BEYOND THE GATES “Bjørgvin Black Mass 2017” – Day III – Bergen, Norway

The last day of a rather good festival would now solitify whether or not the Bjørgvin Black Mass would go down in history as one of the greatest tributes to old and new underground bands and occult experiences.

Black Magic is not that old, but it really capture the essence of the older occult bands. The whole show reminded alot of a 70’s cult band (like Coven, maybe?). The music was soothing and it was a nice way to start off the last day of a rather intense festival. Probably not the concert that most people will remember from the festival,
but it was a nice addition to the line up.

 

The band Exciter is quite interesting. It is one of those bands that you can see from the moment you walk into the room, what kind of music they play. Old school speed Metal is funny that way. Exciter did a nice job in capitalizing on all the speed metal tropes, and it was a fun and entertaining concert. The people in the audience also seemed to really enjoy the show in all of its old school glory. The band is also one of the tightest bands that still tour around the world, so good on them for keeping their energy at a high level!

 

Denner/Shermann gave a rather ok show to Beyond the Gates. Nothing is more fun than Mercyful Faith meeting Snowy Shaw in a back alley to make a lovechild that ends up giving one of the most energized concerts of the black mass! This band was basically the most glorious, yet cheesy love letter to the 80’s that the festival could ever have on stage, and it was absolutely lovely. Here’s to hoping that BtG will continue to have these kinds of weird acts on forever.

Enslaved Performing "Vikingligr Veldi"… This was not too impressive. It was like a standard Enslaved gig, but with less variation in the material. It is understandable that these bands want to do something special for their fans, but we are now at a point where "X band performing 20 year old album" is getting nauseating. In the last three years Emperor, Satyricon, Mayhem, Emperor (again), Enslaved and probably alot more has done either concerts or tours with this concept, and it is starting to feel like these bands just don’t have the imagination to set up a good and dynamic setlist where they have a proper balance between old and new songs anymore. With that said: Enslaved performed their album well enough, but there was literally nothing special about the gig, except for them playing one of their weaker albums from the 90’s.

 

 

In the end, the festival had some great high points, and some sad and uninspiring low’s. The festival itself was good, and it did capture the underground feel that it wa looking to capture. However, the festival needs to grow and solitify it’s presence at USF Verftet, because it didn’t always feel as natural as it should. Hopefully this will
get better with a few tries at the venue!