So, we are half way through the festival at this time. There are still long days ahead full of metal.
Starting the 3rd day of the festival we change the USF Verftet for the incredible and legendary Grieghallen.
This year the Grieghallen besides holding the concerts and "Beyond the Ink" Tattoo event it did have an exhibition illustrating the history of Satyricon, called "Horns and Diadems" which exposed a selection of photos, behind the scene photos, artefacts and more, this curated by Monica Holmer.
Some of the exhibition "Horns and diadems"
But before we head up to the Grieghallen, we start the day with the day shift gigs at Kulturhuset.
Fir started the day shift delivering some raw black metal.
Fír is a relatively "new" band which was formed around 2022, releasing a few demos, an EP and a split. Lastly this year 2024 "De Stilte van God" saw the light being a full length, presenting a lot of feeling and raw essence of black metal. Definitely has become one of my favorite black metal bands from the Netherlands. Their live shows are raw and powerful.
Pure Raw black metal. You can feel it influences of old Darkthrone for example. Fír is a total Gem of the netherlands.
Following we got more black metal from another band on the Terratur Possessions rooster who does not forgives: SYN.
With a single full length album release they crushed over the audience at Kulturhuset with all their might.
Owls! woods! graves! Owls! woods! graves!
To close the day shift in Kulturhuset we got a heavy mix of punk and black metal. From Poland! Owls Woods Graves!
First time listening to this band and definitely checked it out more in depth after the festival. It's worth checking, the heavy punk flavor with black metal is really interesting.
Their live performance is energetic and definitely gets the crowd moving along.
Now to officially open the Grieghallen gigs we got Dødheimsgard!
Dødheimsgard is one of the bands that took me by surprise, prior the band starting their set I was talking with another photographer and he was telling me "These guys are dope to photograph, the singer is a crazy hippie that likes to interact a lot with photographers and jump into the crowd" I was skeptic until their vocalist Vicotnik, started throwing colored powders to the crowd, jumping around the people on front row, I was not even able to focus before I noticed I had him upfront, ah good experiences I guess. (Last 2 pictures below when that happened). Dødheimsgard is a really interesting band, fusing some crazy "avantgarde" stuff with black metal. Their set was crazy good.
Djevel does not disappoints, unfortunately did not capture much of their set since I was getting tattooed in "Beyond the ink". Soo I'll owe you some Djevel for the future.
Enslaved played "Frost" album in it's entirety, with a special guest on the bass; Pytten.
I'm not the best fan of Enslaved but definitely it was an awesome set, full of energy and to watch them play the entirety of "Frost" was nice.
Satyricon - Horns and Diadems pt.1
One of the main events of the festival was the two day Satyricon sets one on Friday and one of Saturday. These set's spanned pretty much old and new albums. Songs like "Du Som Hater Gud", "Commando" and "Filthgrinder" to name a few where heard during Satyricon's first day set.
Up next we have Aura Noir with some violent and merciless black thrash.
Aura Noir closes up the night shift in Kulturhuset with a pretty long set charged with violence spanning multiple albums, we could enjoy songs such as "Hades Rise", "Purification of hell", "Condor" and many more.
Straight to the vein.
With this we close the third day of the Beyond the Gates Festival. Leaving us with one last day.
This year beyond the gates did have a nice initiative, the program called "Beyond the gates Young" which focuses on showcasing young talent. this time two bands featured this event;
Astronaustist and slaughterhead.
No pictures as we also took a break here. sorry!
Cool to see this type of events as it not only showcases young bands but exposes others to see and hopefully pass this vibe to other young lads.
Hopefully we'll see another edition next year!
Back to the Grieghallen one last time. VEMOD!
Vemod receives us with a ethereal performance, showing some melancholic but still in the realms of black metal, love to see how many of the artists evolve around different bands and their differences, for example Vocal and guitarist Eskil Blix is vocals and guitars for Mare also. Two different bands which co-exists in it's creator. Awesome and interesting to see these type of stuff in the genre.
Forthcoming: Vreid!
Vreid, band known for their particular sound, did not only showed part of their repertoire but also did paid tribute to Windir by playing some songs as "Saknet" and "Journey to the end" and keeping the Windir flame alive.
Next up we were up to the presentation of Satyricon second night playing their special set for horns and diadems part 2.
With songs like "Black Crow on a Tombstone" some oldies as "Forhekset" and "Transcendental Requiem of Slaves". Closing with "K.I.N.G.", Discussing a bit afterwards with some other folks we came to a conclusion that Satyricon and their "Horns and Diadems" Part 1 was definitely more interesting than this second set. Performance wise it delivered however felt a bit dull? Nevertheless was a interesting set.
This leaves us with one more show which I was very very excited about.
Blood fire Death - a tribute to Quorthon and the music of bathory.
Watching this backdrop and stage set up gave chills down the spine. The closest I (and many of us) would be to presence Bathory live. Definitely worthy of a Bathory tribute.
The tribute featured a plethora of special guests. Which all nailed the songs and could not ask for a for a better setlist and each of the artists performing the songs.
Setlist included songs as "A fine day to die", "Possessed", "Enter the eternal fire", "The Return of darkness and evil" and many many more, you can find the setlist and the guests for each song in setlist.fm here. Kudos to the people who wrote this up!
Watching Gaahl perform "A Fine Day To Die" and Erik from Watain perform songs as "Enter The Eternal Fire", Satyr looking more alive and performing "raise the dead" was a nice way to wrap things up. Also as a big fan of Wraath's work I did really enjoy the fierce energy when performing "The Return of Darkness and Evil" also featuring Frederick Melander on bass for some of the songs in the set. Personally the highlight of the festival at least for me. What a nice way to close up the festival.
Some closing thoughts on this festival as a whole;
Beyond The Gates festival does not disappoints on the line up selection, Within the genre always knows how to deliver a balanced line up, without falling into repetition or monotonous. Always bringing a few surprises under their sleeves. This was the second year attending the festival and can positively say that it has become a yearly tradition to visit Bergen and attend this festival.
Through the 4 days the festival staff was kind and helpful with whenever the photogs needed, also assisting and giving us any information to avoid getting burned alive by flames or deaf by the stage effects.
Everything felt well organized and bands starting on time, makes the festival feel very professional and stablished.
The festival does prepare multiple stuff to do around town as well to ensure visitors get the most of Bergen, such as working for discounts on other food establishments, museums, coordinating with other bars such Stereo for the warm up gig the first day and after the concerts to slow down the days.
So, Huge thanks to all Beyond The Gates Staff and for the opportunity to be there and capture all these great experiences.
* You can check all the photos from the festival below:
Photo report by Rodhnny for Abyssalvoid.
