Caerimonia Nidrosia, is a small festival held in Trondheim Norway, more known as the mighty city of Nidaros! Famous for having their cathedral the Nidarosdomen featured in Mayhem album "De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas" Cover. But not only that as Nidaros is a epicenter of Norwegian black metal for a while and it does not look to stop anytime soon.
Caerimonia Nidrosiae is organized by record label none other than Terratur Possessions, under the flag of this label bands such as Mare, Whoredom Rife, Issolei, SYN and many more that most likely you would already be familiar with.
With so many names under his roster you can only imagine the Lineups for these events would be an outstanding one, and indeed these are a very curated line ups that are guaranteed to please and exceed expectations.
This year being the 3rd iteration of the festival as guaranteed we got a few treats.
Day 1: Askeregn debuting live for the first time, Ritual Death delivering some Black Metal Terror and closing the first day to mend the minds through some mystic soundscapes Vemod.
Day 2: Dark Sonority returning to the stages after a hiatus, same with Sortilegia all the way from Canada, closing the day with none other than the Nidrosian black metal powerhouse of Whoredom Rife.
Day 1: Friday 10th, January 2025.
Backdrop design by Christel Markussen.
Askeregn
What a way to start the festival with unrelenting violence. Don't sleep on it, They will be playing at Beyond The Gates this year 2025. Their last release "Brennende åkres grøde" was definitely a highlight of 2022 when it was released closing the year and taking a spot of possibly Album of the year.
Full gallery: Click Here.
Ritual Death
Ritual death is one of those bands that you cannot wear tired of seeing live, few words to describe their acts as one of their hymns say... Desecration, abomination, blasphemy, Heresy.. Pure Black Metal Terror.
Straightforward to what we came for, Intense and unrelenting.
VEMOD
Had the chance to witness Vemod last year on Beyond the Gates Festival, where they did not only provided a great performance but left no room to ask for more.
Vemod is one of those bands that will deliver and create an atmosphere transporting you to some ethereal soundscapes.
To close the set and the first day of the Caerimonia, Vemod delivered and incredible cover of Ulver's "I Troldskog Faren Vild" Featuring it's own Haavard Jørgensen on the guitar!
What a treat! The audience was completely amazed.
Day 2: SatYrday 11th, January 2025.
Dark Sonority
You can say that the entire Caerimonia is the highlight itself, however for many Dark Sonority blew minds positioning itself as the highlight of the festival.
The entire set irradiating an mysterious, eerie atmosphere. The set felt like trying to swallow blades while trying to grasp for dear life, if it makes some kind of sense.
Personally I was looking so much forward seeing Dark Sonority live and hell they did not disappoint, not that anything done/part of TP ever disappoints though. Do yourself a favor and do NOT miss their live appearances through the year. They will be performing at "Beyond the Gates Festival" in Bergen, Norway and "Cosmic Void Festival" in London, United Kingdom.
Sortilegia
In pitch darkness, Sortilegia all the way from Canada makes their appearance.
With absolutely no stage lights besides the candle's lights we were able to witness their darkened crafted setlist, creating a raw-dark eerie and ritualistic ambience.
You could definitely feel the raw low-fidelity darkness through the set.
Whoredom Rife
Whoredom Rife.. What an absolute way to close the festival, if not with one of the major treasures of Nidaros, the unrelenting powerhouse that Whoredom Rife is...
KR vocals are as violent as they can get, emitting an intense and crushing sound. V on drums blast them as there's no tomorrow, Powerful performance as always.
Not only their setlist spanned across different albums but to close the festival they did performed "Under A Funeral Moon" by Darkthrone. Which can be re-lived here. Credits to TP for capturing it.
Caerimonia Nidrosiae has become a regular in the Festival rotation for the last few years, not only as Trondheim is a beautiful town, but Terratur Possesion's Ole does an magnificent work planning and executing this festival, it may be a smaller festival however it is not to be overlooked at.
We hope Caerimonia keeps happening however we understand setting up something like this can be quite a challenge. Thankfully we can definitely see a lot of support for this festival and hope this keeps being the case.
Thanks Ole for allowing me to document this through photography of the event.
See you next year?
