The annual Inferno Metal Festival Norway was once again attracting crowds of black metal music fans in Oslo during the Easter holidays. It’s become a tradition after Norwegian black metal bands put the country on the international map.
Inferno launches the black metal festival season, drawing fans from around the world who come to see promising new bands and the established artists and old heroes like Norway’s Satyricon (which topped the line-up in local ads for the festival and plays last on Saturday) and Deicide from the US, which plays at the music hall Rockefeller on Holy Thursday. Other bands on tap included Suffocation, Moonspell, Taake (fog, in Norwegian) and Dark Funeral.
At a time when many Norwegians head for the hills to go skiing in the Easter sunshine, black metal fans hunker down in dark clubs, but that’s become an Easter tradition, too. Norwegian black metal is highly acclaimed among fans around the world and “blackpackers” gladly visit the country of its origin. Landmarks tied to black metal’s beginnings, like the location of the old record store Helvete (Hell), are on the sightseeing lists, as is the store Neseblod (nose bleed).
newsinenglish.no staff
