John Dee, Oslo, Norway
3. may 2024
In February 2023, a group of Norwegian musicians gathered to pay tribute to Darkthrone’s classic “Under a Funeral Moon” at Revolver in celebration of the album’s 30th anniversary. The concert quickly sold out at the small venue. It’s no surprise they repeated the success when “Transilvanian Hunger,” another Darkthrone album, reached the same milestone this year. This time, the concert was held at John Dee, a significantly larger venue than Revolver. Despite many other concerts happening around in Norway the same weekend, including the Karmøygeddon festival on the west coast, there was a good turnout.
The musicians on stage that evening were Sturt, Raaten, and Hazzlegard, all from Tilintetgjort, along with Magnus Hagen from Kvesta and Zustand Null on drums. The vocalists rotated between songs. First up was Matthew Garnham, who also held a candlestick similar to the one Fenriz does on the “Transilvanian Hunger” cover. He did a great job setting the tone for the concert. Next was Svik from Tilintetgjort and Den Saakaldte, followed by Fabio Grimdrap from Trollfest and Fleshmeadow. Veteran Goblin from Isvind followed; he gets a slight deduction for bringing a lyrics sheet on stage—learning the lyrics to a song shouldn’t be too difficult. Nonetheless, he performed well. Finally, HansFyrste from Svarttjern closed out the last two songs.
Sound technician Torje Viestad promised before the concert that it would have a lot of treble and sound very similar to the album. And it did. “Transilvanian Hunger” was, after all, recorded in Fenriz’s bedroom on a four-track recorder and certainly doesn’t have the world’s best sound quality. This was also the first album where Darkthrone was a duo, with Fenriz playing all the instruments himself. When it was released in 1994, it became known as a cold, monotonous album with no compromises. So, it was exciting to see how it would translate to a live performance. The sound was spot on, the musicians played well, capturing the nuances, and the songs flowed seamlessly, which suited an album like “Transilvanian Hunger.”
“Graven Tåkeheimens Saler” surprised me the most, as it really kicked live. The drums stood out more live than on the record and were quite impressive. “I En Hall Med Flesk Og Mjød” was expectedly one of the highlights, and it was. Overall, the album is quite consistent, and the concert felt the same way.
Naturally, the concert was very monotonous, given the album’s repetitive and monotonous nature. But since the album is only 39 minutes long, the concert was about the same length, making it feel not too long at all. Although this is one of the shorter headliner concerts, it was cool that they stuck exclusively to “Transilvanian Hunger.” We’ll see if “Panzerfaust” gets its well-deserved tribute for its 30th anniversary next year.
Text by Runar Pettersen. All photos by Diana Blajan.
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