The best idea for any black and death metal fan at Easter is to go to Oslo for Inferno Festival. Since 2001, annually during Easter, the festival takes place at Rockefeller & John Dee in Oslo. Oslo turns into a metal capital, which attracts fans from all over the world. The atmosphere is strengthened by nearby metal bars such as Kniven, film screenings on Vega scene (this year attendees could see The Northman and X), tattoo artists working during the festival, and signing sessions with bands. The festival did not take place in 2020 and 2021 due to the pandemic, but it returned in full force this year, over April 14th-17th, and it was sold out. Every year at the festival, we can see iconic Norwegian black metal bands, but also doom, thrash, and death metal bands from abroad.
On Saturday, the main acts were MARDUK and MAYHEM. MAYHEM stole the show that day. They played, among other legendary tracks, “Freezing Moon” and classic “Symbols of Bloodswords.” The mesmerizing sound of guitars and the skull and bone-cross held by Attila added an even more black metal character to the performance. On that day, we could also see Finnish psychedelic black metal band ORANSSI PAZUZU, Swedish black metal VALKYRJA, Norwegian VREID, and the German melodic black metal of DARK FORTRESS.
Photos by Aleksandra Majak
