side. This was absolutely not something to overlook, and with great visuals and a special take on the Norwegian Black Metal genre, this is something that people shouldn’t miss out on.

The "headliner" of the evening, BÖMBERS, has one very strong side: They are almost identical to Motörhead. However, they got one huge problem as well: They are almost identical to Motörhead! The reason this is both good and bad is that people that are huge fans of the original, will most likely love this tribute, while people who are not too interested, will not only be less interested in Bömbers, but they won’t gain any interest for the original Motörhead either. The show was good and there was alot of fun energy on stage. Fans of Motörhead should see this tribute. Other people might want to skip some of the very identical songs.

Day 1 was completed with a blast (no pun intended), and even though this was a great day, it wasn’t perfect. However, the next few days would hopefully be even better.