FRIDAY
MORTAL DREAD (DK)
RISING (DK)
WHOREDOM RIFE (NO)
BLOOD EAGLE (DK)
ILLDISPOSED (DK)
GAAHLS WYRD (NO)
ANAAL NATHRAKH (UK)
ENSLAVED (NO)
One of the best concerts at this year's festival was experienced on the second day when Whoredom Rife took possession of the staged and proved their message. Friday offered some of the really big names on the billing list for the festival this year and parts of the day was also dedicated to some genuine Norwegian black metal.
When participating in Aalborg Metal Festival and stepping inside the venue, you are met with some sort of ”homelike” feeling – like something familiar you have not seen for a long time and finally are greeted with again. Usually people meet all their friends from all around the country here, and nothing but happy faces are found during the three days.
As every other year, Aalborg Metal Festival had the hungry guests in mind and had placed a sausage grill-station just outside the main entrance. This year they had added a transportable bar outside also. Just too bad, if you do not eat pork or meat at all… Luckily, the venue Studenterhuset, where the whole thing is kicked off, is based just in the center of Aalborg, meaning there is many other opportunities nearby regarding food. The prices in the bars at the venue are quite affordable, so even if your wallet is looking a bit sad and empty, you would probably still be able to afford some of the delicious beers and drinks. So thank you for that, AMF and Studenterhuset!
As every other year, Aalborg Metal Festival had the hungry guests in mind and had placed a sausage grill-station just outside the main entrance. This year they had added a transportable bar outside also. Just too bad, if you do not eat pork or meat at all… Luckily, the venue Studenterhuset, where the whole thing is kicked off, is based just in the center of Aalborg, meaning there is many other opportunities nearby regarding food. The prices in the bars at the venue are quite affordable, so even if your wallet is looking a bit sad and empty, you would probably still be able to afford some of the delicious beers and drinks. So thank you for that, AMF and Studenterhuset!
WHOREDOM RIFE (NO) / 17:00
The first concert for us this day, and also the first black metal act of the day was Whoredom Rife - and what a mind-blowing one! The band had the ultimate drive throughout the whole set with their classic black metal, sweaty hair and corpse paint smeared out in their faces. They entered the stage about six or seven minutes before schedule, which was quite annoying. So here goes a little request to the organizers: Please do not let bands hit the stage ahead of schedule! Especially not when a running order with specific hours has been announced already. It is such a shame for the fans to miss parts of a band, especially if it is one of their favourites or highlights of the festival. The band had a good chemistry with the crowd and they managed to work them up. The attendance at the concert was good, and the people there seemed to like what they heard a lot. Throughout the whole concert the light at the stage was kept in blue colours and nuances which perhaps should resemble the cold Norwegian environment to enhance the atmosphere of the music. The band delivered a crazy performance with the way they intensely gaze upon the audience one by one and their visible use of blood. This was without a doubt one of our favourite concerts on Aalborg Metal Festival 2018.
The Blood Eagle is actually an old ritual-related method of execution mentioned in late skaldic poetry in the Icelandic sagas. The sagas tell that in the Viking Ages people would kill enemies this way by cutting lose the ribs from the spine, pulling out the lungs and then spread the ribs open representing eagle wings. Having this in mind the band did not exactly pull our ribs out musically, but they delivered a heavy and well-done performance with high energy and a great connection to the audience. The band is fairly new with only one released EP but still has some experienced members; one of the guitarists, for instance, is a founding member of Volbeat (not in the band anymore, though), and others are past members in well-known Danish metal bands. The music has a death metal base and with groovy elements in between but with a quite core-ish vocal.
After the Blood Eagle show our stomachs started rumbling and we had to go grab something to eat, and sadly this meant that we could not make it for the Illdisposed show. We believe that we will catch them another good time!GAAHLS WYRD (NO) / 20:15
There is no person in metal music who can wear a roll collar sweater and still be taken seriously and be convincing in one’s message – except for Mr. Gaahl himself. The concerts started out well with an energetic punch, but kind of faded as the concert proceeded, and something was missing to keep the spirit up within the audience. Gaahl had a mystic appearance on stage, slowly moving around and starring into emptiness with his dark-painted eyes. As usual, we were presented with songs from both the Gorgoroth, God Seed and Trelldom repertoire, and it was especially during the Trelldom songs that the band got slightly boring. The band proved that the idea about corpse paint is still alive, but it must be well executed at least (if you even can say such thing about corpse paint – but we are especially talking about one of the guitarists…). None the less, Gaahl’s heartrending and cutting vocals was definitely haunting us through the whole night, and the band ended the show with the Gorgoroth song Prosperity and Beauty.
ANAAL NATHRAKH (UK) / 21:45
One of Friday’s headliners was British Anaal Nathrakh. The band hit the stage a bit delayed, but the audience was on fire, and during this concert one of the few mosh pits during the whole festival took place. This concert was possibly the loudest one as well, but only fitting to the extreme and terrorizing sound of the band. They opened their set with some songs from the new album, including Forward! and New Bethlehem/Mass Death Futures. Front man Dave Hunt liked to say a few words between each song, for instance the song “Forward!” was dedicated to a friend of theirs who shot himself 6-7 weeks ago who had contributed with guitar parts on other material from the band. The whole experience was ravaging but in the best way possibly, and Anaal Nathrakh did an incredible job delivering some of the best music within the genre. The whole thing was finished with the older track Do Not Speak.
The final act and headliner for this Friday was the Norwegian warriors from Enslaved, 25 minutes delayed. This was quickly forgotten though, as this concert turned out to be one of the biggest surprises of the whole festival, as the band presented us with an almost pure old school set, which was greeted with great positivity and engagement. They entered the stage to the intro Frost from their second album by the same name from 1994, an intro that is linked with the song Loke on the record, but when live it usually counts as just an intro. Except for this time! As soon as the intro faded out the band went right over to playing Loke. Thundering guitars and hyper blast beats followed, as they roared onward through the song and we were simply blown away. Never had we thought we would get to hear this song live, but today was finally the day. In front of a surprised and cheerful crowd they greeted us welcome to one hell of an Enslaved show as they introduced the next song Vetrarnótt from their debut record Vikingligr veldi, also from 1994, a song which is probably one of the greatest viking metal songs around, a true viking hymn. Next up we got the first material of the more progressive side of Enslaved, namely, the title track off their 2006 album Ruun, soon followed by Sacred Horse of their newest record E from 2017. The audience seemed super excited by their progressive material, as the older black metal-oriented stuff was from almost 20 years ago. But just as we thought we were about to only hear the newer material, they threw us right back into the Frost album with Isøders dronning. You simply never know where you have this band, they will always keep surprising the fans, which is a tough job when you have 14 studio albums and several EP’s behind you. Guitarist Ivar Bjørnson then stated that fans had longed for a certain song for many years, and that we were of course not going to miss this, as they began the viking choir for Havenless, clearly a fan favourite! Can you guess what was next?.. More off Frost! They hammered through the fast paced four minute track Jotunblod. They returned to their newer stuff with Storm Son also off E, before Grutle Kjellson introduced the rest of the band members and a special welcome to their newest addition, Iver Sandøy, on drums, before they ended the evening with a huge applause as they began the last track of the night Allfǫðr Oðinn.
A day that consisted of not one.. not two.. but three! Norwegian black metal bands! As well as four Danish acts ranging from newcomers to legendary bands, and just a pinch of British extreme brutally. All in all this day ended with a total bang, and what a day it was.
Photo album: https://www.facebook.com/metal.to.go.dk/photos/Aalborgmetalfestival2018
Bands:
MORTAL DREAD (DK) - https://www.facebook.com/MortalDreadBand/
RISING (DK) - https://www.facebook.com/risingdk/
WHOREDOM RIFE (NO) - https://www.facebook.com/Dommedagsryttere/
BLOOD EAGLE (DK) - https://www.facebook.com/bloodeagledk/
ILLDISPOSED (DK) - https://www.facebook.com/illdisposed1/
GAAHLS WYRD (NO) - https://www.facebook.com/gaahlswyrd/
ANAAL NATHRAKH (UK) - https://www.facebook.com/Anaalnathrakhofficial/
ENSLAVED (NO) - https://www.facebook.com/enslaved/
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