The Inferno festival in Oslo is arranged every Easter, from Wednesday through Saturday. The first day is a club day, while the three next are arranged at the Rockefeller Music Hall, plus the smaller venue John Dee in the same building. I started my Inferno Easter on Thursday, and here are the bands I saw. (Photo above: Behemoth)

Execration

This year marks the 15 year anniversary for the Inferno festival. They sell out the venues every year, and people come literally from all over the world to spend their Easter holiday at the festival. The attendants come from India, Asia, Australia, all over Europe, USA, the Nordic countries, it is almost like a gathering of the extended black metal family. In styles you have black metal fans, death metal, goth, you name it. The only common factor is that all clothes are variations of black.

First out on the Rockefeller stage were Execration. They are Norwegian and won the Norwegian Grammy, Spellemannprisen, for their latest CD, Morbid Dimensions this year. They are a death metal band with some solid instrumental performances. I saw them recently at by:Larm, and they made an equally good concert last night.

Inner Sanctum

From Execration I went down to John Dee to see the Bangalore death/trash metal band Inner Sanctum. They are one of many metal bands from India, and they are on par with most other bands at the festival. I really liked them. A charismatic singer, Gaurav Basu, a great guitarist and tight drums and bass.

Septicflesh

Up again to the Rockefeller stage, where Septicflesh from Greece played. They are a symphonic death metal band, and have been together for 25 year. Technically they are as good as we have learned to expect from most bands that play this festival, but they didn’t touch me spicily much.

Antichrist

Sweden has some of the top bands on the metal scene today. One of the bands that are maybe not so well known as their top names, are Antichrist. That doesn’t mean they aren’t as good as the others, just that I haven’t seen them before. Last night they played at the John Dee stage, and I really liked their performance.

1349

Next out on the Rockefeller stage was 1349. They are one of Norway’s top black metal bands, and they presented a spectacular show with lots of pyro. They also played at Inferno in 2012, and I have seen them several times during the last 10 years.

Ensiferum

The last band at the John Dee stage were Ensiferum from Finland. They are a folk metal band, and so far the only metal band I have seen that use accordion. Their music is open, melodious and the venue was packed with people going totally wild to their music.

Behemoth

Thursday’s headliner was Behemoth from Poland. They are one of the international metal scene’s top bands, and have a controversial background. Their leader, Nergal, has been accused of promoting satanism, and he was also fatally ill with cancer in 2010. The band is refused to play in Russia and in Poznan in Poland because of their beliefs. Musically they are categorized as a blackened death metal band, and their latest album is The Satanist from 2014. Their show at Inferno last night was spectacular, and Rockefeller was totally packed during their concert.

All photos are © Per Ole Hagen and must not be used without written permission.