August 3rd, 2023
Bergen, Norway @ USF Verftet
Photos By: Kim Baarda
Words By: Jason Deaville
FOUR DAYS OF DARKNESS IN THE HEART OF BERGEN – DAY 2
With the excitement of day one in the bag, it was a bit of a late start to our second day in Bergen. After chowing down on fish & chips at the fish market on the bay (to help cure the effects of the Beyond The Gates after party the evening before), it was time to make our way over to the venue.
Tonight’s lineup featured some true heavyweights, with performances by Gorgoroth, Marduk, Blood Incantation, Perturbator, Negative Plane, and The Ruins Of Beverast. For those feeling extra motivated, there was a pre-show earlier in the day at venue Kulturhuset with (Dolch), Black Curse, and Sijjin.
THE RUINS OF BEVERAST (Røkeriet)
The Ruins Of Beverast are heavy – both musically and thematically. To experience these guys in a live setting is akin to being crushed into a tiny heep of fleshy goo, whilst contemplating your existence in this universe as said crushing reduces your once-fine-form to pulp. Tonight was no different. The bevies graced us with a total of four songs, ‘Ropes Into Eden’, ‘Anchoress In Furs’, ‘Between Bronze Walls’, and ‘Malefica’, clocking in at a total runtime of approximately 45 minutes.
I could see how, for some, this could be a bit too much, as the common area between stages seemed to be a bit more rife with people during the latter half of the performance (including this scribe, who definitely needed a quick breather before being subjected to more melancholy).
For those brave enough to stick the whole thing out, this was undoubtedly one of The Ruins Of Beverast‘s finest performances.
BLOOD INCANTATION (Hallen)
Having just seen Blood Incantation on their most recent North American tour with Obituary and Immolation, we sort of knew what to expect. That being said, always expect the unexpected when it comes to these space/Anunnaki-loving brutalizers.
Focusing on their more beastial musical fare, the guys summoned a whirlwind of horrific death metal incantations that spilled torrential rivers of blood on the Hallen floor. The guys, not seeming to care at all that their fans were drowning in said blood, continued their relentless assault.
Blood Incantation proved that death metal truly has a place at Beyond The Gates. Hopefully we’ll see more bands of this ilk in the coming years.
NEGATIVE PLANE (Røkeriet)
I’m not sure how New York City black metallers Negative Plane made it through Norwegian customs with that giant suitcase full of chaos, despair, eternal void, and death. Suffice it to say, I’m happy that the Nordic customs agents were apparently sleeping on the job. The boys pried open that suitcase of hopelessness and desperation on the Røkeriet stage and laid down one of the darkest performances of the festival.
I’ll be honest, Negative Plane‘s latest effort ‘The Pact…’ is leaps and bounds above any of their previous work, and it showed tonight in the live renditions of songs from said album. If one allowed themselves to be fully enveloped with what was happening onstage, I’m certain the experience would be akin to a schizophrenic episode, with violent mood swings that encompassed depression, mania and psychosis.
A haunting performance that certainly made the band many new fans.
GORGOROTH (Hallen)
The pre-show chatter amongst festival goers regarding hometown heroes Gorgoroth was at a fever pitch prior to the band taking the Hallen stage. Would there be naked folks hanging from crosses? Would there be impaled sheep and goat heads? Would there be fire burning from the depths of hell? Would the mythical, wine-consuming, ‘Satan’-uttering man himself, Gaahl, make a surprise guest appearance. Unfortunately, we only got one of three… fire!
Looking like the Antichrist himself, frontman, Hoest (Taake), slithered onto the stage armed with a fierce looking collar with several ten-inch spikes jutting out in all directions. With corpsepaint and spikes adorned, the guys jumped right into ‘Bergtrollets Hevn’, the second song from their sophomore album released all the way back in ’96. This was followed by ‘Prayer’, a song where you can count on Gorgoroth always take(ing) you there (there being ‘hell’).
They followed this with another song from Quantos Possunt Ad Satanitatem Trahunt in leadoff track ‘Aneuthanasia’. To be perfectly honest, I think I prefer the vocalizations of Hoest over Pest (the original vocalist of the last two tracks mentioned). Perhaps it was just the acoustics of the Hallen venue, but he came across much more scathing and demonic than the recorded tracks laid down by Pest.
Gorgoroth finished their Beyond The Gates 2023 appearance with the triumvirate of ‘Katharinas Bortgang’, ‘Incipit Satan’ and ‘Destroyer’.
A fine display of True Norwegian Black Metal on the very soil that birthed it.
MARDUK (Røkeriet)
It’s a little odd that the reigning legends of Swedish black metal played the smaller Røkeriet stage. That said, it definitely worked to their advantage. The intimacy of the space allowed them to harness every bit of energy from the crowd and channel that right back into their destructive, anthemic, war-like set of songs.
Marduk‘s Those Of The Unlight was the first album to be highlighted with the song ‘On Darkened Wings’ kicking things off. This was immediately followed by two contemporary tunes, ‘Viktoria’ and ‘The Blonde Beast’. The latter of the two really got the heads bobbing, with it’s hypnotic, trance-like beat. As the title of the album of the next song, ‘Beyond The Grace Of God’, suggests – The Heavens Burned… When We Are Gathered – the heavens certainly did burn with tonight’s gathering in Bergen.
The latter half of the set comprised songs from their extensive catalog, which included ‘Wartheland’, ‘Werwolf’, ‘Of Hell’s Fire’, ‘With Satan And Victorious Weapons’, ‘Throne Of Rats’, ‘Wolves’ and brand new song ‘Blood Of The Funeral’ from their forthcoming album, Memento Mori.
Tonight’s performance showcased that Marduk is still a blackened force to to be reckoned with, even thirty-three years after their inception.
PERTURBATOR (Hallen)
When synthwave and metalheads unite under the same banner, magic happens. Tonight, in Bergen, that magic came in the form of French electronic musician, Perturbator (James Kent). Now, you might be reading this and asking yourself ‘how is it possible a synthwave musician is playing one of the most prestigious, underground metal festivals in the world?’. Well, you would be right to wonder. Rest assured, Mr. Perturbator himself is a seasoned metalhead.
As such, his music, though not at all metal, harnesses an aggression and melody that is not at all unlike metal. In fact, after experiencing both Marduk and Perturbator back-to-back, the similarities in compositional ethos were striking. Both are dark. Both are combative. Both are bombastic. Both are vertigo and trance-inducing. Finally, both share a dissonant euphony that is at once fucking hostile and pleasing to the ears.
To be perfectly honest, Perturbator were a festival highlight for this scribe. The Hallen venue sound and lighting system were perfectly suited to this style of music, and the guys took full advantage of this. Unlike many other artists of this ilk, Perturbator brought along a live drummer (Dylan Hyard), who added a touch of brashness and organic-ness to the massive digital soundscape created by Kent.
In the end, it was truly awesome to see hundreds of black clad, battle-vested metalheads dancing – as well as metalheads can dance, that is – to the incredible synth-heavy spectacle that is Perturbator.
