Beyond the Gates V  was held between 24.08 - 27.08 in Bergen, Norway. As the previous versions of the festival it took place in the well known metal bar; Garage.

Celebrating the fifth edition of the festival, it took got one extra day - Wednesday; and a dedicated line-up during the fours (4) days.

So this is a retrospective on what it was Beyond the Gates V and a tease of what to come...

 

Wednesday 24.08

Ticket ex-changing, and accreditation for the press started earlier in the afternoon at Garage. Many metalheads came earlier to ensure not having to queue once the venue was open for the concerts. At Garage, during the afternoon it happened to have DJ streaming music and beer rolling the bar.

The doors for Garage Venue, in the underground floor; opened punctual at 19hrs. People started to arrive and of course big expectations for the first night.

The scenario was shared by Gravdal, Netlecarrier, Reptilian, Ritual Death and Infernal War. Started with Gravdal's black metal, who were tough in the scenario and took the publikum back to old school tunes. Followed by, black metallers; Nettlecarrier with a harsh satanic sound and a dark presence in the scene. A change in the tunes came with Reptilian, regardless being a quite young band (compared to the previous one), Reptilian took over the scene and made it vibrate with old school death metal. Ritual Death performed their debut gig, and the scene was back to black metal, raw and harsh - a feeling of occultism and black arts in the performance, should I say; human skull masked lead vocalist and hidden persona leading the keyboards.. the 3 man driven band got to impress the audience.

To finish the night Infernal War, from Poland; brought their satanic black metal and closing the first and opening night for Beyond the Gates

 

Thursday 25.08

The second night started with sorcery and darkness in the hand of Canadian Sortilegia, raw black metal drawn into mysticism from candles - as the only light effect. The two man gave an amazing kick off opening the night. Following black/thrash metal speeded the audience in the hands of Black Anvil from New York, the underground stage of Garage got crowded and the sound louder...

The third band performing the night was dutch Urfaust, the low fi, stooner tunes, in the hands of the two man band; accompanied with incense created a sabbatic atmosphere ... the stage got crowded and it was clearly seen that lots of people was waiting for the performance. Secrets of the Moon brought german black metal, with their dark atmosphere, slow and fast passages and great presence in the scenario  those awaiting for the performance were indeed not disappointed. And after the band change break, the underground stage got really crowded; the people was waiting for Gaahls - Wyrd performing Trelldom. Harsh and cold presence of Gaahl, brought his first project material to the publikum. Those familiar with Trelldom indeed got an experience. Gaahl's presence in the scenario takes one back to cold and harsh old school norwegian black metal.

 

Friday 26.08

 

Friday kicked for someones earlier at Garage and beer tasting - which was part of the non-live music performances during the afternoon... 

The doors opened bit behind the schedule, but the schedule itself was not affected. The third day kicked off with Black Magic from Oslo. With a Speedy/Thrash black metal the band took over the scenario and performed its best , opening to dutch heavy metall from The Spirit Cabinet - a old school night tunes was kicked off.

Malthusian from Ireland came after, their black/death gave a perfect break in the night - deep growlings and heavy sound, really got to impress me. Swedish Denial made the audience vibrate with their old school thrash metal - speed up in tunes and harsh vocals... just as an opening for the headliners that night, Destroyer 666 from Australia. Louder, speed, trashy, old school - Garage was again crowded and almost no space to stand up if you came just a bit late.