Nov 242014
 

We have a couple of festival updates to share with you:

EISTNAFLUG

I’ve been gleefully following the line-up announcements for next year’s edition of the Eistnaflug festival in Iceland. With each new announcement I’ve wondered to myself, “How can they top this?!?” — and then they do.

Before last week the festival was already going to be headlined by Behemoth, Enslaved, and Godflesh, and then last week the organizers added Carcass to the top of the bill. In addition, they announced that Norway’s Kvelertak will be appearing — as well as eight additional Icelandic bands. Continue reading »

Nov 122014
 

 

We’ve been tracking pretty closely the announcements by the organizers of Iceland’s Eistnaflug festival about the bands who will be appearing there next July. Even before today, the line-up was ridiculously good — but today Eistnaflug made it even more ridiculous by naming ten more bands to the festival schedule — including the mighty Enslaved, joining Behemoth and Godflesh as a co-headliner. This will be Enslaved’s first appearance in Iceland.

With today’s announcement, the line-up now includes nine Icelandic bands including the Icelandic band of the hour, Sólstafir, as well as the legendary Icelandic institution HAM (whose surprise appearance at the recently completed Iceland Airwaves festival was featured in another post on our site today). The other seven bands announced today are Börn, DimmaGrísalappalísa, Lights on the Highway, Momentum, Muck, Saktmóðigur, and Severed. Continue reading »

Oct 212014
 

I really, really, really want to go to Eistnaflug, and not simply because I can then say I’ve been to a festival named “flying testicles”. I’ve wanted to visit Iceland for a long time, and I’m wanting to visit even more now that the festival organizers have announced the three newest additions to the line-up:

Behemoth
Kontinuum
Sinmara

This brings the number of confirmed bands to 15, and the lineup just keeps getting better and better. Continue reading »

Oct 012014
 

 

(Our man Leperkahn continues forging ahead with some round-up posts while I pretend to be doing other things.)

EISTNAFLUG 2015

We received an exciting announcement today presenting the names of the first 12 confirmed bands for the 2015 edition of the EISTNAFLUG festival in Iceland. (For Gemma Alexander’s lively three-part report on the 2014 edition of the festival for NCS, go here.) The 11th edition of EISTNAFLUG will take place in Neskaupsstadur on the east coast of Iceland from the 9th to the 11th of July 2015. The confirmed bands are:

Brain Police (IS)
Conan (UK)
Dimma (IS)
Godflesh (UK)
In Solitude (SE)
Inquisition (CO)
LLNN (DK)
Lvcifyre (UK)
Rotting Christ (GR)
Skálmöld (IS)
Vampire (SE)
The Vintage Caravan (IS) Continue reading »

Aug 272014
 


Eistnaflug revelers.

(Gemma Alexander is a Seattle-based writer and NCS fan who visited Iceland in the fall of 2012 during the Iceland Airwaves festival and was generous enough to send us interviews with such bands as AngistBeneathKontinuumSólstafirGone Postal, and Skálmöld. In July of this year she returned to Iceland for the Eistnaflug metal and rock festival (“Eistnaflug” being Icelandic for “flying testicles”), and we are once again the beneficiary of her writing. Today we present Part 2 of a three-part report on the festival, illustrated with Gemma’s own photos. Visit her own excellent blog here and check out more of her reporting on the festival at KEXP’s web site. Part 1 of her report for us is here and Part 2 is here.)

 

For the few of us who bothered with the hours before – or even slightly after – noon on Saturday, the desperate drunkenness of Friday night had given way to a comfortable morning buzz. Fewer than two dozen made it to the first show of the day at 1 p.m., AMFJ.

Which was too bad. Aðalstein Motherfucking Jörundsson is one barefoot guy at a little table in the middle of the floor. There wasn’t much to see, but there was a lot to hear. The set started out doomy and moved into a rave-worthy beat supporting vocals distorted beyond recognition. It was some killer industrial noise.

https://amfj1.bandcamp.com/ Continue reading »

Aug 262014
 


Sólstafir’s Addi Tryggvason with Skálmöld at Eistnaflug

 

(Gemma Alexander is a Seattle-based writer and NCS fan who visited Iceland in the fall of 2012 during the Iceland Airwaves festival and was generous enough to send us interviews with such bands as AngistBeneathKontinuumSólstafirGone Postal, and Skálmöld. In July of this year she returned to Iceland for the Eistnaflug metal and rock festival (“Eistnaflug” being Icelandic for “flying testicles”), and we are once again the beneficiary of her writing. Today we present Part 2 of a three-part report on the festival, illustrated with Gemma’s own photos. Visit her own excellent blog here and check out more of her reporting on the festival at KEXP’s web site. Part 1 of her report for us is here.)

 

The second day of Eistnaflug began at noon with sets from Pink Street Boys and Oni. I, on the other hand, began less ambitiously, arriving at the venue after 2 p.m. I don’t know anything about the first band, but was sorry to have missed the sludgy, Neskaupstaður-based Oni.

http://oniiceland.bandcamp.com/releases

 

The first band I saw on Friday was In the Company of Men. Billed as mathcore, the effect was individuals doing their own thing in the company of others. But they each went to eleven with it, and maybe my math isn’t very good.

https://www.facebook.com/InTheCompanyOfMen/timeline

 

I had heard that Morð (“murder” in Icelandic) was divisive in the local black metal community. In the event, I couldn’t really see what was so unorthodox. Was their corpse paint all wrong, or was it a slight tendency to slip into groove? Whether tr00 or transgressive, Morð put on a good show.

http://morth.bandcamp.com/ Continue reading »

Aug 252014
 


Azoic at Eistnaflug

(Gemma Alexander is a Seattle-based writer and NCS fan who visited Iceland in the fall of 2012 during the Iceland Airwaves festival and was generous enough to send us interviews with such bands as AngistBeneathKontinuumSólstafirGone Postal, and Skálmöld. In July of this year she returned to Iceland for the Eistnaflug metal and rock festival (“Eistnaflug” being Icelandic for “flying testicles”), and we are once again the beneficiary of her writing. Today we present Part 1 of a three-part report on the festival, illustrated with Gemma’s own photos. Visit her own excellent blog here and check out more of her reporting on the festival at KEXP’s web site.)

 

When I arrived in the remote fjord town of Neskaupstadur, I was determined to catch as many of the nearly 50 bands as possible. But a late night drinking with new friends and a breakfast that may have included beer interfered with my good intentions. Although the first band on Thursday didn’t take the stage until almost 3 p.m., I missed them.

The first band I did see was Azoic. With Ragnar (Raggi) Sverisson on the drums, I expected great things, and got them. What I didn’t get was vocals – it was an entirely instrumental set.

I ran into Raggi later and he explained that the set was all new music, and they hadn’t finished the lyrics yet. Okay, that’s one choice. Azoic’s 2012 Gateways can be found here: Continue reading »