After Hole In The Sky in Bergen quit in 2012, the new Blastfest festival started in 2014. I attended the festival in 2015, and came back for three days of extreme metal this year. This year the lineup is 100% Norwegian metal, but that doesn’t hinder metal heads from all over the world come to Bergen.Someone told me that 43 nations are present, which shows that metal rock has penetrated the world. (Picture above: Gorgoroth)

Dødheimsgaard

Blastfest always starts with a club night Wednesday, before three days at the Verftet venue, with music from three stages almost ten hours each night. Of course, the quality of the bands vary, but generally I am impressed with the precision, the songs and the energy from all of them.

Here are photos of the bands I saw Thursday.

Viper Solfa

Dødheimsgaard

Taake

Gravdal

Virus

In The Woods

Gorgoroth

Here are the photos of the artists on Friday.

Here are photos of the artists from Saturday.

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