While Thursday had focus on old school bands, Friday saw a more varied mix of bands at Inferno. Death metal, industrial, symphonic, black, sludge were all presented through the night. Personally I was looking forward to see Samael, and also Anaal Nathrakh and of course seeing Gorgoroth again. (Photo above: Samael)

The first band on the Rockefeller stage Friday was Insidious Disease. They are a Norwegian death metal band that started in 2004 with the guitarists Sven Atle „Silenoz“ Kopperud from Dimmu Borgir, Jon Øyvind „Jardar“ Andersen from Old Man’s Child and Tony Laureano on drums. Bassist Shane Embury from Napalm Death joined them the next year, and singer Marc „Groo“ Grewe in 2010. The band played well, with Groo as an audial and visual center.

Next out was Anaal Nathrakh from Birmingham. They started out in 1998 and their style is a mix of grindcore, industrial and death and black metal, with singer Dave Hunt running around on stage in true punk style. I got associations to Cancer Bats and similar bands, and Anaal Nathrakh was a welcome variation on the majority of death and black metal bands that dominate the festival. With different subgenres presented, it is easier to appreciate all the bands, also those that I haven’t heard before.

I had been looking forward to seeing Samael, since I saw photos of the band many years ago and liked their style. Last night they played songs from their first four albums, with less of the mor symphonic style they have got in later years. The band started in 1987 with Vorph as the central member. I liked their performance, but what I didn’t like was that most of the drums and also some bass and other sounds was prerecorded and not performed live on stage. One of the best thing with the metal scene, is all the fantastic musicians, and Samael breaks that tradition in a way I don’t like.

From Samael I went down to see some southern sludge metal, Crowbar from New Orleans. They were again a contrast to the other bands with their slow, droning songs. And for the first time this festival, the lights were great for photo at John Dee! The band started out in 1988 and founding member Kirk Windstein has been with band the whole time.

Friday’s headliner was the Norwegian veteran band Gorgoroth from Bergen. The band was formed in 1992 by Infernus, who is still the leader of the band. The singer, Høst, has been with the band as a live vocalist since 2012 and he was also with the band when I saw them at Blastfest in Bergen last year. Gorgoroth are a satanic black metal band, and have been central among the satanic oriented bands in Norway since the start.

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