Introduction
Beyond the Gates, the well renowned metal festival in the heart of Bergen in western Norway. Bergen is the home of several of the Norwegian black metal bands and gods we all love. Beyond the Gates is a festival that focuses on exactly that, they know what great qualities their city and country has to offer, an uses that to its fullest potential in their 4-days of festival. A wide range of the darker metal subgenres has found a place within the gates, but the main focus of the festival lies with the goat, Black metal!
If you want to learn more about the festival, I suggest you check out my review from last year that holds a bit more information! You can read it here!
This year the festival had four huge headliners including Mayhem, Behemoth, and Satyricon, who performed two different sets, headlining the two final days of the metal madness.
The other black metal bands performing at the festival included: Mānbryne, Whoredom Rife, Black Anvil, Trelldom, Watain, Darkspace, Cult of Fire, Ritual Death, Syn, Akhlys, Owls Woods Graves, Aura Noir, Vreid, Vemod and Blood Fire Death (Bathory tribute).
You might have noticed a numerous amount of Terratur Possession bands in the list above, and the reason to that is that Terratur Possessions is co-organizing the festival. So if you are fond of the bands on their roster, this is a festival to keep your eyes on.
One of the best aspects of Beyond the Gates is that there are never any bands overlapping. That means that every band you see on the flyer above is actually possible for you to watch! One of the greatest pains for a metalhead at a festival is to have to chose between bands that are overlapping.
Another great aspect of the festival is its location and its venues. Being in the heart of Bergen and using Kulturhuset, USF Verftet and Grieghallen is just fantastic. Each venue has its own charm and fills their purpose. The first two days of the festival happens in Kulturhuset (day and night shift concerts) and the main festival down at USF Verftet that includes the two stages Røkeriet and Hallen. In last years edition of the festival Hallen was used for the first time. I was not so fond of the audio there last year but I can happily announce that it was abit better this year!
The last two days of the festival is held within the brutal building Grieghallen. This venue is mighty, it has tons of seats that are free for anyone to use, but also has a big floor in front of the stage for those of us who wants to stand. The audio in the venue is great, and as previously said: Tailor made for the bands playing here.
Concert Highlights
I was privileged with accreditation this year aswell as last year so I set out for the concerts with my camera and a beer in hand. Opening up the festival in Hallen on the Wednesday was the Terratur Possesion band Whoredom Rife.
With a smoke filled stage and blue lights shining, Whoredom Rife took to the stage. The band has become a powerhouse of Nidarosian black metal. Their corpse paint faces filled the room with a ominous feeling and a terror swept over me as the vocalist K.R stared me down in the fotopit. Their sound is big, and their style, aggressive. I found their concert a very fitting opening to the festival and by the amount of people showing up aswell concludes it.
Mānbryne is another band on Terratur Possessions roster that I’ve bin listening more and more too lately. I was very curious to hear them perform live. I had previously not seen any live recordings so I was amazed when I first saw the band on stage. The vocalist Paweł Marzec sits behind a small alter all the way up front on the stage. The altar had candles lit and a hourglass on the desk, a big backlit logo was shining on the front of it. The members wearing black and red facepaint were mostly steadyput at their places on stage transferring atmosphere rather than energy to the crowd. Their drum sound was slightly louder than the guitars but their overall sound was good, when I was standing in the back of the room I did’nt feel any need for ear protection. I really enjoyed their set and the untraditional colour of facepaint, I will gladly see them again!
Mayhem celebrated their 40 year anniversary with a setlist with songs from the past years and the special guests Messiah and Manheim on the last three songs, Deathcrush, Necrolust and Pure Fuckin Armageddon. I’m not so invested in Mayhem myself so I dont know all their material that well but their live show was very entertaining. Attila really shines on stage and is a good performer. From doing some crazy voodoo wizardy stuff with a inverted bone cross, to wearing a beret alongside his corpsepaint, my eyes were fully glued to his presence.
In the background Mayhem had videos running with memories of their rich history and they would also play audio-clips from old recordings and interviews with the early band members. The overall concert was a great experience and for the hardcore Mayhem fans a memory for life, I would assume.
Bønnas hot take: I’ve seen Mayhem several times in Bergen, both in Grieghallen and at Røkeriet, but this time was something special, the way they brought us back in time through their set list worked really well for me, and finishing it all off with Manheim and Billy on stage, as a full on punk band made it a unique experience.
Trelldom was the first concert ever the band had performed. The band staring Gaahl on vocals has existed since the 90’s and is well liked by many metalheads. I was very curious to see them perform their first show but I was sadly very disappointed. The setlist included very slow and jazzy / proggy songs and I found it upright boring. I think if the concert was earlier in the day with such a set I would handle it better but I did not have patience to stay for their whole set.
Bønnas hot take: Trelldom would have benefited from a different time slot as I was so pumped after the Mayhem gig their proggy jazz did not really do it for me. Røkeriet was absolutely packed and it felt it was a missed oppurtunity to close out the evening with a bang. I guess my expectations was more in the style of Ghaals Wyrd which absolutely slayed on that same stage a few years prior.
Dødheimsgard was a pleasant surprise to see live for the first time. The colorful front man Vicotnik was extremely entertaining to watch on stage. He was running back and forth, jumping down in the fotopit, throwing color powder on the crowd, rolling around and even crowdsurfing. I got exhausted on his behalf. The other members I cant say too much about because Vicotnik had my full attention but I can say that I really enjoyed their audio in Grieghallen and enjoyed their music as much as their front man.
Bønnas hot take: Dødheimsgard is Vicotnik. I mean, the band itself is absolutely awesome but what makes it stand apart from all other acts is Vicotniks truly captivating antics on stage. If you ever get the chance to watch Dødheimsgard or Dold Vorde Ens Navn (another awesome band he fronts) make sure to not miss it, the same goes for Ved Buens Ende of course but his role in that band is very different.
Aura Noir; Bønnas hot take: Hell yeah, this is how you put on a show. A late night experience at the smallest of the venues, Kulturhuset, the stage for the early day shift and the late night shift gigs. The perfect club venue when you’re in a party mood. I got up close and personal and this was easily the most engaging show for me personally during these four days. If you never been to a Aura Noir show, make sure to revive the inner punk in you and join these black metal thrashers at your first oppurtunity.
Slaughterhead was one of the two lucky bands who got the chance to play at the first edition of Beyond the Gates Young, an initiative by the organiser for young bands of the region to perform for a larger audience. The four guys of Slaughterhead hails from Bergen and they deliver energetic thrash metal just like it used to be. The “Young” concept is not only about the bands, but the audience too. At the two Young concerts, kids of any age were alowed in the venue. So with that in mind I had to swap out the beer for a juice box at these two gigs. Slaughterhead however were blasting on stage, crabwalking, shredding, playing ripping guitar solos and showing both kids and the old folk how to mosh!
Vreid; Bønnas hot take: As a true Sognametal believer I’m always enjoying a Vreid show. This was another quality performance. As always the Windir songs stands out to me as those are the ones I have the closest personal connection to. As I saw their special 1184 show at Karmøygeddon a few years ago I was secretly hoping for something similar here at Grieghallen but I totally understand their need to play mostly Vreid songs. They could easily have taken the same role as Satyricon, and played two sets, it would have been absouletely magical with a full on Windir set in such a setting.
Satyricon was the headliner playing both the Friday and Saturday of the festival. As a long time listener I was beyond stoked to get to see them not only once but twice this weekend. This would also be my first time ever seeing them live so my expectations were high! Satyricon opened with “Walking the path of sorrow” followed up by “Du som hater Gud”, two disgustingly great songs. From my favourite album “The Age of Nero” I was treated by “Commando”, “The Wolfpack”, “Black Crow on a Tombstone” and “Die by My Hand”. The concerts in themselves were not too special from other of their sets I’ve seen online. However for the first night under “Pheonix”, Heidi Ruud Ellingsen, a Norwegian actor and singer sang, and Malin Wongraven, the wife of frontman Satyr danced. I was hoping for Sivert Høyem to perform said song with Satyricon, but Heidi Ellingsen was not a disappointment!
Bønnas hot take: Satyricon are true professionals and they had put in the work for their two shows. What I felt was a bit lacking was the missed opportunity to do something more with their presentation. It was two really good standalone shows, but it could have been something much more, I guess I’m too jaded at this point.
Bathory or Blood Fire Death if you will was arguably the main event of the festival. The Bathory tribute was announced to be a mashup of members from bands attending the festival to perform a tribute to the old gods of metal. The super mashup consisted of following people: Kritian “Gaahl” Espedal, Sigurd “Satyr” Wongraven, Ivar Bjørnson, “Apollyon”, Kjetil Grutle, “Blasphemer”, Bård “Faust” Eithun, Frederick Melander, “Wraath”, Erik Danielsson, “Kvitrim”, and “V. Einride”. Oh man how they fucking delivered. I felt like i was in a superheroe movie watching all of them coming together to make a dream team of black metal.
I have no idea if this was rehearsed in any way but it sure looked like it, not a single flaw for me to point out. I was beyond amazed and found this set very special. On stage the band had a altar of candles with a portrait of the man himself Quorthon on. I can only assume that he was very proud, looking down from Valhalla, to see that performance.
If you want to see the Bathory set for yourself I will link a great video from one of my fellow photographers Gronnenhell who captured the whole set! Check that out here!
Gallery
Conclusion
Beyond the Gates 2024 was truely fantastic, this beeing my second year at the festival and loving it, the black metal gathering is quickly becoming one of my favourites of the sort. The festival embodies deep history, expertise, professionalism, and great music with some fantastic co-organisers.
The privilege to experience the amount of Norwegian black metal, and seeing old legends playing these fantastic sets is for many difficult, but Beyond the Gates makes it a tidy bit easier by gathering it all in one giant fest.
I really enjoy the fact that there are never any bands overlapping and everything is taking place in the heart of Bergen. There are friendly faces all around, both new and old, and it’s easy to make new acquaintances and friends in these surroundings.
The lineup was a hit or miss for some, but there are gold to be found for anyone willing to dig. For me, the lineup hit in many places. There’s simply too many bands to write about so the highlights above are just scraping the surface! Still, writing this two weeks after the festival I suffer abstinence from the great time I had amoung colleagues and friends in the pit, the crowd and vibe in the many spots around the venues!
You better get ready for next year, Beyond the Gates! Black Metal Zine is planning its return with, stronger in number than ever!
Beyond the Gates Links:
Festival page: Beyond the Gates
Festival Instagram: @beyond_the_gates_festival
Festival Facebook: Beyond the Gates | Facebook
Festival fotos: Official Galleries
Black Metal Zine’s fotos by Vetle Aksdal (KingGorthaur) can also be found on our Instagram!
Have you been to this festival? Please let us know in the comments below what you think, and join our discord, where we discuss all things black metal! Make sure to follow our Facebook page, Black Metal Zine to receive notifications when we publish articles. Also check out our Instagram at @blackmetal.zine for concert pictures and more!
