HOLE IN THE SKY FESTIVAL 2011

Satyricon - Godflesh - Primordial - Nifelheim - Ghost - Negative Plane • Solstorm

The Dawn Of A New Age

Fairies were with us ;) Friday morning begun as beautiful as Thursday did: with a blue sky and sunshine above the fjord and the seven mountains around. Stunning! You can’t get any better into a new day, can you? With a breakfast past we entered the Fløibanen up to the Fløyen and walked down again, through a fairy tale forest encountering trolls and fairies :) Did I already mention how much I fell in love to Bergen?

Completely enchanted we then headed towards the USF Verftet for the main days of HOLE IN THE SKY 2011 festival. Super mystical and mysterious :: NEGATIVE PLANE :: celebrated the grand opening. Completely wrapped in smoke nothing was to see at all, aside from a possible hood’s point and a guitar’s neck here and there… Stupid. Musically I took some pleasure in what I heard as I like the band’s current album Stained Glass Revelation. But eventually nothing I found as groundbreaking and great as their mystery would imply.

:: pics ::

Mysteriousness, darkness and smoke were kept. Next up were Swedish heavy rockers :: GHOST :: that were much more entertaining but likewise split opinions. Ones adored, others hated them. Theatrical Pop Metal that is. You like it or not, it’s up to yours. And it is of course still a big secret who’s under the cowls and masks. By the way… must have been extremely hot underneath. GHOST are at least somewhat of communicative. Not on stage but in the world wide web.

Old school black metal as its best! Sweden’s killer stud and spikes squad :: NIFELHEIM :: entered the stage right after. No guys to cuddle with! They are nasty, evil and in-your-face as hell, startling gentle minds. Tunes and melodies… for wimps only. NIFELHEIM anyway don’t have any use for it. It has to be loud! Very loud. And rough. NIFELHEIM is the musical version of death, decay and destruction. Yes! And this is my very first encounter with the hellhounds. Can we do it again? ;) Oh, and what about a new record anytime soon?
Setlist: Black Evil, Demonic Evil, Satanic Sacrifice, Infernal Flame Of Destruction, Gates Of Damnation, Storm Of The Reaper, Sacrifice To The Lord Of Darkness, Sodomizer, Bestial Avenger, Storm Of Satans Fire // The Final Slaughter, Unholy Death

Once again - 4th, 5th time this year? - I’m granted to experience a :: PRIMORDIAL :: show. I know them, I like most of their stuff but I not really consider myself a fan, but yet get more and more fascinated by the Irishmen. It’s their intensity, their passion and unyieldingness, the charisma of fronter Alan Averill that creeps under my skin and sends shivers up and down the spine. Always again. Mesmerizing!
Setlist: No Grave Deep Enough, As Rome Burns, Bloodied Yet Unbowed, The Coffin Ships, Empire Falls

Okay. Now let’s talk about :: GODFLESH :: ;) One reason I desperately wanted to attend HITS 2011, beside the festival itself. Back at that time I never saw them playing live and these days, after their reunion, they only play a handful of shows, unexceptional all at festivals. Musically GODFLESH stood a bit out of the festival's billing (alongside with Virus) and I saw quite a few people looking questioningly while the hall emptied noticeably. What a shame. GODFLESH played a stunning show! GODFLESH kicked off with their legendary masterpiece Streetcleaner, went back to the 1988 debut and then let off steam with Pure. Clanking cold sounds, hammering beats and sawing guitars, stage and hall filled up with smoke… a hell of a claustrophobic atmosphere. And a show that hypnotizes. Smoke sucks when it comes to take photos, but generally it perfectly suits the scenery, made me closing my eyes for a pure listening pleasure… Incredible! Who the hell needs drugs when you can take it like this? Tooooo bad that GODFLESH did not bring any kind of merch along. I so wanted to spend money on certain items ;) Bummer! The guys also did not appear backstage afterwards for drinks and chats. Hmmm.
Setlist: Like Rats, Christbait Rising, Streetcleaner, Tiny Tears, Avalanche Master Song, Mighty Trust Krusher, Spite, Mothra, Pure // Crush My Soul, Slateman

Argh… seems we already reached the end of the day *sighs* The final fanfare was blown by Norway’s own :: SATYRICON :: Another best of set through all albums with some really old gems long time not heard. Sublime Mr. Wongraven towers over the audience that frenetically pays homage. When he jumped into the photopit to get close to his fans the first rows freaked completely out. He now could have poured out some of his good wines too ;) His band mates played their asses off, didn’t fall any short but somehow were damned to pale in the background. Certain attitudes to and fro, SATYRICON was a great and worthy headliner delivering an impressive show!
Setlist: Walk The Path Of Sorrow, The Wolfpack, Now, Diabolical, Black Crow On A Tombstone, Filthgrinder, K.I.N.G., Die By My Hand, Hvite Krists Dod, The Pentagram Burns, Fuel For Hatred // To The Mountains, Morther North

Now the third festival day draws to a close. Unfortunately this day was not only pure pleasure (the following either). The USF Verftet revealed some weak points. There was a huge pillar in the middle of the hall blocking sight for half of the audience. Huge screens around the pillar didn’t make it any better. From the entrance hall sight was limited too. Additionally entry/exit was really, really narrow causing huge jams after every band. Sound was only great close to the stage. As more as one came to the back walls as more the sound turned terrible. Smoke and (the absence of) lights gave it the rest. In my opinion this hall is not really appropriate for such kind of events. As I learned little later, that’s one of the reasons to shut down the festival. The USF Verftet gets closed for reconstructions and nobody knows what happens afterwards. And it seems, there is no other location in Bergen to host such events/concerts/festivals.
As for that all other rooms of this venue were downright comfortable. Especially the backstage area was the place to be and offered us one of the best parties ever *laughs* Right from the beginning it seemed that there was much more going on than down in the hall. Every attendee seemed to be in best mood, was a fan at first, especially of the music the DJ put on here. To tell the truth: we all were at his feet! The DJ was just grandiose, playing hit after hit, classic after classic, the whole night. There was always a group or two or we all freaking out. Collectively. I never experienced something like that! At 2 am the master of masters demanded the locals to strip celebrating the best song ever: Hole In The Sky by Black Sabbath. And they obeyed. The backstage room turned into a zone of wildly moshing naked Norwegian men *laughs* What a great night…