This post has been in the works for like a fricking week and a half, which has been plenty of time for Desertfest Oslo to put out the fourth of their four pre-holiday advent-Sunday announcements, completing the lineup for next May 9-10. The last two rounds are humdingers, with Lowrider, Slift, Dunbarrow, Årabrot, Gjenferd, Feral Nature, Akersborg, Wolfnaut and Villjuvet between them joining a bill that already includes Elder, Graveyard, Chat Pile, Elephant Tree, Messa Truckfighters, DVNE and more. For a two-dayer, it’s turned out to be pretty packed. Day splits are out probably like seven minutes after I post this, if I’m not already late on it.

Checking…

Not yet. Okay, I’d better post this as soon as I’m done typing then because I don’t want to already be late on something else. The following comes from two social media posts. I’ve been invited to this one. I’m going to do everything I can to be there. You should come too.

Here’s good reason why:

Desert Cruisers and Santa Clausers! 🌵🎅

Thank you so much for the support of our previous advent announcements.

It’s a trve holiday booster to see the shared excitement for Desertfest Oslo 2025 🪐✨💫

Today sees the third Sunday of advent, and we have four incredible acts for you.

Many of you have asked for them, and we can’t do anything but agree. Lowrider are making the short trip from Karlstad to Oslo to give us their soft lesson in flawless, melodic and dreamy stoner rock. This band have existed for what feels like forever. Maybe cause they have that rare ability to always seem current? As the stellar split release with their peers in Elephant Tree clearly showed. We’re stoked to have both bands coming to Oslo in May. Harmonies anyone?

Dunbarrow is coming. These local proto-legends have been a pivotal part of the Norwegian underground from their get-go, and they just keep on delivering. Tasty, riffy old school doom with a timeless sense for melody and aesthetics. Dunbarrow will do a VERY special show during Desertfest Oslo. We can’t wait to share more details around this at a later time. What we CAN share, however, is that you do. not. want to miss it.

On the other side of the musical spectrum, we are psyched to welcome Akersborg. As purveyors of anything cutting edge Akersborg fire on all guns, always, with their new skool, out of the box-leaning hardcore potpourri. They made their Desertfest debut in London last year, and we’re determined of their demolition of Oslo as well.

Last band out this Sunday is the blueprint template of what a new band with the right skill-set can accomplish in a very short period of time. Feral Nature, as well as Barren Womb, played our sister festival Høstsabbat in October, and holy motherfn’ shit. What happened? They deliver the kind of show impossible to ignore. The kind of show EVERYONE needs to see at some point. They basically seem like the future of rock, and we are stoked to show you what the fuzz is all about.

That’s it for now, folks, keep your eyes peeled next Sunday ☄️

Your merry Desertfest Oslo team 🎄

—

From all of us, to all of you! 🎅

It is with joyful excitement we can announce the last batch of artists for Desertfest Oslo 2025.

The full lineup for next year is all we could hope for and then some. What a weekend to look forward to! 🪐

Please welcome French psych sensation SLIFT to Oslo. What they have accomplished in their bare 8 years of existence is unparalleled. Every show as good or better than the previous. SLIFT is a fierce, burning flame of excellence, and we are dead proud to host them. 🇫🇷

Also, Årabrot is joining us.

This is a one-of-a-kind band, with a solid foot in every edgy subgenre there is.

With an Amish-erotic flavor to all their endeavors, they are a spellbinding spectacle to witness on stage. It’s delightful when a band knows how to put on a show.

We simply can’t wait to see what they’re bringing, alongside their upcoming album in May. 🎸

Wolfnaut

Sometimes, experience is palpable. Like on the latest albums III and Return Of The Asteroid, which sounds absolutely massive, and definitely have that zonked stoner feel in every wah, in every twang, and at every turn. It makes the fact that they record the albums live in studio even more impressive.

Do yourself a favor and check out My Orbit Is Mine and Raise The Dead to tap into some of that Elverum stoner sorcery!☄️

Gjenferd

Get lost in this proto-maze of amps and Hammond organs! It’s the classic 70’s psych dish, made extra spicy with a guitar virtuous, seared to perfection with haunting vocals, and beautifully tied together with harmonies. Another speck on the starry Norwegian musical sky is created, and it will grow brighter and brighter. 👻

VILLJUVET will be there, and he’ll conjure up a special show just for Desertfest. Ethereal, mystical and haunting, a sole guitar accompanied by a plethora of pedals will paint a dark and supernatural picture well worth beholding. 🛸

What a bangin’, absolutely slaughter of a lineup! 🔥🪐

Keep your eyes peeled through the Christmas days, as the daysplit is ready to go as well

Ho ho ho!
Your Desertfest Oslo team 🎅🎄

Event page: https://www.facebook.com/events/869859364817843/

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https://www.desertfest.no/

Gjenferd, Gjenferd (2024)

Names, names, names! As the Høstsabbat team is fresh off executing the first-ever Desertfest Oslo last month, perhaps after a week or two of “rest” that was more likely continuing the behind-the-scenes coordination that makes these festivals possible in the first place, Høstsabbat itself has unveiled the first five names of bands who will take part in the annual Oslo-based gathering this October. It’s late this year, Oct. 25-26, which is fair enough as Norway moves inexorably toward the cold and darkness of its ultra-Scandinavian winter without actually tipping over into the can’t-support-life-until-April depths, and this first announcement is headed up by Virginian progressive death metallers Inter Arma, who so far as I can recall have never played Høstsabbat before but whose cross-genre extremity makes them just about the perfect band to feature. I mean really. It’s like why-didn’t-I-think-of-that forehead-slap level appropriate.

SÂVER, who issued their righteous second album, From Ember and Rust (review here), through Pelagic Records late last year and who are also partly aligned in making Høstsabbat, will also make a return appearance, and the doomly Purple Hill Witch, Buskas and Feral Nature round out the first lineup reveal with more to come. Last year, Høstsabbat did announcements one at a time and that made it hard for the likes of me to keep up, but I’ll do my best in 2024, whether I end up grouping bands together or what. We’ll have to see how it goes as more names show up.

But generally speaking, how good a time is Høstsabbat? Well, when last I was there I tore my meniscus and had to have surgery but still retain overwhelmingly positive memories of the weekend, so yes, I feel relatively comfortable recommending it as a way to spend your time. If that requires travel, so much the better.

From social media:

Sabbathians, let’s get this train rollin!🔥

If anyone of you attended Desertfest Oslo a few weeks back, you might have noticed.
If you’ve had a drink, nap, coffee or just snagged a vinyl at any of the institutions supporting our underground in the Oslo area, you might have noticed.
If not – here it is:
The first announcement for this year’s Høstsabbat!

Appropriately, the weather these days is way more reminiscent of an October night outside the church, rather than a BBQ in June – so the timing feels stupidly on point.

The first 5 names from this years lineup is is a batch of talent spanning from veterans to rookies. Proto-doom to modern sludge, synthscapes to the use of silence.

We feel these five bands represent the core ethos of Høstsabbat, and we are dead proud and psyched to go live with them, and aim our headlights towards the festival in the end of October.

Please welcome US-legends INTER ARMA, Norwegian KVLT-band Purple Hill Witch, Atmospheric post-metal crushers SÂVER, duo-demolishers BUSKAS, and buzzing, ultra-energetic riff-mongers Feral Nature!

What a sick bunch of bands!🖤🤘

Further introductions will follow, but we have a feeling this does it for now,
Make sure to get your tickets – they are limited and then some this year🤝

Design by Thomas Moe Ellefsrud / hypnotistdesign

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Høstsabbat Spotify Playlist