Beyond the gates
USF VERFTET/HULEN, BERGEN Abbath, Emperor and Mayhem bring Bergen to the boil
WEDNESDAY/THURSDAY
This is Beyond The Gates’ third year since upscaling from the Garage, and if the line-up is short on the newer crop of torchbearers, Bergen’s status as a black metal epicentre remains a potent, energising force throughout. It’s not lost on WATAIN, playing a pre-fest show in the Hulen caves, given added… aromatic piquancy by the extra blood splashed on the walls by the Watain Disciples fanclub. “We have one mission: to open the gates… to life beyond,” declares Erik Danielsson, before the Swedes blast through a career-spanning set whose urgency feels concentrated by the confines of the venue, and amplified by a pong that will stick with you almost as long as the memories.
Day one proper and Oslo’s death metal stalwarts OBLITERATION are opening proceedings. Unfazed, they rise to the task. Their quirky, occultic assault evokes the off-kilter obscurity of Darkthrone’s Soulside Journey and the raw barbarity of Autopsy is well greeted. In tonight’s clash of Nordic bands, SVARTIDAUÐI execute Iceland’s contribution. The masked founders of Reykjavík’s current BM scene seem to have a bad day as their Deathspell Omega-inspired riff-miasma lacks both in tightness and conviction.
BEHEXEN’S sermon of spellbinding mystique and sawdust-throated raw BM cacophony enchants fans and enthrals many who may have been unfamiliar with these underrated Finnish fiends. Early classics By The Blessing Of Satan and My Soul For His Glory are performed with a powerful intensity. Sweden’s satanic warmongers MARDUK storm the stage with all the subtlety of heavy artillery. Their speed and hateful intensity during classics Of Hell’s Fire and Burn My Coffin seethe with wrathful ferocity that prove difficult to follow as they throw down the gauntlet to old rivals MAYHEM. The Norwegians pick up on the belligerent challenge of their predecessors with obvious fury. An extra dose of anger fuels Mayhem’s opening counter The Vortex Void Of Inhumanity and their set relies heavily on classics. In the end, everybody wins in this fierce battle of the bands.
FRIDAY
When a band have been around for more than 30 years and most people still ask “Who?”, some diehards will attach the label ‘kvlt’. VARATHRON fit that profile and their amateurish performance demonstrates why the Greeks never got anywhere. Plagued by a soupy mix and technical gremlins, Sweden’s heroes of retro-rock boogie, HORISONT, soldier through. Being sandwiched between BM acts causes awkward fluctuations in the crowd but they’re well-received. Recent ARCTURUS shows have been lackadaisical affairs, more whimsy than wanderlust, but with frontman
ICS Vortex fully committed onstage, their digressive carnival is rendered in sharp, if still bewildering ornate relief, taking to the stars with the rocket strapped on their backs once more.
After a 22-year absence, EMPEROR return to the city where they recorded In The Nightside Eclipse, and easily retake the throne of Norwegian black metal. They deliver their classics with just the right amount of sharp arrogance and icy perfection. After this jaw-dropping performance, PRIMORDIAL stand no chance. Still, no one told them – they play a ferocious show, possibly their finest in a decade, despite the fact that guitarist Ciáran Macuiliam is tonight replaced by Gerry Clince once more.
SATURDAY
Let’s hope NECROS CHRISTOS’S ‘final’ tour proves as interminable as it seems, because impending doom has loosened up their formerly dust-dry death metal rites. The rigid chassis is still perceptible, but there’s a fervent energy drilling down into the classic era of the arcane. LUCIFER, however, are all the fun, Johanna Sadonis’s richly radiant vibrato filling the room in terms of both sound and audience as Nicke Andersson’s glitterbomb riffs and driving rhythm section get the hard rock/occult equation into gloriously exuberant balance. Cleveland’s masked madmen MIDNIGHT provoke a hard-drinking, crowdsurfing party that worries security and gets the bar staff working twice as hard. Their good time rock’n’roll sleaze and first-wave black metal sneer of Venom and greasy Motörhead swagger is received with intoxicated reverence. With original vocalist Johan Längqvist returned to the fold, CANDLEMASS are greeted with a heroes’ welcome. What follows is a flawless performance of fan favourites – Bewitched, Mirror Mirror, Well Of Souls and an epic, set-closing Solitude
are all accompanied by a worshipping crowd singing along to every word.
After his recent escapades – not least his storming offstage at Inferno last year – you could be forgiven for approaching another festival-closing ABBATH set with trepidation. The overly extended symphonic intro adds to the tension, but tonight is a homecoming and proof that when he’s on form this is still one of the most thrilling and celebratory experiences our world has to offer.
With former bassist King replaced by Mia Wallace, emanating attitude in concentrated form, every song welds ice-scything precision to the kind of unselfconscious, absurdity-approaching showmanship only the former Immortal icon can bring. From Calm In Ire (Of Hurricane)’s pyroclastic surge and chariot-churning-through-a-blizzard groove to Count The Dead’s insistent battle march to Warriors’ Bathorythrough-the-looking-glass expanse, that unique, clarion-call guitar tone is in full crowd-elevating swing, and when he comes back at the end, wielding that twin-blade battle axe, Bergen becomes, once again, the stuff of legend.
GUNNAR SAUERMANN/JONATHAN SELZER/
LIAM YATES
This might be Primordial’s finest show in a decade