BLASTFEST 2015 – Day 4 – Bergen, Garage + USF Verftet

Day 4 – The closing chapter 

CRAIG CAMPBELL from Canada is one funny man! The stand up (or Blast Up) where alot of fun, and to be honest, few other comedians would fit as good for this gig as Campbell. His jokes or stories mostly consisted of his relation to travelling and to Norway (and Europe in general). Sadly the fire alarm went off during the show and this cut off some of his time. A good and fun addition to the festival. Let’s just hope that BLASTFEST will make this a tradition!

SARKE is one of the side projects of one of the most respected men in the whole black metal scene, Nocturno Culto. The band gave a feeling of thrashy underground rock, and it felt good. Especially good to see a band that just comes on stage and plays their songs with no makeup or grand props, and yet still they manage to not be boring. As for the music, it can be summed up in pretty mutch one word: Underground. There are no better words to describe it. If one wants to know what it is like, one should just check it out, and then it is up to each and everyone to decide if it’s their kind of thing. The audience really seemed to like it, so that’s something!

 

If DECAPITATED has one edge over most other bands on the festival, it is their weird and strong energy on stage. Almost hypnotizingly much of it. It really doesn’t matter if you are a fan of death metal or not, if you see them, you are almost bound to stay for the whole show. Musically not the best death metal band in the world (or the festival for that matter, since that title should obviously go to Blood Red Throne), but that is something that doesn’t really matter, because seeing this band is such a special experience. All of the artists, especially their vocalist, are all over the place all the time, and it is so damn enjoyable to watch, so if most of the other bands should take a note from Decapitated, it would be to look at their energized live performance. The crowd loved it, and with good reason. Decapitated fits well with a big stage and a big crowd agrees with their way of performing. Thumbs up, or rather, horns up!

Thrash metal is such an odd genre. In the meaning of how many people swear to it as the best metal sub genre in the world. It is not the most technical sub genre, not the most melodic (or least for that matter), and it is usually just the same riffs and beats over and over and over again. It is so weird that so many people get drawn to a genre that usually brings little to nothing to the table, compared to other sub genres. The band DESTRUCTION is a good example of this. One of the absolute least interesting bands of the whole festival, musically, yet still Røkeriet was filled up completely. The band had an ok live energy, but nothing compared to Decapitated… They also performed their songs straight forward, but were nowhere near as interesting as Sarke, yet still they had somewhat a bigger audience than the two. It might have been the timing, or maybe some people just see more in thrash metal than others. The gig was performed as expected from a medium-big thrash band. Alot of riffs going fast and tight playing. Just not as interesting as some would like, maybe.

 

Talking about weird – FINNTROLL. What a weird and enjoyable experience it is to see this band live. From the strange musical sound to the elf-ears, this was just a wonderful change of pace. They had a really good contact with their audience, and looked like they had alot of fun on stage. The music is not for everyone, but it is hard not to have a good time when this band plays their biggest hit, "Trollhammaren" (or any other song for that matter). Alot of people in the crowd were dancing, mshing, singing and basically just having the time of their life. The look of the crowd during this band, is the perfect image of how a festival should be. Alot of men and women just having fun and listening to music that they may or may not like. Incredible performance, and – it can’t be said enoug – alot of fun!

 

SATYRICON is known as one of the pioneers in the Black Metal scene. Their album Nemesis Divina is recognized by many as one of the best albums in the genre, ever. Truly one of the biggest bands in the whole scene. Then you ofcourse have their new albums that are very polarizing: Alot of people like the new songs and alot of people don’t, and both are completely valid opinions, seing as opinions are just opinions and not something objective. One thing nobody can take away from Satyricon, tho, is this: probably one of, if not the band on the whole festival with the best crowd control. They know exactly what to say and do with their audience. Down to the smallest movement. Professionality of that level is extremely rare these times, and are mostly seen in bands much larger than Satyricon (Iron Maiden etc.). Yet still they have a good relationship with their crowd. There was alot of new material on the setlist, and not alot of old material. One may think whatever one will about that, because it is a known fact that there are alot of opposing opinions on their new music. Maybe to make the setlist a little bit better, they should have switched the two last songs and ended with Mother North instead of K.I.N.G. but that is nitpicking, really. All in all it was a fantastically good performance, and to be honest: most of the other bands on the line up should watch Satyricon’s behaviour on stage and see if they can learn something, because they are on a higher level than most other bands. A more than worthy way to end a fantastic festival!

So to wrap up: The festival was a sucess in many ways, and the metalheads of the world can only hope that BLASTFEST keeps up for alot more years. From the market to the concert to the small events to the stand up, this festival was a very well oiled machine that worked quite well. Only issue would be the space in the Studio stage, but the organizers are probably going to find a smart way to fix that issue in time. Until next time!