I hope some of our metal friends from abroad on visit in Norway, including our Dane friends and neighbours, will consider setting foot on the Norwegian ground for a unique festival week-end!

At this year's Southern Discomfort you'll be able to attend gigs of all kinds of metal, happening at two venues situated at an arm's length distance in the town center (På Hjørnet, Kick Café).

Southern Discomfort's particularity has always been to arrange music discussions with journalists and other people from the industry. This year's event will be a lyrical session fronted by the local elite musician Cornelius Jakhelln known from Solefald and Sturmgeist (but also writer and philosopher). The session, named Himmeriksskvadronen (The squadron of heaven), couldn't be more recommended for brainy metallists!

Festival headliners ARCTURUS were supposed to tour the USA this fall, but as this tour has been cancelled and the band might soon be history, better come up here now or never!


A glimpse of a flashback of Discomfort's 2010 edition:

Aspherium
Metal of the extreme wing, with prog and black influences.
Alternates good drive in the roughest riffs and flatness.
Their communication skills make good impression on the audience.


In Vain
are locals, something that comes good for their sound check.
are locals, which in Kristiansand means they're a known live act, and supported by the largest fan core I've seen at the festival, though the hour is still early. Lucky ones.

Ihsahn
Creme de la creme performers and composers.
The evening's headliners run a clean and magical show in all their musical grandeur, feat. among others The barren Lands, Misanthrope, Scarab, Called by the Fire, The Tongue of Fire, Frozen Lakes on Mars, Unhealer with Einar of Leprous helping out as M. Åkerfeldt for the occasion.


Saturday

Faanefjell
If the three-man act doesn't bring a serious amount of musical novelty,
they deliver a rich show, and though they are rather new to the live
game, they involve the audience quite quickly, also letting them participate to the stage show.

The Batallion
The music of the old school Bergen thrash n' roll grows out og their fingertips.
Easy but effectively entertaining, good groove and feeling.
 
1349
OK, standard set.
Maybe time and the acoustic impairs the toughness and oppressiveness I remember from the first time.
I sure have high expectations. The previous backstage intermezzo with the band discussing homebrewing and metal makes it all good.


Links:

http://www.pahjornet.no/ << Kristiansand's metal pub
http://www.kickcafe.no/ << Kick Café is famous for its good acoustic and live sound engineering
http://www.budgethotel.no/centrum/index.php?id=1 << cheapest accomodation in town, really OK too.

Attending: Laurence

Some pics of Southern Discomfort 2008       
     
 
      DJ Grutle teaches us music    
                 
 
  She Said Destroy are as in a trance
  playing; every note sits where it fits.

 
    Enslaved offer an intense show, 
   clearly the summum of the festival.
 
  Enslaved