Inferno Metal Festival is one of the biggest metal events in Norway. Inferno has roots in Norwegian black metal, but every year brings bands from around the world to their stages. The festival takes place at two main venues, Rockefeller and John Dee. Additionally, there are plenty of smaller concerts in the bars nearby, a metal music conference, movie screenings, a tattoo convention, and trips around the city. This year’s festival took place over April 6th through 9th.
This year, metalheads also had the opportunity to visit a black metal exhibition Bad Vibes in the National Library in Oslo, which showed feelings behind black metal’s sound and the history of Norwegian black metal. In addition, it’s also popular among festival participants to visit the legendary black metal shop, Neseblod, the National Museum (where you can see Theodor Kittelsen’s drawings used by the black metal project BURZUM and Peter Nicolai Arbo’s painting, The Wild Hunt of Odin, which was used on the cover of BATHORY’s “Blood Fire Death” album), and the Munch Museum (where you can also see works important for such Norwegian bands as 1349 or SATYRICON).
However, let’s get back to the music! The first day of the festival was very busy and started with a concert by DJEVEL. DJEVEL showed the real atmosphere of Norwegian black metal, performing in darkness with only a few backlights and candlesticks. After DJEVEL, the legendary DARK FUNERAL played on the main stage.
Next, we moved to John Dee to see Brazilian thrash metal act NERVOSA, who presented themselves strongly, with an impressive guitar sound. Later came time to see the one and only CANNIBAL CORPSE, who played “I Cum Blood,” “Death Walking Terror,” “Kill or Become,” and of course, “Fucked With a Knife,” which vocalist George Fisher traditionally dedicated to all of the women at the concert.
Later, the atmosphere went back to truly Norwegian roots with MORK’s performance. MORK began with “Kulden,” followed by “Begravet,” “Festningen,” and “Bortgang.” Their concert ended with “Dype Røtter” from MORK’s first album, “Isebakke.” The last up on the main stage was a true Norwegian legend: EMPEROR who played their classic songs, such as “Cosmic Keys to My Creations & Times,” “I Am the Black Wizards,” and “Inno A Satana.”
Check out the photo gallery from the first day below…
DARK FUNERAL
NERVOSA
CANNIBAL CORPSE
MORK
Text and photos by Aleksandra Majak
