The following weblog was originally posted on DieselDragon’s Website, and has been restored from backup. My apologies for any bad formatting, code errors or broken links that may exist as a result of conversion to this weblog. 
As some of ye may be aware I recently took my first ever voyage unto the Ancient and Sacred Realms of Norway, and last week returned home having seen with my own eyes the sheer beauty of the Land of our Viking ascendants! Unfortunateley I didn’t really have the time after returning to craft a proper weblog entry for the voyage itself, and the following entry is edited from a post that I made on the Official BAL-SAGOTH Forum a couple of days afterward – Mainly concerning the festival (Or “Ritual” as I normally refer to them!) that I attended whilst there – Along with a few other side-notes. To make reading this immense 13Kb tiding easier, I’ve inserted “bookmarks” for easier navigation.
- Screamfest / BAL-SAGOTH,
- Screamfest / Immortal,
- Screamfest / Moonsorrow,
- Screamfest / Grave Digger,
- Other miscellaneous notes from my Voyage unto Norway.
First – And most importantly of all – BAL-SAGOTHs set: >:-)
Despite it’s frustratingly short duration (Blame the festival organisers for that!) the Ritual itself was as Metal, unforgettable and ferocious as always! I was lucky enough to be able to get a space right at the front (Well, where else would ye expect to find me at a Ritual?
) and very soon I found myself next to two Norwegians whom I had met at the Helsinki and Turku Rituals earlier this year as well. The set itself was of such supreme ferocity that – As is often the case at BAL-SAGOTH Rituals nowadays – I wound up breaking my neck in several places again, but for me such a minor thing mattered not…As long as I could still pay homage unto the Immortal Gods of Black Metal as I have done several times within the past! >:-)
Aye…One thing that riled me greatly – Mainly because BAL-SAGOTH had been given the first set of the whole festival – Was that there were comparitively few people aside from the usual hard-core BAL-SAGOTH fanatics like ourselves in attendance at the Ritual itself. The actual chamber that was part of the venue’s air-raid/nuclear shelter (Tufluktsrom – A legacy of many Norwegen buildings from the Cold War days) barely seemed to be any more than half-full from the few rearward glimpses that I took during the Ritual itself. Irrespective of the relatively small turnout however, those of us who were there still managed to make more noise – And as many Hails to the Gods themselves – Than a capacity crowd at the new Wembley stadium could ever hope to achieve! >:-)
Aside from that lower-than-I-expected turnout however, the Ritual was as perfect and beyond compare as always! I believe Chris may have been experiencing some difficulties with his equipment during the set (Loss of some/all effects, if I remember rightly) but – To myself, at least – The entire Ritual sounded perfect and full of the usual raw ferocity of BAL-SAGOTH live, at least to my ears! 
>:-)
(Note to self: Before the next Ritual, buy thyself a decent neck-brace…With my corpse ageing like it is, I’m going to need one! :-O 
)
Immortal:
One of the main draws of the festival for a lot of those in attendance was the fact that Immortal were headlining on the Friday night, and those who wanted to see Immortal’s set as well truly paid the price (An extra NOK 115,- per head, as a matter of fact!) for the right to do so…And the draw of Immortal was more than apparent when I found that all of the Freidag Betong+Immortal tickets had sold out either before or shortly after the festival itself had started! :-O >:-)
However; Things on the Immortal front took a very strange turn when at just after 21:00 the building’s fire alarm sounded and everyone in the venue was evacuated into the car-park. A good half-hour later, the Oslo fire department had verified that the alarm was a false one and that it was safe for us to return into the building. However – Under the orders of both the venue’s owners and the Oslo fire-brigade – The Immortal show had to be cancelled, and understandably a lot of people were very displeased about the fact…In all honesty, I’m very surprised that a full-scale riot didn’t break out that night! :-O :-S
From my own enquiries made on Monday, it would appear that what happened – Despite the venue being warned well in advance that Immortal would be using pyrotechnics and smoke effects en-masse – Was that the main room had been filled full of smoke beforehand, and had not initially posed a problem. However when people had entered that vast chamber, the combined body-heat of the crowd had caused the smoke to rise up a few floors and enter the buildings air-conditioning system. From there, the smoke had drifted into surrounding auxillary rooms on the eighth floor, and therefore – Even though the main halls smoke alarms had presumably been disabled for the performance and fire-wardens put into place – The drifting smoke triggered the smoke alarms in those adjoining rooms, causing the evacuation of the building. 
For the benefit of others who were there and planning to see Immortal as well:
The owners of the building have taken responsibility for the whole fiasco, and anyone who held a ticket valid for Immortal will be elegible for a refund of the extra premium paid. At the moment the value of such refunds are still being negotiated (I’ve spoken with Screamfest’s producer, and he suggested that it might be somewhere in the region of NOK 150,-) between Screamfest and the venue itself, and updated information will be posted on http://www.screamfest.no and http://www.studentersamfundet.no along with instructions for how to obtain such a refund if need be.
Moonsorrow:
Though over twenty-four hours had past since breaking my neck through my somewhat overzealous enjoyment of BAL-SAGOTHs Ritual the previous night, I could not help but worsen that situation when Moonsorrow took to the same stage on Saturday. Having missed them at Wacken 2007CE (Thank ye very much Wacken for putting them, Immortal and Stormwarrior on all at the same time! :-@) this was the first time that I had been able to see them live…And by the Gods did they play a fine set! >:-)
Although not as good as BAL-SAGOTHs in my opinion (Although I am well known for being highly biased in such matters! 
this was also Moonsorrow’s first performance in Norway…And both the joy of my Spirit and the immense pain still within my neck even upon this day can testify to how much I enjoyed seeing Moonsorrow for the first time! >:-)
Grave Digger:
Despite their more than apparent long service to the cause of Metal, Grave Digger managed to put on one hell of a set all the same and certainly enthralled the crowd there with their playing! By this point – Being in excrutiating physical pain and in dire want of a neck-brace – I was pretty much restricted to throwing random bouts of air-guitar alone, but still nothing marred my enjoyment of Grave Digger’s performance!
The only thing that I cannot quite fathom is why Screamfest’s organisers placed a well-known and appreciated band like Grave Digger on the smallest stage in the venue – A room no bigger than two railway carriages – When I believe that they could’ve easily filled the same room that Immortal had been scheduled to play in the day before! Although I managed to squeeze myself in towards the back with some considerable effort, Grave Digger would’ve probabally seen a much bigger crowd that night had the actual hall in which they played not had the crowd spilling out the door into the bar/cloakroom area! :-O :-S
Other brief notes from my voyage unto that fair and ancient realm:
- When people say that Norway is an expensive country, they’re not kidding! To give a general idea, I spent more on a return ticket for the bus between Sandjeford Lufthavn Torp and Oslo Busterminal – NOK 300 (About £30.00) – than I spent on the flight between Stansted and Torp! :-O
However, when going to Norway one needs to carry out some adjustment of prices to find what may be considered reasonable over there. After converting the price in Norge Krone to Sterling (Or whatever currency ye use), one needs to halve the result again to find the equivalent price in England.
Using my above bus fare as an example: The bus cost NOK 300,- return which is roughly £30.00 in Sterling. A Norwegen would view a NOK 300,- fare in the same light that we would view a £15.00 one. So given that the bus fare was about £15.00 in Norwegen terms, it actually proves to be very good value for money once the price has been adjusted accordingly…And after the conversation I had with the driver of my bus (An ex-pat Englishman from Surrey) on the way back to the airport, my view on this seems to be more or less accurate.
- Although Oslo is a very small city in comparison to London or Berlin, the many hills and meandering routes (Plus the heavy clothing needed for the Winter weather) can make walking around the city very difficult and/or tiresome. I would highly recommend buying a 7 Dages Kort (Transit pass) for the local area upon arrival for stays longer than four days…And at NOK 200,- I’d say that it’s quite reasonably priced, especially as it’s valid to some distance outside of Oslo centre on all forms of public transport except the Flytoget (Airport express train)…
- Once one has left the built-up area of Oslo, there is an immense expanse of ancient Forests and natural realms to be explored! Sadly I only managed to make one short trip up to Kjelsås (Only to find that the Forest I had set out to explore was fenced off as it was part of an old UN base but even so a lot of these areas are surprisingly accessible on public transport, and at least one of the T-bane lines runs deep into the Forests of Oslo North! >:-)
- If travelling from Sanjeford Lufthavn Torp to Oslo, try and catch the bus during daylight hours as the E-18 offers some stunning glimpses of the Oslo Fjord. If ye get an English ex-pat driver who used to work at Addlestone bus garage, he might take the coach down the old road to Oslo on request for a much better view, conditions permitting!
- Avoid 7-Eleven and Narvesen shops where possible unless ye don’t mind paying convenience markups. The prices in mainstream supermarkets (Rema-1000 and others) are much more reasonable.
- Apparently, Oslo can hit up to 30°C on average during the summer months, and may make an interesting destination for sun-seekers looking for a pleasant, uncrowded and somewhat unusual summer holiday destination.
- For those seeking the tr00/kvlt Norwegen Metal scene: There are a few Metal bars in Oslo and the surrounding area, but the city’s Metal population is less than one might expect. Apparently, Bergen would be a much better (And Gr1mm3r) destination for this! >:-)
Farewell for now, and my sincere apologies for the looooooooooooong weblog! >:-)
Posted by DieselDragon 
