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Asphyx
At
The Gates
Behemoth
Brutal
Truth
Carcass
Electric
Wizard
Gehenna
Keep
of Kalessin
Sadistic
Intent
*All photos courtesy of Hole In the Sky Festival
Hole
In The Sky IX
27th to 30th Aug 08
Bergen, Norway
This is a cute little festival tucked away in the fjordland of Norway that I’d been to a coupla times before and this year the promoters pulled out all the stops in putting together their most ambitious line-up to date (undoubtedly reflected by the fact that it was completely sold out - despite Possessed pulling out at the last minute owing to Jeff B being taken to hospital). Although the festival actually ran from Wed to Sat, I opted to only attend the main days (sadly missing Dismember headlining on Wed) owing to cost considerations.
Fri 29th Aug
Oh my God, was that really Kevin Sharp of BRUTAL TRUTH...? He must’ve spent the last few years on a beach guzzling beer and buritos cos he sure looked that way with his huge gut, grizzled beard and sombero! Danny Lilker, on the other hand, hasn’t changed a bit (or mebbe I should say ‘at all’) - still the lanky hophead with the same black jeans. Replacing an injured Glenn Evans was a total nut on drums! This guy had the ‘milo’ nerd look complete with thick frame black specs and had the most visually captivating style I’d ever seen with his legs kicking into the air, almost falling off his drum stool at one stage and pulling the most hilarious faces that had me laughing. However, he was totally in synch with the grindcore pace set by Brett McCarthy as the band pounded out songs like ‘Evolution Is Revolution’. Kevin still sings bearfoot and was in full flow, pumped as he propelled himself bouncing around the stage despite his extra ballast! Towards the end, he started smashing his mike into his head, spraying the blood into the crowd, then he made a paper aeroplane out’ve his set list, threw it into the audience, before launching himself in after it! BT earned my complete admiration as they were easily the most intense, visually captivating and off the wall act (bearing in mind they have no image , pyro, samples etc) at HTS. I will not miss them again.
Sadly, my expectations of ASPHYX, the new band of Gorefest’s Martin Van Drunen were the complete opposite. Martin has certainly aged a lot, possibly due to his prior illness, such that I didn’t recognise him at first and his accent is a strange mix of Dutch and northern English (I’m guessing due to his stint in Bolthrower) but he’d assembled a worthy band who were all dressed late 80s style death metal i.e. black combats tucked into 18 hole army boots, spikes, bullet belts etc. Musically, Asphyx matched their look with cement mixer death metal that although intense, soon became monotonous and made the audience as indifferent as the look on the drummer’s face. Guess this style had its sell by date and today it just wasn’t as captivating as the first time. Still, it was great to see Van Drunen alive and well and clearly he felt moved by the experience too, dedicating his final song to Ken Owen and Jeff Beccera (both also health victims).
Refreshingly Municipal Waste, hailing from Virginia (via the nearest bar) were easily the funniest band of HTS, playing 80s party thrash metal started by the likes of Tankard or the Circle Jerks. Too drunk to have taken his guitar offa the plane, the guitarist simply borrowed another and restrung it upside down Hendrix style as the band partied to an adrenalin alcohol fuelled rush that even prompted the normally well behaved Bergeners to become rowdy (some of these guys had even come pre-fuelled complete with the Norwegian equivalent of the white thrash look - although it was all still designer of course ha ha). MW don’t exactly play epics judging by the bad taste of ‘Black Ice’ (dedicated to Cliff Burton) but the endless wisecracking banter between the band would hold anyone’s attention it’s so funny: halfway thru the set, the highly strung vocalist tells the crowd to do the Wall Of Death. Now, anyone who’s been to the strange venue known as the USF will tell you the stupidity of trying this there given there’s a massive concrete pillar smack in the middle of the floor. But not MW with their Beavis and Butthead logic, cackling on, they encourage several more circle pits before the party comes to an end (thankfully without any casualties).
If black metal went Kiss, then Poland’s Behemoth would be its unwanted child! Bearing in mind we were in Bergen, arguably the spiritual home of black metal, I was amazed to see a full crowd turn out to see this foreign import - I guess in the old days they would’ve been sacrificed for being non Scandinavian imposters ha ha! As the 4 juggernaut men in their stack heels rolled out their popularity became soon evident cos there’s just the right amount of theatrics and commerciality mixed into an authentic sound (especially the awesome precision power drumming) to carry the black metal flag on given that most of the ancient ones have moved on musically. I guess they were a sorta gothic black metal equivalent of Lordi and it worked a treat for both the crowd and the band, who promised to be back if Bergen wanted them (next year I’m guessing).
Meshuggah bring a decidely more serious note to HTS with their choreographed in unison headbanging, samples and heavy, furious chopping and changing riff style. Speaking entirely in Swedish, their professional no nonsense set was received well with most of their songs being taken offa their latest release “ObZen”.
“Do you know how much this guy is costing us?” said Carcass bassist Jeff Walker as he pointed to guitarist Marc Amott. As a wry smile appeared on Amott’s face I got the impression there may have been some truth in it as it’s taken over 20 years for these guys to get back together. Even now, only Jeff Walker seemed happy as both Bill Steer and Amott stayed only on their sides of the stage and did not once speak to the audience, though their performances were second to none. Backed up by Adrian Erlandsson on drums Carcass played songs from all their albums but thankfully concentrated on what I felt was their best work - ‘Heartwork’. Halfway thru they brought out a visibly frail Ken Owen, who had to be assisted to the drums but as he bravely played out a few beats a moving ‘Ken!, Ken!’ chant began - truly bringing back the spirit of the late 80s and a fitting tribute to these British gods of early grind.
Sat 30th Aug
With the sad last minute pull out of Possessed, it was left to Sadistic Intent to bring their Norcal Chapa metal home to HTS. It’s to see why they are fully qualified as Jeff Beccera’s backing band cos they look and sound just like Possessed, playing primitive 80s style black / death metal. With Beccera hospitalized I would have dearly loved them to also play some Possessed numbers but mebbe out’ve respect to their mentor they didn’t, though as I said their songs were ample substitutes themselves so at least the crowd got a feel of what might have been.
Now here was a band that I’d waiting a long time to see, the elusive (Norwegian) GEHENNA. Now down to a 4 piece from the 6 piece I remember in the 90s, sadly Sanrab (the delectable then keyboardist) is long gone and instead 4 ugly dudes in make up remain ha ha! However, Gehenna’s music is truly beautiful which is essentially slow to mid tempo black metal, although some bits sounded death which may have reflected the changing direction and personnel of the band over the years. What makes Gehenna’s material truly elegant is the way they structure their songs in a very uncharacteristic way to traditional black metal, and instead use haunting passages mixed with a careful use of power to definitely bring them to life. Definitely a band worth watching - if you can catch them.
Not to be outdone by Brutal Truth yesterday, Electric Wizard from the wilds of England kicked it off big time with their brand of very heavy doom metal. I’ve seen these guys over the years from when they were a fledging trio but today only mainman Jus Oborne remains, instead complemented by a gorgeous female guitarist, a heavily tattooed hippy bassist and a drummer whose beard could only be bested by Robert John Godfrey of the Enid. I was a little concerned how this new band would sound but when the heavy, filthy distorted chords started I knew it was stoner time: in fact, the volume from Jus’s stack was so deafening I could barely hear the rest of the band! EW are possibly the heaviest pure doom band right now and I can only encourage them to crack on. Towards the end Oborne went completely bananas trashing the drumkit and then pulled out a bullwhip from his guitar case and started whipping his guitar (hey, that’s no way to treat your SG!) whilst the rest of the band continued their feedback drenched finale - gleefully fucking around with all the amps before they left, the pissed off face of the stage manager told me the hippies had had their day and won.
So who was the mystery band to replace Possessed? Why, non other than Chicago’s NACHMYSTICISM - like, who? Well, no one else knew who they were either and the band themselves seemed uncomfortable with that, sarcastically thanking Electric Wizard for “boring the hell out’ve them” and then moaning at the little applause they got “...so you guys paid all this money and all these bands like Primordial and At The Gates get is this?!...”. Well, I dunno what they were expecting for their American black metal - they seemed to think they were in a genre all by themselves (“..you didn’t think we existed, but we do!”) - but whining whilst your mascara runs down your face ain’t gonna cut it here. Or in Chicago.
Having already seen Primordial this year I opted to take a break at the back of the USF whilst the band played most of their material from their excellent new album. Hearing it live for the second time I’m totally convinced that these new songs are definitely the way forward for this gallant Irish band, forming the perfect platform for passionate frontman Alan’s messages of freedom, rights and individuality. Given that Norway is supposed to be a liberal society I’m not sure how many people caught on to what he was saying, but those who did clearly had a new found fire in their eyes.
Strewth, could a band be this good?! I thought Keep Of Kalessin were shit hot the first time I saw them and that was when they were bottom of the bill! Thanks to Possessed’s vacant slot, now they were second only to At The Gates, thus confirming their meteoric rise - no small wonder when you consider this a side project for the guitarist from Satyricon. Thanks to their slick medieval army of darkness imagery from battlefield backdrops to their wear to their sheer onstage presence - the bassist must’ve set the record for non stop whirlwind windmill headbanging - Keep Of Kalessin have become a band in their own right and dare I say it, have the potential to become Norway’s top extreme metal act bar none.
And so finally to the end of this year’s HTS - or should I say the beginning! At The Gates are almost legendary in the world of Scandinavian death melody from influencing the famed ‘Gothenburg’ sound that the likes of In Flames grew famous on, not to mention other bands like Entombed and Dismember. When their abrupt split occurred in the mid 90s, they faded long before their time but were never forgotten. Finally, after over 10 years, they gave into the pressure and announced a special reformation to say a proper goodbye, so the stampede was on the catch them as they were only playing festivals. Truly honoring (and feeling honored by) HTS, Tomas Lindberg and the Bjorler brothers came out to a packed house. I couldn’t understand a word Lindberg was saying as it was all in Swedish but I certainly recognised the songs offa the legendary “Slaughter Of The Soul” and “The Red Sky Is Ours”. The show (and festival) culminated with no less than 4 encores for the band, a fitting tribute to this special one off event that I’m sure will stay in the minds of the fans and band forever.
-Shan Siva