This year the unholy ritual Black Christmass took place once more in Norrköping, Sweden, on December 16-17. The festival had a first-class lineup with bands such as Rotting Christ, Primordial and Bloodbath on the first day and Nifelheim, 1349, Taake, Unleashed and Marduk on the second one. Unfortunately, the first day was not very successful, which was a pity, but the bands of the second day attracted much more people.
First off, all the bands offered excellent performances; a few bands like Greek Rotting Christ and Irish Primordial had not played in Sweden for long, so to them it was a happy comeback, while other bands, mostly the Swedish ones such as Nifelheim and Bloodbath, tread the Swedish boards more often. Rotting Christ and above all Nifelheim gave themselves a lot on scene, while a band like Bloodbath is typically more didstant, but technically they are a pleasure to see. Something remarkable happened during the performance of 1349, though: this time the band played with only one guitarist, Archaon, compared to when I saw them at Blastfest 2016 where they played with two guitarists; Archaon had suddenly troubles with his guitar while performing and for a few minutes you could just hear the rhythm section and the vocals. But in this situation, you could appreciate even better the skills of Frost on drums; he filled the hole left by the guitar in a way that you almost did not need to have the guitar (see the video below). The culmination of the festival was of course the performance of Taake, who visually and emotionally are capable of producing unequalled energy and intensity. A good thing this year was that Marduk decided to limit their presenteeism to being headliners of the second day, which gave place to one band more on the roster compared to the first two editions. Their performance was cold and unengaging as usual, even though they had the singer of Primordial Nemtheanga as a guest on a song.
However, this time I will not write much text, as I used to do in my previous reports from Black Christmass; instead, I will leave the word to a few videos I shot during the festival; they are much more eloquent than any text I can write. Of course, the galleries with the photos will come soon, so stay tuned. Enjoy!
Text, photo and videos by Herjann
[email protected]
First off, all the bands offered excellent performances; a few bands like Greek Rotting Christ and Irish Primordial had not played in Sweden for long, so to them it was a happy comeback, while other bands, mostly the Swedish ones such as Nifelheim and Bloodbath, tread the Swedish boards more often. Rotting Christ and above all Nifelheim gave themselves a lot on scene, while a band like Bloodbath is typically more didstant, but technically they are a pleasure to see. Something remarkable happened during the performance of 1349, though: this time the band played with only one guitarist, Archaon, compared to when I saw them at Blastfest 2016 where they played with two guitarists; Archaon had suddenly troubles with his guitar while performing and for a few minutes you could just hear the rhythm section and the vocals. But in this situation, you could appreciate even better the skills of Frost on drums; he filled the hole left by the guitar in a way that you almost did not need to have the guitar (see the video below). The culmination of the festival was of course the performance of Taake, who visually and emotionally are capable of producing unequalled energy and intensity. A good thing this year was that Marduk decided to limit their presenteeism to being headliners of the second day, which gave place to one band more on the roster compared to the first two editions. Their performance was cold and unengaging as usual, even though they had the singer of Primordial Nemtheanga as a guest on a song.
However, this time I will not write much text, as I used to do in my previous reports from Black Christmass; instead, I will leave the word to a few videos I shot during the festival; they are much more eloquent than any text I can write. Of course, the galleries with the photos will come soon, so stay tuned. Enjoy!
Text, photo and videos by Herjann
[email protected]
