Sunn 0))) vs Norway (Round 2)

Forgot to mention! Me and my lady went to Norway (AKA Land of the Eternal Winter) last week for a short city-break in Oslo. It just so happened that SUNN 0))) were playing a couple of gigs in town at the exact same time that we were there. I mean, what are the chances, right?


The show was held in a place called Chateau Neuf, a seated venue. The auditorium were the show was performed reminded me a lot of the Zion Arts Centre in Manchester or the Royal Festival Hall in the Southbank Centre in London.

The show was pretty long (and slow), SUNN played pretty much the same set as they did at Manchester Islington Mill back at the start of December. This was a set of material to promote the "Monoliths & Dimensions" record. How they are able to keep playing the same set of prolongued drone material night after night is beyond my capacity. This show lasted til sometime after 1am.

Naturally, my girlfriend was VERY happy about me taking her to the coldest country on the planet with the intention of sitting in the dark to observe a drone act do their thing for 4 hours. Very fucking happy indeed. I now probably owe her many thanks (and possibly a trip to some place warm) for putting up with my crazy "Hey honey, let's go to Norway so I can go and see a gig!" antics. My hat comes off to you baby. (But not for long... after all it's 6 below zero in Oslo right now and I've got no hair.) Cheers, Queen!

Check out this short video clip I took with my phone... this is was the setting for the show. Yes, total darkness! I had a good time though (RINGNES beer ist krieg!) and regular readers of this page will already know that me and Patchie are big fans of Attila Csihar's famous "didgeridoom" impersonation.



Oh and Oslo is a pretty nice city too. Almost forgot to mention that, haha.

Set Course For "Hole In The Sky"

Have you heard about the line-up for this year's Hole In The Sky festival in Bergen, Norway?


HOLE IN THE SKY 2009 (August 26th - 29th) Confirmed acts:

DARKTHRONE
EMPEROR
MAYHEM
ENSLAVED
PENTAGRAM
VOIVOD
AURA NOIR
TAAKE
NECROS CHRISTOS

THEE CLAW says: WhhhhaaaaaaaAAAAAAA??????!!!!!

A Quote from the H.I.T.S. Myspace page:

"Enslaved and Hole in the Sky presents A Blaze in the Northern Sky – Hole in the Sky 10 year anniversary.

Wow, it’s been 10 years already. Who would have though that when we first started planning the first festival in 1999 as a tribute to our late friend Erik «Grim» Brødreskift. It’s been a phenomenal ride, with lots of great memories to cherish, fantastic concerts and an incredible audience that shows up in numbers each year. This calls for celebration. We’ve always paid much attention to tradition, but we’ve also tried to look ahead at the same time. With the 2009 edition having the strongest focus on the local scene since the inception of this event, it feels like we’ve come full circle. To prove that Bergen scene is as vital as ever, we’ve invited Enslaved to host the birthday bash of the century. A band that helped set the bench mark for what Norwegian extreme metal was all about and what it has grown to become.
«A Blaze in the Northern Sky» will be a perfect reflection of just that, cutting edge and progressive together with a dive into the historic vaults of what defined the Norwegian scene together with prominent guests from (among others) Darkthrone, Emperor and Mayhem.

"Having a good part of the Norwegian black metal royalty sharing stage with Enslaved in a historic lection of Norwegian black metal history must be the ultimate celebration for ourselves and the fans. I’m sure the band will elaborate about the content, but we’re confident that it will be more than spectacular."
--Torgrim Øyre, Promoter

2009 is indeed a special year. This year we will celebrate the 10th anniversary for, in my humble opinion, the greatest metal festival in the world. It is not the biggest festival in size, not even in Norway, but definitely in atmosphere. Just ask the metal heads travelling from all over the world once a year to a small town on the west banks of the pile of rocks called Norway, just to absorb the atmosphere of this unique event. I think most of them will agree.

Since this is a big event for both of us, we figured that we wanted it to be more than a convential Enslaved gig (if that is concidered conventional?). Therefore we decided to ask some great friends to join in on the celebration. We have asked legends in the extreme metal scene, that has supported us, inspired us and have been partying with us over the years. Every single one of them had just as little doubts as we had and are honoured to play their parts on this very special evening."
--Grutle Kjellson, Enslaved."

Sunn 0))) - Dømkirke 2xLP (At Fucking Last!)

"Last year sunn 0))) was invited to perform at a ancient cathedral in Bergen Norway . The performance was captured via 24 track mobile recording and the resuluts were pressed onto double 180 gram vinyl. This recording will be available exclusively on vinyl only. There will not be a digital release (cd or downloads). Pure analog! The 0))) lineup for this performance includes Attila Csihar (Mayhem) on vocals, Steve Moore (Earth, Ascend) on the churchs' legendary pipe organ and Norwegian native Lasse Marhaug on electronics.

The packaging for "Dømkirke" was designed with the utmost attention to detail and quality that perfectly compliments the audio content. Each 180 gram vinyl comes in a heavy stock, full color inner sleeve that features stunning photographs from the performance. The cover of the gatefold jackets feature exclusive art by Tanya Stene (Burzum, Ulver, Darkthrone).

The jackets themselves are ultra-durable extra thick cardboard stock with thick, luxurious lamination. These were modeled after the Impulse! labels' LP jackets from the ‘60s. This package is durable, built to last and serves as the perfect shelter for this archival release.

Behold the glory!

Nicholas Mollerhaug, the festival curator, wrote these liner notes for the album:

"Our idea behind this concert was to commission a piece of music from Sunn O))) referring to the gothic gregorian hymns of the Late Middle Ages. Hymns that flourished Bergen Cathedral in its earliest years: The age of the Great Famine and The Black Plague. The gregorian hymns of this time reflected the despair, the terrors and darkness of the world. Musically the hymns consisted of long slow lines of unison melodies. The unisonity, the dark mood and the slow melodic development are all elements that also can be traced back to Sunn O)))'s musical universe. These parallells between Sunn O))) and the medieval times gave birth to this commission - premiered at the grand final of Borealis Festival 2007.

The Bergen Domkirke is dedicated to the Norwegian king and patron saint Olav (995-1030). The church was built around 1150. In the 1240s it was given to Fransiscan beggar munks. After fires in 1248 and 1270 the building was extended. With the financial help of king Magnus Lagabøte (1263-1280) the church got its present form and was finished in 1301. The very same king is buried in the chansel of the church. After the reformation the church became the cathedral of Bergen. It was then again struck by fire in 1463 and 1702. A cannon ball in the the church tower is a reminisence of the Battle of Bergen Bay in 1665.

This record documents what happens when aesthetic openness and lack of prejudice rules in a medieval cathedral.

Without these values inhabited in the legendary kantor of Bergen Cathedral- Magnar Mangersnes - this concert would never have been possible.

- Nicholas Mollerhaug"
SUNN O))) "Dømkirke" Live in Bergen Cathedral 031807

1) Why dost thou hide thyself in clouds? [15:08]
2) Cannon [18:05]
3) Cymatics [15:46]
4) Masks The Ætmospheres [15:15]

- All Gray Marble vinyl orders come with free sunn 0))-Dømkirke poster (while supplies last)

- Limit 2 lps per customer (per color)

- All orders will be shipping approximately Sep. 29th and 30th. All orders received before this date will receive a sunn 0))) - Grimm Robes/Shosin tour
2008 poster!

$17.77
***ALSO AVAILABLE AS A PACKAGE WITH THE SHIRT FOR A DISCOUNTED PRICE"

Ordered.

Sunn O))) In Norway

Went to see Sunn play a gig in Bergen Norway last night. They played in a cathedral and it was different to say the least. They used guitars, vocals, the cathedral pipe organ, a moog synthesizer and a trombone. Hahaha, trombone.

When the music ended and the band disappeared away into the back rooms of the church we ran up to the stage and took photos of the bands stuff that they had left strewn about the stage. Well, *I* ran up on the stage, camera in hand. Then everyone else kind of followed me up. It was really funny actually, everyone slowly crept over to take a look at the stage and I waded through, stood on the front of the stage with my arms stretched up and making 2 claws with my hands and got my photo took, then grabbed the camera and went onto the stage and took close ups of all the amps and guitars. hahaha, well why not; what were they going to do, kick me out of church? God botherers.

When everyone started taking photos it looked like a gang of police photographers at a crime scene taking close ups of the evidence of a murder or something. Some guy who helped set up the event then came over and basically told us to leave. Well he tried to, but instead we started asking him about the gig, how it was set up, a black metal show in a church! He said that they had arranged the show very tactfully, they told the people from the church that Sunn is a band who play medievil style music from the Scandinavian tradition. Something like that. So the church said "oh okay" and let a gang of black metal satanists loose in the hallowed halls. Sick!

After the gig we spoke to the guys in the band for about 2 minutes, we met them outside the church then I ran over and grabbed Attila Csihar (who did the vocals) and asked him about the gig... what exactly was he singing about and what language was it exactly? He told us it was all in Hungarian and "some was spoken in tongues" and the lyrical content was mainly about the church being fake and it will crumble and burn, Jesus is a made up story. Things like that. Wow.


Patchie, Attila Csihar and yours truly.
After the gig we went back to our hotel room with a bunch of other guys that had traveled for the show and proceeded to get hammered on Jagermeister and vodka. Then someone said "what's the time?" and we realised it was midnight. So then we all went to the local rock club and carried on getting drunk. Norwegian prices are ridiculous though, but since they had no merchandise at the show I still had a pocketful of money to piss up the wall. We bought Guinness and talked shit for hours.

By the way, we ended up drinking in the club til about 3 or 4am, with SunnO)), In Flames and Gorgoroth. 3 metal bands, all hanging out in 1 club all at once. Really we never spoke to the 2 other bands at all, they just happened to be there. Me and Patchie ended up talking to Greg Anderson and Toz from Sunn and agreeing to go and see them when they tour in Japan in May.

We never got to bed til half 6 this morning and then I was back up to get out of the hotel room for 11am.

Other things we did:

Took stacks of touristy photos and threw Claws at monuments

Ate starnge Norwegian style pies, kinda like pancakes folded in half and filled with cheese & ham

Tried to teach European types how to speak Scouse

Drank far too much Jagermeister

Someone (no names mentioned) fell asleep in the shower for 2 hours

There's stacks more to say, but right now I am hung over and can't even begin to think straight. I had to come and sit down though, so I figured doing a bit of a blog post would straighten my brain out. Instead I am here rattling like a junkie who needs a fix, with my heart fluttering in my chest.