I’m going to level with you. I’ve been invited back to Oslo to cover Høstsabbat 2020 and through hell, high water, plague or societal collapse, as long as the fest is happening, I’m planning on going. I don’t know how many tickets are left for Høstsabbat 2020 because, frankly, I don’t need to know. I do know, however, some of the band names that the festival has yet to announce, and from that knowledge, I can tell you safely that the two-dayer at the Kulturkirken Jakob — as incredible a setting for shows as I’ve ever seen, both in terms of bands playing on the church altar and downstairs in the basement — and the bar across the street that was added as a third stage last year will indeed sell out. The tickets will be gone. I’m not going to presume you can afford travel from wherever you live as well as tickets — I certainly can’t — but if you’re able to do so and thinking of making the trip, I can only recommend to you to get off the fence and make the ticket purchase happen sooner than later.

Because the tickets will be gone. And you’ll have missed it.

Now. Again, pending disaster, this will be my fourth trip to Oslo for Høstsabbat — 2016, 2018, 2019 and 2020. I have been fortunate enough in that time to see that this festival is becoming something really special as it continues to grow and become a presence in Norway and with a reputation that extends beyond its home city. If you’re someone who looks at fests as experiences to be had, it is an experience to be had. More, it’s one you want to have.

I’m not working for the fest. I’m not trying to sell you anything. I’m one fan of cool shit speaking to someone who may or may not be interested in some shit I think is pretty cool. That’s all.

Also, good to know Hymn, in returning to Høstsabbat this Fall, will have a new record in tow. All the more reason to look forward.

Here’s their addition announcement:

HØSTSABBAT 2020 – HYMN (NO)

HYMN is the closest we come to an in-house band. No other band has played Høstsabbat three times. Why? No other band pulls off exactly what Hymn does. Actually, there might not be another band able to impress the way these guys do.

Their debut album “Perish” from 2017 is a monster of an effort, but what’s yet to come will leave marks way beyond our Norwegian borders. We have heard it, the upcoming album set for release autumn 2020. The label behind it, Fysisk Format, drew the winning ticket with this one.

This new album hits hard, with its raw, yet crisp sound. They separate themselves, managing to add detail and finesse hardly seen in aggressive sludge outfits. They lead the way so to speak. It IS that good.

Luckily for our crowd, they’re even better live, and they’ll play this very album in it’s entirety, while starting off Høstsabbat in the Chapel stage, Friday October 2nd.

TICKETS
http://bit.ly/hostsabbat2020

HØSTSABBAT 2020 SPOTIFY PLAYLIST
http://bit.ly/SFhostsabbat2020

NEWSLETTER
http://bit.ly/NLhostsabbat

Artwork: Trine Grimm Tattoo / Linda K Røed

https://www.facebook.com/events/431138574088425/
https://www.facebook.com/hostsabbat/
http://hostsabbat.no/

Harmony-laced Swedish retro heavy with a folkish flair? Well yes, that’s excellent and all well and good in joining the lineup for Høstsabbat 2020, which only continues — and from what I hear, will continue — to grow more awesome with each new band announced. As I’ll be there barring piano-dropped-on-my-head-type disaster, they’re one to look forward to seeing, particularly as their 2017 debut was such a gem and they’ve apparently got a follow-up just completed, but I think it’s worth taking a second here to appreciate the artwork that accompanies this announcement. Yeah, it’s a couple of robed figures and a smoking snail and a little Sabbath demon, but if the subject matter is familiar, look at the friggin’ detail and the technique.

Really. If you click the image and open the link in a new tab you can see it as 2048×2048 pixels, and it’s worth doing that just to appreciate the line work on the snail alone, never mind the demon or the celebrants. Trine Grimm and Linda K Røed hosted a gallery show in the basement of the Kulturkirken Jakob at Høstsabbat last year, and also did a live painting at the fest, so it’s not like their work as been unacknowledged or anything, but it’s becoming increasingly clear how essential they are to Høstsabbat‘s aesthetic at this stage. It’s so cool to see what this festival is becoming as it moves forward each year.

Plus the bands rule. To wit:

HØSTSABBAT 2020 – ORKAN (SE)

Some bands combine the quality of pleasing the retro-oriented crowd just as much as youngsters in search of something new and edgy. It’s hard to say how it’s done, but if you’re curious, our next band should fit that description perfectly.

Orkan is a highly enjoyable spectacle on stage, just as their sound is cuddly to your eardrums on their recordings. With their current view on society, while at the same time leaning on the classic prog sounds of a forgotten era, they’re truly a breath of fresh air. Surprised they’re from Sweden? We’re not.

Orkan will grace Høstsabbat with that very breath of fresh air.

They’re light, but at the same time heavy, especially with their lyrics casting light on how this world is evolving.

As they’ve just finished recording their new album, we look forward to welcome this vivid 5-piece to Høstsabbat 2020.

We bet they’ll hit you like a storm, or a hurricane even.

TICKETS
http://bit.ly/hostsabbat2020

HØSTSABBAT 2020 SPOTIFY PLAYLIST
http://bit.ly/SFhostsabbat2020

NEWSLETTER
http://bit.ly/NLhostsabbat

Artwork: Trine Grimm Tattoo / Linda K Røed

https://www.facebook.com/events/431138574088425/
https://www.facebook.com/hostsabbat/
http://hostsabbat.no/

You ever feel like the universe is just doing you favors? That’s me reading that Øresund Space Collective being added to Høstsabbat 2020 this October in Oslo. One could kind of say the same of the whole lineup to this point, from Mars Red Sky right on down to Green Lung, but honestly, the always-improvised jams of Øresund Space Collective are something I write about when I feel like I need to reset my brain or get myself right on some creative level — a kind of refresher and reminder of the vitality of the passion that can fuel a band’s work. And I’ve never seen them live, either. And if all goes according to plan, I will at Høstsabbat. It’s one more thing to make me look forward to this trip in the Fall. I’ve seen Dr. Space jam with other bands, and that’s been cool, but yeah. This is going to be something special and I can’t wait.

Here’s the announcement. I didn’t write it but I tweaked it a bit at the request of the festival:

HØSTSABBAT 2020 – ØRESUND SPACE COLLECTIVE (DK)

Space alert!

When space is the place there’s only one place to go. If your only desire is to be captivated in a lush improvised cosmos, your mind altered by the liquid shifts of galaxies, you need to call in the doctor.

Hailing Dr. Space! Come in, Dr. Space!

Known by the terrestrial name of Scott Heller by some earthlings, Dr. Space gathered the Øresund Space Collective together back in 2004. With a somewhat rotating cast of musicians from around Denmark and beyond, the idea has maintained the same; to gather a group of players challenging themselves in long and improvised jams, taking advantage of the energy between them and the playful interaction. It’s a masterclass in borderless music. A sonic conversation set for the heart of the sun, presented to the listener in its most natural state.

The Collective soon found themselves leaders of the European psych scene, and it’s fair to say they’ve remained in that position ever since, consistent in releases but gigging only occasionally mostly due to other projects spanning out from their core.

After years of trying without success, we are proud to have at last established interplanetary relations between ourselves and Dr. Space, and proud to bring these forefathers of Scandinavian spaced-out psych to our church.

Please welcome Øresund Space Collective to Høstsabbat 2020.

TICKETS
http://bit.ly/hostsabbat2020

HØSTSABBAT 2020 SPOTIFY PLAYLIST
http://bit.ly/SFhostsabbat2020

NEWSLETTER
http://bit.ly/NLhostsabbat

Artwork: Trine Grimm Tattoo / Linda K Røed

https://www.facebook.com/events/431138574088425/
https://www.facebook.com/hostsabbat/
http://hostsabbat.no/

I feel like I don’t even need to ask if you caught wind of Green Lung‘s 2019 debut album, Woodland Rites (review here), because the heavy odds are that, yeah, you definitely did. The London outfit were already considered up-and-coming by the time the LP arrived through Kozmik Artifactz, and the response to the record — well earned, I’ll note — was nigh on religious in its fervor. Clearly a band onto something special, and it caught on in a huge, resonant way. The songs were there and the groove was locked in and they presented their material with a command that undercut the idea of it being their first shot at a 12″.

Høstsabbat 2020 will bring Green Lung to Norway for the first time. This is the second lineup addition in a row that’s a first Oslo appearance for the band in question — Sweden’s Besvärjelsen have never been either — and while both acts are relatively new compared to others on the bill, it’s still an occasion worth noting. If all goes well and the fest doesn’t realize how generally awful I am between now and then, I’ll be back at Høstsabbat this October, and the prospect of catching Green Lung makes me look forward to that all the more.

Here’s what the festival has to say:

HØSTSABBAT 2020 – GREEN LUNG (UK)

It’s becoming Høstsabbat tradition that, while we don’t bring hordes of UK bands across the pond every year — and there are enough of them that we could — we’ve established a lust and will to AT LEAST feature one of the many acts in the bursting UK underground. Our Sabbathians deserve no less, and London’s Green Lung is definitely a band fitting that description.

Their debut album ‘Woodland Rites’ (Kozmik Artifactz) smashed almost every best-of-2019 list we saw last year, bringing together memorable songwriting and a sound that calls to the golden days of psych rock and the birth of heavy sounds. Add warm harmonies, clever hooks, dueling guitar and the obligatory bit of Black Sabbath to the cake, and you’ve got yourself a winner.

As a relatively new band, Høstsabbat 2020 will mark their first appearance in Oslo. Could there be a better occasion? Never.

Come see their show. If your mind’s not blown, at least your lungs will be greener. But we’re expecting blown minds too.

TICKETS
http://bit.ly/hostsabbat2020

HØSTSABBAT 2020 SPOTIFY PLAYLIST
http://bit.ly/SFhostsabbat2020

NEWSLETTER
http://bit.ly/NLhostsabbat

Artwork: Trine Grimm Tattoo / Linda K Røed

https://www.facebook.com/events/431138574088425/
https://www.facebook.com/hostsabbat/
http://hostsabbat.no/

As it would, the addition of Swedish outfit Besvärjelsen brings a new breadth of atmosphere to the lineup for Høstsabbat 2020, with the added bonus that it’ll be the band’s first time in Oslo. Their 2019 EP, Frost (review erereview here, saw their particular emotionalist ambience take on a woodsy spirit, and though I was pleased to be able to write the liner notes for the limited Postwax release thereof, the release still offers surprising depth when I put it on to listen, as I might, say, when writing about the band being added to Høstsabbat and going to Norway to play it. Go figure.

This festival, by the way, is going to sell out. You should go. I hope to go again as well, but whether I do or not, I can only recommend it on a life-experience level. The setting, the atmosphere, the sound and the visuals are all stellar and worth the trip from wherever you might be making it. Just a side note. Word to the wise, as it were.

I didn’t write the announcement below, but I did tweak the copy before it went out, so at least there’s that. Still, I cut and pasted it from the festival’s social media — as opposed to from my .txt file — so here it is in PR wire blue:

Høstsabbat 2020 – BESVÄRJELSEN (SE)

Let’s head back to Sweden.

Besvärjelsen is a relatively fresh band, but their debut LP, 2018’s ‘Vallmo’ — released through no less than the reliable source that is Suicide Records — launched the quintet into the Swedish and European stoner rock scene with full force. They were highly acclaimed for their Swedish lyrics and inspiration from folk music — as well as for featuring ex-Dozer members Erik Bäckwall (drums) and Johan Rockner (bass) — but to be honest, the album flew a bit under our radar at Høstsabbat. Not for long.

Their 2019 ‘Frost’ EP, out on Blues Funeral Recordings, hit like a tornado with undeniable groove and constant forward push. The sound and riffs came on tight and clever, reflecting on the darkness of nature of the endless woods in their home area of Dalarna.

This ethereal spirit and the coinciding haunting melodies of Lea Amling Alazam’s vocals put Besvärjelsen in a league of their own. Their sound crafted with finesse to the point that it’s hard to put their records aside. They just get stuck on repeat.

Are Besvärjelsen the next big thing from our neighbouring Swedes?

Høstsabbat is proud to present this stellar band for first time in Oslo.

TICKETS
http://bit.ly/hostsabbat2020

HØSTSABBAT 2020 SPOTIFY PLAYLIST
http://bit.ly/SFhostsabbat2020

NEWSLETTER
http://bit.ly/NLhostsabbat

Artwork: Trine Grimm Tattoo / Linda K Røed

https://www.facebook.com/events/431138574088425/
https://www.facebook.com/hostsabbat/
http://hostsabbat.no/

You thinkin’ new Conan record this year? Me too. They’ve done no shortage of touring to support 2018’s Existential Void Guardian (review here), and already last year they were dropping hints of more to come, so yeah, it doesn’t seem beyond the realm of possibility.

They’re already slated to play Desertfest London in Spring, and I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s a tour around that, and the announcement they’ll be at Kulturkirken Jakob in Oslo for Høstsabbat 2020 makes me think they’ll be out in Fall as well. North America sometime between? South America? Japan? Australia? Mars? Hell, I don’t know. Is there anywhere Conan haven’t been yet? If so, you have to imagine they’ll book it sooner or later.

You know what I love though about them joining the Høstsabbat lineup? Aside from the fact that they’ll absolutely fill that church with massive fucking riffs one after another in pure pounding fashion and I’m planning on being there to witness it — yes, aside from that — there’s the fact that the previous Høstsabbat announcement was for Causa Sui. The festival did an excellent job in 2019 in creating a flow across its component stages. But how awesome would the total 180 of putting those two bands back to back be? You’d absolutely blindside people one way or the other. I can’t imagine that’s how Høstsabbat‘s organizers will roll it out, but golly that’s a fun thought.

Here’s a handy poster to share and official word:

Høstsabbat 2020 – CONAN

Boom!

Conan is finally back on Norwegian soil.

It will be four years since they last came to Høstsabbat, appearing at our fest in 2016.

The guys in Conan were rising stars already then, and have only strengthened their position since. There are some bands in our scene going the extra mile, and Conan is definitely one of them. They tour relentlessly on all continents of our globe, and always have new recordings and projects in sight – always moving ahead and leaving devastation in their wake. They’ve crafted a one of a kind sound and their intensity is unwavering.

One can only imagine how their caveman battle doom will translate to the altar stage.

Their drop F heaviness will make Kulturkirken Jakob rattle like a snake, along with our intestines.

Please welcome Conan to church on October 2nd.

https://www.facebook.com/events/431138574088425/
https://www.facebook.com/hostsabbat/
http://hostsabbat.no/

Conan, “Volt Thrower” official video

So it turns out that life’s awesome. My proof, you ask? Well, Causa Sui are going to play Høstsabbat 2020. I’ve been invited for what will be my fourth trip to Oslo for the festival held at Kulturkirken Jakob and you bet your ass I’m going. After seeing Colour Haze and Ufomammut there this year and Elephant Tree, pre-album-release SÂVER and Slomatics, Conan and Siena Root in years past, I had my suspicions that maybe things weren’t as horrendously awful as I’ve always made them out to be, but I feel like the fact that I’m finally going to see Causa Sui play live confirms it. They’ve been a bucket-list band for me for years, and unless a piano falls on my head between now and then, it’s finally going to happen. I cannot wait.

They join recent-additions Novarupta as well as Mars Red Sky, Gösta Berlings Saga, Obliteration and Superlynx in the still-building lineup. Frankly, if it was just Causa Sui and Mars Red Sky, it’d still be worth the flight to Norway, but like the anticipatory days between now and next October, it’s just all the more to sweeten the deal. Get stoked. Get tickets. See you there.

Can’t wait:

Høstsabbat 2020 – CAUSA SUI (DK)

One more before the holidays!

Causa Sui has been on the Høstsabbat wishlist for quite some time now, and yes, it finally worked out.

The experience of Causa Sui stands in huge contrast to what we’re currently dealing with here in Oslo. Rain, fog and altogether shitty weather. Put on one of the 12 records released since 2005 by these Danish instrumental psych/kraut rock legends, and they will teleport you to a hot summer day, with a salty breeze following the waves rolling across the beach.

Causa Sui blends kraut, psych, boogie and classic-style riffs with a somewhat quintessential sound of what stoner rock used to be back in the desert generator daze. It’s hard to grasp that they’ve never been to Norway before, given that Causa Sui has taken part in pretty much every underground festival there is across Europe. Well, now they’re coming to Høstsabbat.

It’s with great pleasure we’re able to announce one of the most requested bands of our crowd.

From all of us to all of you, welcome Causa Sui.

https://www.facebook.com/events/431138574088425/
https://www.facebook.com/hostsabbat/
http://hostsabbat.no/

Gonna be crowded up on that Chapel stage with a 12-piece band at Kulturkirken Jakob, but the addition of Novarupta to Oslo’s Høstsabbat Festival is awesome news all the way around. It’s the second lineup unveiling from the Norwegian festival, set for next October, which already brought out Mars Red Sky, Gösta Berlings Saga, Obliteration and Superlynx in its first go. You can read a bit about who and what Novarupta is, but it’s way more of a project than a band. The 2019 debut album, Disillusioned Fire, on Suicide Records, is ambitious enough to round up seven different vocalists to take part, and the live incarnation of the band would seem to match that outright. No wonder there’s only been one show to-date where they’ve done it.

I won’t claim to know what Novarupta‘s up to between now and then, but if there’s nothing else, I guess Høstsabbat 2020 will be the second gig. Pretty awesome.

Check it out:

Our next band announcement is much more than a band.

Novarupta is the highly ambitious project of Alex Stjernfeldt (Let Them Hang, ex-The Moth Gatherer), where his mission was, and still is, to cleanse his soul and mind with post metal soundscapes, crushing riffs and oppressive heft, while gathering an elite of Swedish vocalist, each one of them performing on their own song. How the hell is this even manageable?

The crown of the cake for Høstsabbat, is that we have this non-live band performing the whole thing, with all vocalists present. This happened once, at HUS 7 in Stockholm, and lucky for us, Alex is bringing the whole circus to Oslo next October.

Guest vocalists star from Tomas Liljedahl (Breach, The Old Wind), Martin Wegeland (Domkraft), Jonas A. Holmberg (This Gift is a Curse), Mikael Stanne (Dark Tranquility), Jørgen Sandstrøm (ex-Entombed, ex-Grave) and the list goes on.

The album “Disillusioned Fire” have made some serious waves in the post-rock/metal community as one of the absolute highlights of 2019, and the future for Novarupta looks more than bright.

It’s with humble gratitude we are able to welcome this 12-piece (!!) to the Chapel stage at Høstsabbat 2020.

https://www.facebook.com/events/431138574088425/
https://www.facebook.com/hostsabbat/
http://hostsabbat.no/

Novarupta, Disillusioned Fire (2019)