Last night we went to Enslaved, Audrey Horne (cancelled), Krakow and V:28 live in Hamar. When we arrived at the venue, V:28's cold and industrial atmosphere was pounding the walls to pieces. With all the mess from the arrangers, it was a relief to actually see that V:28 really played this night, since they wasn't promoted like the rest of the line-up.



Enough whining, and over to the matter; V:28, which nowadays are adding the last nails into their coffin. They are making their career complete by playing a few selected liveshows, ending it in their hometown Arendal. Now, Hamar is at hand, and some few people had decided to show up early despite the lack of promotion. Actually most of the people we talked to was there mainly to see V:28, and was really looking forward to this. Personally this was also the main reason we went to the gig, and was quite excited to see them live. And they didn't dissapoint either. They played a nice selection of songs, where the highest moment being «Soldiers of the Neverending War». Even though we knew that they don't use a drummer, we caught ourselves looking for him now and then. The only thing we could see was Krakow and Enslaved's empty drumkits. Not that this is a bad thing at all; the use of programmed drums fits perfectly into their industrial sound, making it more static and robotic. After the show we talked a little with our collegue Eddie (vocalist/guitarist in V:28), while a guy came towards him and said; «Man, it was an awsome gig, but I have only ONE negative thing to tell you», in which Eddie responded «aaaaaaaargh...don't tell me......the drummer thing.... I KNOW!!». The guy followed «noooo, not THAT...your set was waaay too short!». A compliment in which we agreed.

The next band out was Krakow. We have been in Krakow. It's a nice city.

Enslaved was the headliner. None of us are really big fans of Enslaved, except Jan which enjoyed the Eld album a lot. The new stuff have pretty much gone by without much recognition. And since they mostly played new material, the best moments for us was their so-called «hit-songs» like their title-track from ISA and «The Watcher» from the new album «Vertebrae». We were a little dissapointed they played the song «Eld» from their older materials and not for example songs like «793 – Slaget ved Lindisfarne». All in all it seems that Enslaved was THE band this evening, as a lot of people had showed up, and they seemed to enjoy it a lot. One of the good things with Enslaved's liveshows is their use of visual effects. And we are happy to see that they had improved it since their gig at Inferno some years ago. Some of it reminded us of the great Ingmar Bergman, which is a compliment in itself. They've evolved onstage, and have become a quite professional extreme metal band, even though we personally think the progressive part and the viking part don't fit quite together.



The sum up the evening, Enslaved and V:28, accompanied with a whole lot of alcoholic beverages, made 25 bucks worthy spent money.

The review is also published at www.beattheblizzard.com