Live Review: Karmøygeddon Metal Festival (2026)

May has arrived in all its glory which means the local metal festival Karmøygeddon will take place! I, ofcourse had to participate and once again by the will of the good folks at Karmøygeddon was granted a photo pass!

For those unfamiliar with the festival, please check out my previous festival reviews which contain more detailed info about the festival itself.

Sigtyr: My first black metal gig of the festival happend to be by Sigtyr. The band plays "Sognametal" or Windir sounding black metal. Their concert was highly melodic and alot of eager fans had gathered to catch their performance. Highly recomend to check them out!

Old Mans Child: Old Man's Child was the star of the first festival day for me. The reasoning for that is that OMC was one of my Gateway bands into black metal (from their split with Dimmu Borgir) and seeing them in my own home town was amazing. I was also very excited to photograph this gig as my previous shoot of then at Inferno Metal Festival was less sucessful due to harsh conditions, haha. Galder has a great stage presence and I really enjoy him on the vocals. The rest of the band were also greatly interactive, which makes for a good show!

Dark Tranquility: This is a band that I havent realy gotten into but I was gonna give them a chance and listen to some songs before heading home. To my surprise I found then rather amusing live and ended up staying for the whole duration of their set. Frontman probably had the best mood of all at the festival. Whatever he takes, I want two of!

Uburen: Theres nothing like waking up to some black metal, and Uburen served exactly that at 12.15 PM to start the day. I've wanted to see this band for a while as they are somewhat local but I have never managed to do so. I took the opportunity this time however and I was not disappointed. Agressive and groovy black metal was roaring through the halls of Karnøygeddon, still sticky of spilled beer from the night before. I will make sure to see Uburen again when they play localy.

Havukruunu: Another band that I enjoy on the roster. Previously I've seen Havukruunu at my second home in Belgium at the great festival Thronefest. This time around I found their gig to be even better, filled with medieval melodies, haunting atmosphere and blazing riffs. Alot of people in the audience for this gig to be the best of all at this years Karmøygeddon.

Vintersorg: The veterans of Vintersorg delivered a very nice set. I was not too familiar with their music before hand but their live set and presence was very attention grabbing. I will have to dwell more into their releases.

Septicflesh: Once again I get to see the greek legends Septicflesh. They opened hard with Portrait of a headless man and didnt let go of the pace a secound since that. This gig was so heavy and I could feel the bass drums in my chest ths entire time. Also thank f*ck for investing more money into even better speakers Karmøygeddon! The crowd also went hard for this show and this would serve only as a small taste of what they had in them for Abbath the following day. Moshpits, circle pits, wall of death and more surfing than on a hot summer day in Hawaii.

Accept: Was headlining the 2nd day and drew alot of older metalheads to the front rows. Accept is a very important band historicaly for alot of people and brings alot of nostalgia with them. The first half of concert consisted of newer material and the crowd seemed to be awaiting the good old stuff from their youth. Accept complied and played their bangers "Fast as a Shark" "Son of a Bitch" and "Balls to the Wall" to name a few. A fun ending for this featival day!

Thron: German black metalers Thron performed an intense show for a packed venue on the last day of the fest. With corpsepainted faces and spiked attire the band delievered crushing cold riffs with nasty vocals to the crowd. Despite lacking their bassist who was stuck at home due to an accident shortly before their travel, they managed to pack a good punch.

Kvaen: The Swedish Kvaen is a band ive been eager to check out. With inverted crosses hanging around their necks I knew I had arrived at the right place. Swedish black metal filled the venue and clensed my ears from the days power metal. Raw energy and emotion on stage that puts pride in one's eart. Alot of fellow black metal musicians took time off their busy schedule to witness kvaen from the side of the stage!

Throne of Katarsis: My most anticipated gig for tonight was Throne of Katarsis! The local black metal band who hadnt played a live show in over 10 years was finaly back. Tore Grindheim (their manager) kindly let me shoot their entire gig, and let me know the bands pyro plans the night before. Throne of Katarsis plays true Norwegian black metal and holds their image true. With lengthy songs the band had a setlist of 5 tracks which tranformed the venue into a blaze with candles, spikes and chains harshly decorating the room. Some of the band members are also known from other projects such as Evig Natt, and Gehenna.

Abbath: The mighty Abbath was headlining the last day of the festival with the Doom Occulta show of Immortal songs. He opened with maybe my favourite track of theirs "The call of the wintermoon". Abbath was in great shape, crabwalking and blashrykthin here and there throughout the gig. The Karmøygeddon crowd seem to really love the Immortal set and was more active than I had ever seen before. Energetic moshpits and rapid circle pits were throwing metalheads left and right, and the crowdsurfers were f*cking wild. Security worked non-stop catching people flying over the fence, literally as the 1-rowers used what energy they had left to throw them over! Speaking of rowers, there was a big section of metalheads partaking in a Viking Abbath raid in the crowd too.This amazing crowd is something I havent found the likes of elsewhere in Norway, the only other festival that can somewhat keep up is the biggest one in Norway, Tons of Rock. Tons of Rock however could only dream of dwelling in the shadows of Karmøygeddon which is truly the best festival in Norway. Wrapping up this festival review I would give a special thanks to Johnny Angelund, Leif Neverdahl, Oddbjørn Broshaug and Gunnlaug Broshaug for always being welcoming and awesome. You lot and your festival means alot more than you might imagine to us in the metal community!

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