Every year, the Norwegian Beyond The Gates Festival brings metalheads from around the world to Bergen. This year, the festival was held from August 2nd to August 5th, 2023. Not unlike the other editions we attended, there are always a lot of familiar faces, many stages to cover, and events to attend. The festival hosted bands like KREATOR, DEICIDE, GORGOROTH, ALCEST, PERTUBATOR, and many more!
Beyond The Gates‘ final day started with a performance of AETERNUS in Grieghallen. Their performance was followed by another metal classic from Bergen, TAAKE. TAAKE played an hour-long-set that included songs from albums “Over Bjoergvin graater himmerik,” “Hordalands doedskvad,” and “Nattestid ser porten vid.”
The next one was another Norwegian black metal classic, ENSLAVED, that performed their third studio album “Eld” in its entirety. After ENSLAVED it was time for the headliner of the day, DIMMU BORGIR. DIMMU BORGIR made Grieghallen even more crowded than during ENSLAVED‘s show. The band – in addition to the songs “Ætheric,” “I Am Sovereign,” and “Gateways” which are most often included in their setlist – played some older songs such as “Raabjørn speiler draugheimens skodde” and “Over bleknede blåner til dommedag.”
Despite the later hours, Kulturhuset had a good turnout who were eager to see the Norwegian black metal classic, MARE. The band brought true darkness, lit by only a few candlesticks. Their performance was the perfect ending to the festival, which annually brings classic Norwegian black metal and many heavy metal bands from around the world. See you next year, Beyond The Gates! Check out our photo gallery here…
TAAKE
ENSLAVED
DIMMU BORGIR
MARE
Photos by Aleksandra Majak
