August 5th, 2023
Bergen, Norway @ Grieghallen
Photos By: Kim Baarda
Words By: Jason Deaville
FOUR DAYS OF DARKNESS IN THE HEART OF BERGEN – DAY 4
We awoke to another beautiful day in Bergen, Norway. In fact, rain was forecast for most of the week that BTG was occurring, but the city did not see one drop. It was a beautiful mix of sun and cloud with quite mild temperatures. Couldn’t have asked for a better week of weather.
With the last of four days upon us, the festival organizers decided to pull out the big guns… tonight was an all Norwegian kinda night, with performances by Mare, Aeternus, Taake, Enslaved, and Dimmu Borgir. Unfortunately, due to prior commitments, we were unable to attend both the Aeternus and Mare performances. That being said, we heard from others that both bands killed it.
I’ve gotta say, it was hard to leave Bergen after spending a full week in the city for the festival. Bergen now feels like home. We made many friends, and not just fleeting friends. Real friends. Friends we will see again, regardless of distances.
This is testament to the type of festival that Beyond The Gates is, and the type of people the festival attracts. Good people who love great music, good times, and the company of like-minded folk. We will most certainly be back.
WINE TASTING WITH GAAHL (Beyond The Gates Experience @ Stereo)
Prior to the festivities set to occur over at Grieghallen, the one and only Kristian Eivind Espedal (aka Gaahl), the infamous ex-frontman of Gorgoroth (current vocalist of Gaahl’s Wyrd), hosted an exclusive wine tasting in the legendary basement of club Stereo. Previously called Garage, this is the same club/bar that many Norwegian black metal bands got their start, including Enslaved who played their first show ever there.
Organized by the festival as part of their Beyond The Gates Experience (a series of hosted events that showcased many points of interest as it relates to the history of black metal in Bergen), the wine tasting was set to last for two hours and was capped at 40 attendees (to preserve the intimacy of the event).
As the wine was discussed, and then poured, the ever-gracious host, Gaahl, made the rounds to each and every table to further converse about the vino. The man is a veritable expert. In fact, he is not only a rabid consumer, he has also taken part in both producing and designing wines himself with great success. What was supposed to be a two hour event, turned into three hours. At the half-way point of the event, things got very convivial, and Gaahl more chatty, retelling the story of how he ended up with his arm in a sling (which did not impact his wine drinking ability at all, I should add. The man has perfected his wine slinging).
Approaching hour three, the literal ‘buzz’ in the room was palpable, and the wine just kept coming. Gaahl, proved himself to be a charming socialite and an expert in Enology (the science and study of wine and winemaking). Much was learned. Friends were made. Much wine was consumed.
All in all, a fantastic experience that I highly recommend if you ever get the chance. Below is a list of the wines we tasted, with links to purchase.
La Sorga The Boyfriend
Christian Tschida Laissez Faire
Christian Tschida Birdscape Pink Maceration
TAAKE (Grieghallen)
Looking the part a blood-thirsty vampire, Bergen resident, and Taake frontman, Hoest, is a True Norwegian Black Metal superhero. The man/beast demonstrated his powers on Grieghallen’s stage this night with a performance that will go down in the black metal history books.
The guys tackled three albums over the course of seven songs, which included 1999’s Nattestid Ser Porten Vid, 2002’s Over Bjoergvin Graater Himmerik, and 2005’s Hordalands Doedskvad. It was a bit odd to me that they didn’t play anything post-2005, as the band has some truly stunning material over the last seventeen years (five full-length albums and five EPs, to be exact).
In fact, one of those albums, Et hav av avstand, is set to be released September 1st, 2023 (tomorrow, at the time of this writing). Earlier in the week, Beyond The Gates hosted a listening party of said album at Club Hellion in Bergen’s city center. Getting a sneak peek of the songs, I was hoping that the band would bust out a track or two as part of their Grieghallen set. Unfortunately, no such luck.
Regardless of new material or not, Taake delivered a frigid set of classic material that showcased the importance of the band and their attachment to the city that spawned them and this one-of-a-kind festival.
ENSLAVED (Grieghallen)
Hometown heroes Enslaved were the perfect band on the perfect stage at the perfect venue in the perfect city. You could say the stars aligned on this night. As part of this very special Beyond The Gates performance, the guys tackled ’97’s Eld from front to back.
With such an extensive catalogue, I was a bit perplexed as to the choice of focusing on one album. Not that Eld is a bad album. Quite the contrary. It’s actually an incredibly complex album, and perhaps their very first truly progressive album. If you were to take early-to-mid era Opeth and soak it in an ice-cold bath of True Norwegian Black Metal, well, you’d have yourself an Eld.
Once I learned that the performance of Eld was part of a Beyond The Gates tradition that sees Enslaved re-imagine their early albums with a conceptual run through live on stage (they’ve previously given treatment to Vikingligr Veldi and Frost), the choice of album made much more sense. It made even more sense with the fact that Eld was recorded at Grieghallen way back in the winter of ’96/’97. Again, the stars aligned in Bergen on this night.
Prior to their appearance at Beyond The Gates, guitarist Ivar Bjørnson had this to say regarding the upcoming performance:
“The timing for reviving Eld is perfect; we have really connected with our own early voice through shows with Frost and Vikingligr Veldi and integrated it with our present-day sound and line-up. There is material on Eld that I am certain will re-ignite and unleash more of this album’s potential when performed in August 2023.”
His words couldn’t have been more true. Eld was given the contemporary Enslaved treatment, which only succeeded in making me yearn for the same treatment on the recorded front. The songs really do translate very well with the current lineup. If one had no familiarity with Eld, they would be hard-pressed to distinguish that these songs are over a quarter-century old. It truly did sound like the songs were composed today.
As always, Enslaved gave a highly-energized and tight performance of an album that truly stands the test of time.
DIMMU BORGIR (Grieghallen)
To celebrate their 30th anniversary, Norwegian black metal superstars Dimmu Borgir graced Beyond The Gates with a very special performance, which included songs they haven’t played in over a decade (and, in some cases, over two decades).
Strolling onto the stage one-by-one to thunderous appreciation, the guys kicked right into ‘Raabjørn Speiler Draugheimens Skodde’ (from their ’97 album Enthrone Darkness Triumphant), which they haven’t played since 2012. This was immediately followed-up by the song ‘Over Nleknede Blåner Til Dommedag’ from their album For All Tid (last played live all the way back in ’95, the same year the album was released). The next two songs, ‘Spellbound (by the Devil)’ and ‘Entrance’ were again culled from Enthrone Darkness Triumphant, with both having not been played since 2012.
At this point, we were only four songs in, and those four songs were special enough that, if the band had called it a night, we all definitely got our money’s worth. Luckily, things were only just starting.
Without hesitation, Dimmu then launched into two tracks from their 1999 album, Spiritual Black Dimensions ‘Grotesquery Concealed (Within Measureless Magic)’ and ‘The Insight And Catharsis (both songs not played since 2007).
At the halfway point of the set, the guys hit with two personal favorites from their 1996 album Stormblåst, the title track and ‘Dødsferd’ (the latter of the two having not been played since ’97). Getting a bit more contemporary, Dimmu dropped back-to-back-to-back songs (‘Interdimensional Summit’, ‘Ætheric’, and ‘Council Of Wolves And Snakes’) from the 2018 album, Eonian.
Puritanical Euphoric Misanthropia was the next album to get the multi-song treatment, with the tracks ‘Fear And Wonder’ and ‘Blessings Upon The Throne Of Tyranny’. This was immediately followed-up by fan-favorites ‘Progenies Of The Great Apocalypse’ and ‘Mourning Palace’.
Dimmu ended their set with the instrumental ‘Inn i evighetens mørke (Part I)’ from their 1995 EP of the same name. The song was played from tape as they left the stage one-by-one. This also spelled the end to day 3 of Beyond The Gates at Grieghallen.
An incredible performance by Dimmu Borgir, which happened to also be their only scheduled performance of 2023. For those of us that were lucky enough to be there, we can count ourselves spoiled!
