RELEASE YEAR: 2026BAND URL: https://bjornriis.bandcamp.com/album/lifandi While many prog fans might associate the talented guitarist Bjørn Riis with the amazing outfit Airbag, the fact of the matter is that Riis has been quite prolific outside his main band these past few years and carved out an equally interesting solo career. The man has never denied where much…
RELEASE YEAR: 2026BAND URL: https://www.dimmu-borgir.com/ Norwegian legends Dimmu Borgir have returned with a new studio offering, and the good news is that it has been worth the eight-year wait. What immediately becomes obvious upon spinning the disc and digesting the whole of the splendid Grand Serpent Rising is how much thought and creative energy these chaps…
RELEASE YEAR: 2026BAND URL: https://35tapes.bandcamp.com/album/veil-on-life The experimental Norwegian prog rockers 35 Tapes have garnered a good and solid reputation on the back of their well-received offerings from these past few years, namely Lost & Found (2020), Home (2021), and Fabric of Time (2023). Their latest opus titled Veil on Life, which came out a couple of…
RELEASE YEAR: 2026BAND URL: https://glasblume.bandcamp.com/album/city-in-rain Oslo’s Glasblume is something quite out of the ordinary and a wonderful addition to the alternative music scene, which is evident in every nook and cranny of the eleven deftly executed compositions that their deeply atmospheric debut LP appropriately titled City in Rain is comprised of. Honestly, I could not think…
RELEASE YEAR: 2026BAND URL: https://tusm-rke.bandcamp.com/album/balderdom Few if any acts are as musically devious, lyrically interesting, deeply eclectic, and all-out quirky as the inimitable Tusmørke are, and those are obviously traits and characteristics to be loved and admired. Whenever they unearth new material, you know that it is going to be positively strange and surreal yet never…
RELEASE YEAR: 2026BAND URL: https://viadoloris.bandcamp.com/album/guerre-et-paix Conceived, meticulously crafted, and perfectly nursed in solitude, this majestic and heartfelt opus by Via Doloris, which is the brainchild of former Satyricon live guitarist Gildas Le Pape, is a most welcome surprise. Across seven inspired compositions and forty-eight thrilling minutes, Le Pape and renowned drummer Frost (1349, Satyricon) guide us…
From Dutch Prog to Ukrainian Precision: A Night of Controlled Chaos in Oslo Full photo gallery here: Photos: Andrea Chirulescu Text: Jonathan Mazin The evening opened with Dutch progressive metal outfit Textures, who leaned heavily into intricate prog structures from the first note. Very proggy, highly technical, with clear djent elements driving much of the…
RELEASE YEAR: 2026BAND URL: https://pymlicomusic.bandcamp.com/ The classy Norwegian outfit Pymlico never fail to stir the senses and tick all the right jazz prog boxes whenever they gift us with new music, and the upcoming album titled No More, No Less is a perfect example of how to bring inspired and forward-thinking sounds to life in a…
RELEASE YEAR: 2026BAND URL: https://ihxhi.bandcamp.com/album/unheeding-sun The talented multi-instrumentalist L.R. Måløy (If Nothing Is, Dødheimsgard) teamed up with drummer Jens Noteng and vocalist Kjersti Marie Seiersten a while back, which resulted in the intriguing and musically adventurous prospect known as IHXHI. They released a self-titled EP last year, and just a few days ago the mysterious entity…
RELEASE YEAR: 2026BAND URL: https://centurymedia.bandcamp.com/album/liturgy-of-death-24-bit-hd-audio Legendary Norwegian black metal pioneers Mayhem surely need no introduction as these charismatic and chimeric entities have been at the vanguard of forward-thinking music for decades now. Renowned, infamous, musically exceptional, and nothing less than wholly captivating are words and phrases that seem relatively apt here with respect to their back…
– VENUE: Unity Arena– DATE: 11.12.25– ORGANIZER: Live Nation Full photo gallery: https://eternal-terror.com/2025/12/15/sabaton-oslo-11-12-2025/ Sabaton at Unity Arena felt less like a traditional concert and more like a large-scale war opera, carefully staged and tightly executed. The Legendary Orchestra The evening began with the Legendary Orchestra, featuring Noa Grumman from Scardust, and it immediately raised the…
RELEASE YEAR: 2025BAND URL: https://1349som.bandcamp.com/album/winter-mass Captured for posterity four years ago at the Parkteatret in Oslo, this ungodly conjuring of Norwegian black metal by long-running ensemble 1349 is an exciting live document that shows how well their compositions translate to the stage, and the fact that they performed on home turf in front of an appreciative…
RELEASE YEAR: 2025BAND URL: https://airbagsound.bandcamp.com/album/airbag-dysphoria-live-in-the-netherlands A live album by Norwegian prog rock stalwarts Airbag is not something to be taken lightly; it is a huge-sounding representation of some of their most outstanding and inspired epics being performed by a tight, well-oiled machine that knows exactly how to stir the senses and stimulate the mind of the…
VENUE: Unity ArenaDATE: 18.10.2025ORGANIZER: Live NationPHOTOGRAPHER: Cezar CazanPhotos copyrights belong to the photographer. No unauthorized usage allowed. Please contact photographer if you wish to reuse images in any context. WITCH FEVER BUSH VOLBEAT
RELEASE YEAR: 2025BAND URL: https://panzerpappa.bandcamp.com/album/landsbysladder It has been a long time since I last sat with a new record by the lovely Norwegian proggers known as Panzerpappa between my hands, but I can honestly that this time around has been the most exciting and stimulating one yet. Landsbysladder, which roughly translates to village gossip, sees the…
Photo galleries from day 2 at Tons of Rock 2025 can be found here Photos by Andrea Chirulescu & Jonathan Mazin Text by Andrea Chirulescu One new item on the agenda – besides the 4th stage – for this year’s Tons of Rock was the organized Black Metal Bus Sightseeing. Certainly borrowed from Inferno festival,…
Full photo galleries can be found at the link below. Photos: Andrea Chirulescu/Jonathan MazinText: Andrea Chirulescu & Jonathan Mazin Having a big, world class festival in your town is something one kinda gets used to by now and I feel like somehow the days and weeks leading up to it have become more exciting with…
Full photo gallery by Jonathan Mazin Text by Andrea C The same work related issues that had me leave early the other day, delayed me a bit on Saturday, thus missing the chance at the very early concert with Feral Nature at Revolved Background. And it’s sad since everyone I heard was super enthusiast about…
Full gallery by Jonathan Mazin here: Text by Andrea C The second edition of Desertfest Oslo took place 9th and 10th of May 2025 and I am happy to have had a chance to attend. For various reasons I have stepped down a bit from the insane amount of concerts and festivals I used to…
RELEASE YEAR: 2025BAND URL: https://tusm-rke.bandcamp.com/album/en-pakt-med-naturen Norwegian proggers Tusmørke are not only one of the most prolific and creative outfits in this green and pleasant land of ours but also one of the very best and most rewarding listens there is. Their discography is both vast and unique, and their take on psychedelic folk prog is as…
RELEASE YEAR: 2025BAND URL: https://pymlicomusic.bandcamp.com/ Core is the fifth full-length album by Norwegian prog rockers Pymlico to have been released by Apollon Records (and the ensemble’s eighth overall as far as I recall), and it is easily the group’s most organic, accessible, and memorable output to date, which is saying something. The brilliant and intuitive interplay…
– VENUE: Oslo Spektrum – DATE: 12th March 2025 – ORGANIZER: FKP Scorpio On March 12, 2025, Oslo Spektrum became a portal to another age as Heilung took the stage. The Danish-German-Norwegian collective is known for their immersive and theatrical performances, and this night was no exception. As the lights dimmed, the sounds of the…
Full photo gallery from the concerts can be seen here: – VENUE: Rockefeller – DATE: 8th of March 2025 – ORGANIZER: All Things Live Some concerts are merely performances, while others feel like full-fledged rituals. The collaboration between “Witch Club Satan” and “MoE” was unmistakably the latter. From the moment the first notes rang out,…
VENUE: Cosmopolite SceneDATE: 11 February 25ORGANIZER: FKP Scorpio Full photo gallery: Rolling Quartz, an all-female rock band from South Korea, has been making waves in the global music scene since their formation in August 2019. The group emerged from the merger of two bands, Rolling Girlz and Rose Quartz, bringing together the talents of vocalist…
RELEASE YEAR: 2024 BAND URL: https://whitewillow.bandcamp.com/album/sacrament-remaster The third album by renowned prog rockers White willow, namely the one entitled Sacrament, was recently given an all-analogue boost and remastered by main-man (and musical mastermind) Jacob Holm Lupo, and new life has definitely been breathed into this already evocative creation. Originally released back in 2000 to great acclaim…
RELEASE YEAR: 2024BAND URL: https://www.apollonrecords.no/product-page/arild-br%C3%B8ter-a-spectre-of-sounds-james-bond-music-reimagined This staggeringly creative and hugely enjoyable album by Arild Brøter (who is primarily known for his work with Norwegian prog rockers Pymlico) totally swept me off my feet and instantly made me pay close attention. Arild is apparently a humongous James Bond fan, and rightly so, if you ask me.…
RELEASE YEAR: 2024BAND URL: https://1349som.bandcamp.com/album/the-wolf-the-king The Norwegian black metal stalwarts 1349 have been a force to be reckoned with these past many years, and this fiery eighth output of theirs is yet another solid and tightly executed affair with plenty of venom and sinister power to it. To these ears, The Wolf and the King…
RELEASE YEAR: 2024BAND URL: https://sykofant.com/ Tell me what you hear and I’ll tell you (a lot about) who you are! Experiencing Sykofant’s self-titled album feels as if a stranger was waving pages of your diary at you without permission, too fast for you to see what it says, before running away sniggering. Needless to say,…
RELEASE YEAR: 2024 BAND URL: https://tusm-rke.bandcamp.com/album/dawn-of-oberon With Norwegian prog rockers Tusmørke you never quite know what you are going to get, but one thing that you can count on is that they are going to fry your brain and offer something that is musically eclectic, unique sounding, perfectly charming, and outright quirky. Such is the case…
RELEASE YEAR: 2024BAND URL: https://koldbrann.bandcamp.com/album/ingen-sk-nsel Last year’s 2-track release titled Den 6. Massedød (Manna fra en Annen Himmel) was a caustic, face-melting delight that worked its nasty, bone-chilling magic on this scribe rather splendidly. Naturally, their upcoming full-length record appropriately named Ingen Skånsel had to be something to look forward to and worth getting excited…
I found myself wandering the streets of Oslo one dismal afternoon before Easter this year as I had a bit of time on my hands before traveling abroad later that same day. This was literally hours before the renowned and long-running Inferno festival kicked off, and everywhere I went there were black metal adherents,…
VENUE: Oslo SpektrumDATE: 09.06.2024 ORGANIZER: LIve Nation PHOTOGRAPHER: C. NepperPhotos copyrights belong to the photographer. No unauthorized usage allowed. Please contact photographer if you wish to reuse images in any context. With a stellar line-up consisting of Return, Stage Dolls, and the legendary Journey, there was absolutely no excuse for sitting at home on this…
RELEASE YEAR: 2024BAND URL: https://www.facebook.com/sunfaceband/ It has been way too long since we last heard from the Oslo-based rockers known as Sunface, but the eight-year gap between their stunning debut album and this, their highly potent sophomore effort, has been worth the wait, which is testament to just how delightfully enthralling Cloud Castles well and…
RELEASE YEAR: 2024BAND URL: https://www.apollonrecords.no/ Norwegian art rockers Yobrepus have a knack for crafting richly nuanced songs and albums that are both musically and lyrically absorbing, a prime example being their latest LP entitled A Rhizome Revolution Part 1. Weaving traces and elements of prog, alt. rock, psychedelic folk, and brooding electronica together to stunning…
RELEASE YEAR: 2024BAND URL: https://www.facebook.com/uncannysounds/ This is my first encounter with the charming and delightfully wonky progressive metal band from Norway known as Uncanny, and I must say that I find this eclectic and perfectly unpredictable eight-track offering of theirs, which will be out in April, quite beguiling and seductive. While their soundscapes undoubtedly are…
RELEASE YEAR: 2024BAND URL: https://www.facebook.com/jordsjuk I bought the very first tune that Jordsjuk released digitally a while back, namely the fierce and vicious ‘Stein til Byrden’, and I have eagerly followed their online activity ever since and also ended up purchasing the ‘Siste Skanse’ track, which was yet another frighteningly convincing slab of groove-laden black…
RELEASE YEAR: 2024BAND URL: https://mesaverde.bandcamp.com/album/all-is-well I thoroughly enjoyed the debut offering by the eclectic Oslo-based ensemble known as MesaVerde, namely the engrossing KY album that came out in October 2022, and I was very much looking forward to this sophomore effort of theirs. In simple terms, All is Well surpasses its predecessor in every conceivable…
RELEASE YEAR: 2023BAND URL: https://jordsjo.bandcamp.com/album/salighet Adorned by wonderfully evocative artwork and sporting a most intriguing title, the uniquely skilled Norwegian prog rockers known as Jordsjø are back with a new masterpiece. Just when I thought that it would be impossible for them to top the outstanding and flawless Pastoralia LP (2021), they have in fact…
RELEASE YEAR: 2023 BAND URL: https://dwaaldoom.bandcamp.com/album/never-enough Ever since the outstanding Gospel of the Vile opus saw the light of day in 2020, I have been eagerly awaiting a follow-up to that crushing piece of work. The arrival of Never Enough is imminent and you might as well start preparing for it now, because this is one…
A few months ago, I had the great pleasure of receiving and reviewing an utterly exciting and seductive debut offering entitled In Death I Shall Arise by the experimental black metal outfit Tilintetgjort, which turned into one of those revelatory and deeply meaningful listening experiences that are addictive and ceaselessly rewarding. Their brand of filthy,…
RELEASE YEAR: 2023 BAND URL: https://nocturnalbreedofficial.bandcamp.com/album/carry-the-beast I have had a soft spot for these ugly and noisy thrash metal bastards from Norway ever since I saw them lay waste to the John Dee venue in Oslo in March 2005, and Nocturnal Breed rarely disappoint when it comes to unleashing malevolent and sinister tunes that deliver a…
RELEASE YEAR: 2022 BAND URL: https://jordsjo.bandcamp.com/album/jord-sessions This remixed, expanded, and slightly reworked version of Jord by the Norwegian prog rockers Jordsjø is a nice addition to the outfit’s already impressive discography and a must-have for those who cherish folk-inspired prog rock with an original twist to it. The aura of surrealism and mystery that pervades much…
RELEASE YEAR: 2022 BAND URL: https://oakinoslo.bandcamp.com/ The brilliant Norwegian prog rockers OAK are back with a new and deeply satisfying full-length album that encompasses everything that made their previous offerings great while also looking to the future. The hauntingly bleak and emotive opening track, ‘Highest Tower, Deepest Well’, is a masterclass in light and shade, and…
VENUE: MUNCH, Munchmuseet (Bjørvika, Oslo)DATE: 10.07.2022 Photo by C.N. The last couple of times that yours truly traveled through Norway’s capital city, more specifically back in June, my schedule did not leave me with enough time to pay the splendid new MUNCH museum a visit in order to check the “Satyricon & Munch” art exhibition…
VENUE: SpektrumDATE: 07 June 2022ORGANIZER: LIVE NATION NORWAYPHOTOGRAPHER: Andrea ChirulescuPhotos copyrights belong to the photographer. No unauthorized usage allowed. Please contact photographer if you wish to reuse images in any context.
VENUE: Sentrum Scene DATE: 05.06.2022 ORGANIZER: Rockefeller PHOTOGRAPHER: C. Nepper Photos copyrights belong to the photographer. No unauthorized usage allowed. Please contact photographer if you wish to reuse images in any context. The legendary thrash metal pioneers that are Megadeth paid Norway’s capital city a visit on a warm and sunny Sunday night in…
RELEASE YEAR: 2022 BAND URL: http://www.pymlico.no/ Norwegian prog(-ish) rockers Pymlico have returned with an elegantly structured album that brilliantly showcases that the 7-piece band are on peak form and know exactly how to craft admirably sparkling songs that crackle with energy. “Supermassive” is close in spirit to the group’s previous outputs, which is to say that…
RELEASE YEAR: 2022BAND URL: https://larsenthecoloureddreams.bandcamp.com/releases Spearheaded by Kjell B. Larsen from renowned prog rockers Ruphus and backed by a talented cast of musicians, this brand-new Norwegian outfit using the psychedelic moniker Larsen and the Coloured Dreams has released a rather pleasant and occasionally soothing record in the shape of “Bucket List” The musical blueprint is…
RELEASE YEAR: 2022 BAND URL: https://bjornriis.bandcamp.com/album/everything-to-everyone The renowned musical genius that is Bjørn Riis never ceases to amaze me regardless of whether we are talking about his inspired work with Norwegian prog rockers Airbag or his stunning solo outputs. His latest work is the hauntingly beautiful “Everything to Everyone” where everything that made his past LPs…
A wicked 6-track EP entitled “Solstice” by the Norwegian doom metallers/psychedelic stoner rockers Superlynx landed on my desk in early December last year, and I was pretty much hooked the very minute I started listening to it. The talented trio have released some utterly impressive and original-sounding works in the past – all of which…
