Concert: Myrkur – Bonden og Kragen

Audience: Approx. 300
Support: Jo Quail
Venue: John Dee, Oslo, Norway

Here’s the song “Bonden og Kragen” by Myrkur from her concert in Oslo last night:

The concert, which is most likely going to be my last of 2018, was of the two-sided kind. The first half hour or so consisted of folk songs, and after that it was a more varied repertoire.

This song is from the folk song part of the concert, and while I was standing pretty okay my camera was not happy, hence the shitty video quality. The audio is pretty good though.

Also, Myrkur released an offical video for this song today as well – watch it here:

It’s worth noting that Jo Quail are opening up for Myrkur on this tour, so if you’re going to any of the remaining concerts you should go there early and listen to what Jo can do with her cello. It was fantastic stuff! 🙂

If you want to support Myrkur go buy all her stuff at her Bandcamp page.

Also, check her website for all things Myrkur at her own personal webpage.

Jo Quail is also on Bandcamp, and you can stream her music there if you want to know her better.

 

Concert: Ne Obliviscaris & Astrosaur

Audience: Approx. 300
Support: Ihsahn (main band)
Venue: Sticky Fingers, Gothenburg, Sweden

Ne Obliviscaris (NeO) are, as I write this, on a European tour with Ihsahn and Astrosaur. I decided to drive down to Gothenburg and back home again on the opening night of the tour.

I’ve seen both NeO and Astrosaur live before, but the main reason I took this trip was to see NeO. I saw them in Paris in 2016, and they’ve only been to Norway (or nearby) once after that… a concert I missed even.

Seeing them again though was awesome as always, they really are a professional band. I managed to watch Ihsahn play a couple of songs, but I really had to leave so I could get home at a reasonable time. Fortunately I saw both Ihsahn and Emperor at the Inferno Festival back in April, so I was okay with skipping them this time.

I am a Patreon-supporter of Ne Obliviscaris. Go check them out there and consider joining in if you really like the band. You get a lot of behind the scene stuff, announcements about tours and what not , and other things before it’s released to the public. You can also get a chance to buy special merch for Patreon only, and often a head start on regular merch too: https://www.patreon.com/neobliviscaris

All their albums are available on Bandcamp: https://neobliviscarissom.bandcamp.com/

Concert: Heilung (excerpts)

Audience: Approx. 1800
Support: None.
Venue: DR Koncerthuset, Copenhagen, Denmark

Heilung, along with Wardruna are modern folk (or neofolk if you like) bands I listen to a lot. I haven’t seen Wardruna live yet, but I was so lucky to catch the frontman, Einar Selvik, having a small lecture and playing some songs about a year ago. I wrote a few words about that experience too.

A couple of weeks ago I finally got to see Heilung live, or the ritual as it is a more fitting term for what I experienced. 🙂

This photo gives you an idea of the venue, DR Koncerthuset, the stage is in the middle and people sit around the stage. Every person in the audience are kinda close to everything that is happening and the sound is really good too.

I didn’t get to record one whole song this time, but instead I did a few excerpts of several songs. The part at 2:58 was particularly awesome live!

Heilung has released a full concert video (see below) on their YouTube-channel. Go check it out! Also, check out their bandcamp page, stream their music and buy their albums. 🙂

Concert: Sólstafir, Myrkyr, Árstíðir

I was lucky to see three bands I really, REALLY like in one single evening. I’ve been listening to Sólstafir, Myrkur and Árstíðir for quite some time via Bandcamp. Myrkur and Sólstafir was announced at first, and that’s when I got the ticket, and suddenly Árstíðir was added to the bill as well. An amazing evening I won’t forget anytime soon.

I don’t know what the light was all about, but my phonecam was definitely not fond of it. Music is what matters though and as always – WYSIWYG!

ÁRSTIÐIR
Árstíðir plays very laid back and soothing pop/rock with high quality musicianship, and I’ve even crowdfunded these guys at some point. Although they sing plenty of songs in Icelandic they also sing in English.

Buy all their music on Bandcamp:
https://arstidir.bandcamp.com/

MYRKUR
Myrkyr is doing her thing blending everything from old Scandinavian cattle calling to black metal into the cooking pot. I’ve been to several concerts with Myrkyr before and was the only one I knew live in concert until this evening. Myrkur sings songs in most Scandinavian languages in addition to English.

Buy all her music on Bandcamp:
https://myrkur.bandcamp.com/

SÓLSTAFIR
Sólstafir is a fantastic band – and I fell for them completely ever since I found them on Bandcamp back in 2013-ish. They play post rock/psychedelic rock with their own flare, and most of the songs are in Icelandic.

Buy all their music on Bandcamp:
https://solstafir.bandcamp.com/

Concert: PAIN

I put this up on YouTube a while ago, but completely forgot to post it here.

I went to see PAIN back in january and it was a pretty damn cool experience. Peter Tägtgren said it was ten years since they last visited Oslo, so it was extra special to catch them this time.

After the music, what I remember best is the heat. It was so hot in there! 😀

Anyway, I recorded an all time favourite track by this band – Same Old Song. Enjoy!

Inferno Festival 2018

I finally got to attend the Inferno Festival in Oslo, Norway again. I’ve only been there once before and only for one day if I remember correctly. This time I stayed for 3 days and saw a bunch of fantastic bands play songs I’ve listened to so many times before, but never seen or heard live.

Inferno Festival was stuffed this year as well, so I was almost always standing at horrible spots when I recorded. The result is, at times, rather bad video and/or audio. I’m not sure if I managed to record entires songs at some concerts because I was pushed around so much, but I definitely got most of it if not all. 🙂

See YouTube descriptions for timestamps (if there are more than one song) and also for most of the information you find here. Consider following my YouTube-channel as well, I share similar videos there from time to time, but be aware that I listen to a lot if different genres. See under Follow Me in the menu on the right side for links to my YouTube channel and more.

Naglfar

First band out was Naglfar, a Swedish band I used to listen to a lot, but have kinda lost them. Really cool to see them live though and I recorded two full songs. Not sure what the first one is called, but the second is Black God Aftermath (an old favorite).

Shining (SE)

Shining, is a Swedish band I only recently have started to listen to. Really cool to see them live though and I recorded two (almost) full songs. The big surprise here was the second song – a cover of the Norwegian band Seigmen’s song Ohm. I was a tad flabbergasted when I understood what song it was so I didn’t catch the very beginning of it. Other than that I’m way more into the Norwegian band who is also called Shining, and play very different music.

Auðn (Audn)

Auðn, is an Icelandic band I’ve been a fan of since their debut in 2014. This was the first time I see (or even hear) them live however, and they owned everything. Seriously, I knew they sounded good in the studio, but the live edition of this band’s songs was beyond fantastic!

Emperor

Emperor is black metal royalty! Amazing to finally see these guys live. They aren’t easy to catch live here in Norway even, but I love their CDs – and I have listened to these guys ever since the early-to-mid 90s. This was the first time I see them live myself and it was epic. Considering they haven’t released an album since 2001 everyone wanted to check them out, so the place was crammed.

A bonus was that they had brought in Jørgen Munkeby from Shining (NO) on keyboards, and he did his thing to perfection as always. He’s a bit hidden in the back to the left. 🙂 He will also be in an Ihsahn video later in this post.

Memoriam

Memoriam was not a band I planned on watching, but I got a tip that I should. I got no regrets, and this band/concert ended up being the nicest surprise on this year’s festival for me. They play some nice old school death metal and all the members are from some well-known bands out there (like Bolt Thrower and Benediction to mention a couple).

Ihsahn

Ihsahn is the singer and main man from Emperor. I’m well aware of his solo stuff, but I always end up listening to Emperor instead of Ihsahn when I have the choice. This concert turned me around though, it was superb from beginning to end, and I will definitely check out his solo stuff some more.

Although Ihsahn has black metal elements too, it’s mostly music in an avantgarde genre – like there kinda is no genre at all. An example of that is when Jørgen Munkby from Shining (NO) suddenly appears with some ripping saxophone towards the end of the concert. I added some short clips in the video with Jørgen Munkeby, as well as a clip with some decent guitar playing by Ihsahn himself right after the 7:15 mark.

Satyricon

Satyricon has been releasing albums steadily, and lately they’ve had a nice bunch of tours all over the world as well. Their latest album, Deep Calleth Upon Deep, is yet another highlight. Still being relevant, and they continue doing their own thing on stage as well. Fun to see Satyricon again, and I will definitely see more of these guys in the coming years.

Congrats to SpaceX

This is such a huge feat for SpaceX… and mankind. Amazing to see this happen, and it just adds to the whole “one small step […]” thing uttered some time ago by a certain someone.

Happy New Year!

With this photo I took just outside of Elverum, Hedmark here in Norway a few hours ago, I’d like to wish you all a happy new year!

Godt-nyttår.jpg

Concert: Leprous

Audience: Approx. 600

Venue: Vulkan Arena, Oslo, Norway

Support: Agent Fresco, Astrosaur, Alithia

One of my favourite bands, and particularly in the last five years or so, Leprous, finished their 30+ show tour last night in Oslo, Norway.

Leprous are almost becoming royalty when it comes to the progressive metal genre. It’s hard competition though, but they have released another strong album with Malina (August 2017) and are continuing their musical journey with steady hands.

I’ve seen Leprous live before, and the amount of people attending this sold out concert shows how big they have become – the place was stuffed.

I recorded two complete songs, Bonneville and The Cloak, and the first one includes a long intro by the amazing cellist Raphael Weinroth-Browne. Bonneville was the first song on the setlist, and The Cloak (one of my favourite songs) was the first encore.

I was tired and in a mood yesterday, so I had to cut the evening short and only saw Agent Fresco’s full set in addition to the whole set by Leprous.

This was my first concert at Vulkan Arena, which is kinda close to the venue Blå. I liked it – it’s just a square with no annoying pillars or anything… which for some reason is rather common elsewhere.

I bought a a couple of nice t-shirts by Leprous and a nice Agent Fresco hat. Smile I finally got my hands on Malina as well, and don’t have to just stream it from now on. Open-mouthed smile


Lecture: Old Nordic Music with Einar Selvik

Audience: Approx. 50

Venue: Gildehallen, Borre, Norway

Support: None.

Einar Selvik (Wardruna) had this little lecture about old Nordic music and instruments yesterday. He showed us the instruments and he also performed songs from Völuspá, by Wardruna and by himself.

This was happening in Gildehallen, which is a replica of an old Viking Hall. More info about it here.

As for the lecture I didn’t really record as much, and I didn’t really want to record it at all either – since I was too busy watching and listening to Einar. Since there were some songs performed I decided to record some. Smile The second song was recorded without looking at the camera at all, which is quite obvious when you see it. Open-mouthed smile

The lecture itself gave a nice insight on how music was made (and later written) with the contexts of the era(s), instruments and how people were living back in the days. If he’ll do more of these lectures it’s highly recommended that you go and check it out. 🙂

There are two songs in this video, and I don’t remember what the first one was from. It could be from Völuspá, but yeah – I’m not certain. The second song, Snake Pit Poetry, is available for purchase. It was made for and used in the TV-show Vikings so if you’re into that you’ll definitely recognize it. The first song is performed with the instrument Talharpa (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talharpa), and the second one with a Kravik Lyre.

Go buy his stuff from https://bynorse.bandcamp.com/ or http://www.wardruna.com/.