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Day Five, August 25: Pure F*cking Armageddon

There’s a song by an excellent upcoming Swedish death metal band named Vanhelgd called “Drunk Beyond Death” from their debut album, Cult of Lazarus. Listen to it, and you will probably feel how insanely brutalized I was that morning. It was horrible...but totally worth it!

Last night was the final day of the festival at Garage. USF Verftet, formerly a sardine factory on the bay, held the final two days of Hole in the Sky and it’s a much bigger venue with a capacity of about 2,000. I was anxious to check it out, but first I was scheduled to attend the Enslaved listening session, for their new record, Axioma Ethica Odini, which would turn out to be the most bizarre event I had ever attended.

It began at Garage, at about 2PM, where I met up with Henrik and Christoffer. When we met up, we were confused as to why there was no one outside waiting to be picked up for the session. Inside, Bergen-based stoner rock band Sahg was performing some new songs off their upcoming album, Sahg III. It was a public listening session/party with free food and orange juice.

Sahg delivering the goods at Garage, Photo by Christoffer Jonsson

As Sahg left the stage, Enslaved were ready to take us to the location of their listening session: the aquarium.

The Akvariet, the official name of Bergen’s aquarium, is located in the west of the city and is about a 20-minute walk from Garage. We stopped by at a small park where we were given an Enslaved-branded fisherman hat. Also available were a selection of Italian cold cuts and cheeses, as well as boxed wine. Unfortunately for me, I couldn’t treat myself to the fine dishes due to the brutal stomach problems that visited me that day, but from what I heard, it was some seriously good stuff.

Christoffer, Yuan and Henrik geared up for the Enslaved listening session. Photo by Christoffer Jonsson

We arrived at the Akvariet, just in time for the seal show. Imagine almost two-dozen metalheads walking into a seal show filled with families and their babies. After a dazzling display of seal acrobatics and theatrics, we were given a bit of free time to walk around and check out some nearby sea animals.

What's more heavy metal than a seal show?

Our group stood out a bit from the rest of the acquarium-goers.

Finally, it was time to listen to Axioma Ethici Odini, Enslaved’s latest masterpiece. But first, it was movie time! We were shown a short documentary about whales in Norway, and I still have no idea why. I know that Ivar comes from a family of whalers and Cato [Bekkevold, drummer] is a well-known fisherman. Perhaps this is the reason? Nonetheless, we were hungrier for Axioma.

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