Hole in the Sky 2005, Bergen, Norway
Wednesday 24.08.05
We arrived in Bergen around 10 am, took place at the hotel, slept awhile and then off to the GARAGE. A nice pub and venue which has rocked Bergen since 1990.
Lots of people, as well as the bands performing tonight and others from the Bergen scene, were hanging around, drinking beers, having fun.
The Festival opened with MALSAIN from Bergen. They played a mixture of Black-Death Metal with female vocals and keyboards. The screams and growls were not bad but the music lacked a little bit of power and the set was to linear in my opinion. Anyway the audience cheered them and the atmosphere was good.
Then followed SULPHUR, also from the surroundings of Bergen if I remember well. They also played in the Black-Death vein but with some interesting progressive passages. A good performance and a special mention to the guitar player which I think was good.
After a couple of expensive beers and a cigarette out in the pouring rain of Bergen, we went back to see MANNGARD hit the stage. An interesting group which plays a tight Black-Death with ass-kicking Grind passages. In the middle of their set came Grutle Kjellson of Enslaved to perform the song 'Gravgang'. Good group live, and their cd "Circling Buzzards", which I bought after their gig, is good as well.
The evening was not yet over. A lot of people were waiting for the next band, you just had to take a look at the T-shirts. And they were right. What a band and what a cool line-up. Abbath (ex Immortal), was tonight more known as Kilminister on bass/vocals. Tore Bratseth (ex Old Funeral), became Fast Tore on guitar and Pez (Punishment Park /JEF) took form in Party Animal on drums. And they are BÖMBERS! One and a half hour of dirty crushing Motörhead classics was performed. On vocals Abb…Kilminister is a clone of Lemmy, he really looks like him, the mic is in the same position as Lemmy and the voice, dammit, the voice is like Lemmy! They opened with 'Dr. Rock' and then a hellish tribute to Motörhead just crushed the audience as they played 'Overkill', 'Orgasmatron', 'No Class', 'Killed By Death' and plenty of others. Tom Angelripper of SODOM joined them on stage for a song as well!!!
A really good opening night for the 6th Hole In The Sky Metal Fest!!!
We had no camera on wednesday.
Thursday 25.08.05
Even more audience that night at the Garage. One band, SAGH, had unfortunately to cancel their gig due to illness.
VESEN opened the festivities with a good and interesting performance. They delivered good songs in a thrash-death vein.
Beer time, and then many fans with corpsepaint on went down the stairs of the Garage to see RAGNAROK hit the stage for a very good set of aggressive and furious unholy black metal. A good band on stage who played titles like: 'Beast Of Madness', 'Angelcorpse', 'Blackdoor Miracle' and other brutal ones.
The group I wanted to see that evening arrived on stage. BLOOD RED THRONE, with Død and Tchort on guitars, were in Bergen to deliver their brutal death metal! Mr. Hustler has been replaced by Osvald on vocals and hell he was impressive! They also had a new drummer, at least on this live show, named Anders Haave. And what a show, lots of banging and hailing and screaming to 'Unleashing Hell', 'Chaos Rising', 'Mephitication', 'Dream Controlled Murder', 'Arterial Lust', 'The Children Shall Endure', 'Tortured Soul Appearance', 'Incarnadine Mangler', 'Monument Of Death' and the great closing with 'Mary Whispers Of Death'. A great melting pot of all of their albums. Third time I saw them but this time was probably the best. These guys are real killers on stage!
The evening wasn't over yet, beers, a horrible 7Eleven hot-dog later, we went down again to see the old-school sensation of the evening SODOM. I've seen them long time ago but tonight it was in a way magic. The audience, so damn wild, knew almost each song by heart and the banging and hailing was just enormous. SODOM on stage were glad to be there and played songs from the first album to the last one with even a very rare track that was their first recording ever. Tom Angelripper and his band told jokes, spitted on the overpriced beers, they also filmed the audience from the stage and for sure played damn tight classics of their German speed/thrash metal…
What a damn good night again.
Friday 26.08.05
Our last day in Bergen, cause we had to drive back to Switzerland and be at work on Monday.
The venue changes place for the USF VERFTET, which is bigger to welcome the impressive bands on the bill tonight. The merchandise hall is huge with many good things to buy, from T-shirts, even rare ones, to cds or vinyls and some impressive collector pieces.
We got there quite early cause I had to do an interview with Mikael Åkerfeldt of Opeth which you soon can read on these pages. We had a real good moment with him.
The band that opened tonight was LAMENTED SOULS. Their doomish style was again very cool and Simen had really impressive vocals and you could see that he had lot of fun to play. Apollyon sang one song as well and was as always damn evil and full of presence on stage. A good show, really.
Time to change drums and things on stage and the biggest part of the crowd found a "hole in the security exit" to burn a cigarette and drink a beer.
Next on stage, the Americans of HIGH ON FIRE played a good gig in front of many people. Much much more than last time when I saw them here in Geneva. The sound was good and their set as well very tight this time.
Then, the dramatic part of the evening as GEHENNA went on stage for the shortest gig I've seen in my life. The guitar player Sanrabb had some trouble with his amp at start, then when they started the gig with a huge stroboscope lightshow it took no longer than 45 seconds and he just fell down. The band stopped playing directly and run to him. What seems to have happened is that Sanrabb suffered what most likely was an epileptic seizure. It felt bad but he seems to have recovered since, thankfully.
Then, one of the awaited shows of the evening. ENSLAVED came to perform the entire 1997 "ELD" album!!!
The intro of '793 (Slaget Om Lindisfarne)' was just breathtaking. The light show amazing, lots of smoke on stage and beautiful pictures were shown behind Cato's drumset. Torches were burning on the amps. Great atmosphere.
'Hordalendingen' grabbed the crowd with a huge sound. Grutle's clean vocal was damn clear, Herbrand played the acoustic guitar parts with much inspiration. Cato was the devil himself on drums, Ivar and Atle very precise on guitars and when the faster part of the song came in, Grutle's unique growled voice was just terrific. What a start!
The public cheered them loudly. 'Alfablot' followed, grim and evil and the more atmospheric parts were damn well executed. Then came 'Kvasirs Blod' straight in your face. 'For Lenge Siden', and 'Glemt' were impressive. Almost the end, and hell was unleashed on 'Eld'. Flames came out from the stage and the heat spread out to the crowd. Enslaved rocked the place! Can't wait to see them live again, somewhere else on this planet.
After the fury, place was given to the doomish and more melodic ANATHEMA. It's the first time they played in Norway and it's with the words "Finally Here" that Vinnie and the band opened the set with 'Shroud Of False' followed by 'Fragile Dreams'. Then 'Balance', and 'Closer', they also played 'Lost Control' and 'Empty' from the "Alternative 4" album. Of course, Vinnie talked and joked with the crowd and continued with 'One Last Goodbye'. Then, the highlight of the set in my opinion, 'A Dying Wish' from the excellent "The Silent Enigma" album. 'A Natural Disaster' with Lee Douglas and her angelic voice followed. 'Judgement' and 'Panic' continued and the show ended with a terrific cover of Pink Floyd's 'Comfortably Numb'. A really nice set and great show.
Headliners tonight were OPETH, for the first time in Bergen. Great presence from the band, some surprises as well but sadly Martin Lopez wasn't behind the drums. He was replaced by Martin Axenrot who played damn well on all the songs.
Opeth opened with 'Deliverance', the crowd went crazy. Martin Mendez on bass was as always impressive, Peter Lindgren on guitar as well. Great lightshow when 'The Drapery Falls' started. The first surprise came when they attacked 'When' which hasn't been played live for 6 years.
Another surprise was 'Face Of Melinda'. Per Wiberg gave much groove and 70's feelings to the sound and Mikael Åkerfeldt's voice was really good even if he had a cold as he told the crowd. 'The Grand Conjuration' was the only new track played that evening, what a great live track! They ended with a meaningless jam, as Mikael said for fun, which lead to the devilish 'Demon Of The Fall'. A really good show by the Swedish metallers. Looking forward to see them on tour this autumn.
Then we had to leave back home so I can't tell what went on the last night of the festival, but great bands were on the bill, Tsjuder, Audiopain, Taake, Behemoth, Nile and Obituary. We'll catch them somewhere else. If some of you were there on saturday, tell us about it.
If you intend to visit the festival next year, don't hesitate, it's well organized, friendly and Bergen is damn beautiful. But don't forget to bring a lot of money because the beer prices are insane!
Text: Johell
Pictures: BrumalPat
