Posted in Whathaveyou on December 4th, 2023 by JJ Koczan
You knew there were going to be a ton of Norwegian bands. Honestly, why have a Desertfest Oslo if you’re not going to celebrate the host country’s generational boom of native acts? The Devil and the Almighty Blues — who just rule live; they’re so good — lead the Norse charge here, but Saint Karloff, Superlynx, Suncraft, Karavan and Håndgemeng have been brought on as well. These join the previously-announced ranks of Kadavar and Monolord, the Brant Bjork Trio and Acid King, Bismarck and Full Earth and so on as the lineup begins to take shape for the inaugural Scandinavian edition of Desertfest.
They say there’s more to come, and I believe it. Desertfest Oslo 2024 is May 10 and 11. If you can get there, I’m not sure why you wouldn’t. I’ve been keeping up both with the Desertfest Oslo socials as much as possible as well as those of the Oslo fall fest Høstsabbat, whose behind-the-scenes team are at least in-part involved here.
Oh yeah and Eyehategod are playing. There is that little detail. Ha.
To wit:
DESERTFEST OSLO- New band announcement!
Norway has so much talent on offer these days, it would be anything but fair to exclude our own horde of bands on the first Desertfest Oslo.
We are super proud to announce the return of the Tired Old Dogs in The Devil And The Almighty Blues to our domestic live scene. This bunch of legends haven’t played Oslo since 2019, and we simply can’t wait to see their blues-laden excellence on stage again.
The other Norwegian acts following this announcement are all extraordinary examples of the diversity found in our bursting scene:
Karavan bring the filth, Håndgemeng bring the party, Saint Karloff bring the groove and Superlynx bring the laidback jams while Suncraft bring the energy.
Highly recommended every single one of them.
BUT – let’s not forget!
EYEHATEGOD is coming
This true force of nature is bringing their NOLA sludge overseas, and all the way to Oslo next spring.
EHG will leave no mind untouched, or unblown for that matter.
Posted in Whathaveyou on March 22nd, 2022 by JJ Koczan
Starting last Friday — golly the glut of Friday announcements is exhausting — Oslo-based festival Høstsabbat 2022 began unveiling bands for its lineup this October. What’s more, they put earlybird tickets on sale with only Poland’s Spaceslug confirmed to appear and sold them out in eight minutes. Not too shabby. If you’ve ever been to Høstsabbat, that will only make perfect sense to you.
Orkan, my heavy sci-fi heroes in Slomatics and Karavan have since joined the lineup and I’m sure by the time this is posted they’ll have added more and I’ll already be behind because that’s how it goes with daily announcements. I’ve been and will continue to share the confirmations on social media as I’ve seen them come through my feed. I do my best to keep up. It is almost never enough to put my brain at ease.
This fest is great, the people, the place, the sound and experience. I was sad to miss it last Fall. I’ll be sad this year if I miss it again. So it goes.
From socials:
HØSTSABBAT 2022
Holy shit! We already sold out the Early Bird tickets…
In 8 minutes. You guys are crazy! THANK YOU.
So sorry to everyone who missed out. The rest of the tickets will be out next Friday.
In the meantime, look out for more exciting band announcements coming at you each day!
SPACESLUG (PL)
Friday is upon us, and what better way to kick off the weekend vibes than announcing our first band and Early Bird tickets for this year’s festival. And that’s not all. Over the next weeks, a new band will be added to the line-up each day. Let’s go!
Høstsabbat is delighted to bring you the magic of SPACESLUG, coming to Norway for the first time ever.
It’s no secret we have had our keen eyes on the thriving Polish doom scene for years. The soulful music this beautiful country keeps pouring into our scene illustrates a consistently heavy and deeply melodic presence which sets their particular scene apart in the richest and most enchanting of ways.
Spaceslug touches so many corners of our musical carpet, we feel they are the perfect fit for our first band announcement for Høstsabbat 2022 Seamlessly wandering from the Sabbathian swing to the darker complexity of the more post-rock and metal sounds, adding melody on top of their riffage. Harmonies even. The result is often hauntingly beautiful and masterfully heavy all at once.
Spaceslug is coming to slay.
ORKAN (SE)
Thank you for yesterday’s incredible response to our first band announcement of Spaceslug and Early Bird ticket sales.
Today we bring you our second band announcement and it’s a melodic, groovy pleasure to introduce Orkan to the Høstsabbat 2022 lineup.
In anticipation of their new album “Livsgaranti” due out in May, we take a deep dive into their organically melodic, 70’s influenced hard prog, and can’t wait for October to find ourselves immersed in their strong and expressive rhythm and vocal stylings, brilliant percussive elements and raucous riffage.
Toe-tapping, and catchy to the max, Orkan not only give us a swinging groove but let loose a slightly gritty, beautiful, idealistic freedom and elicit nostalgic vibes of decades gone by and simpler times long past.
Please give Orkan a warm Høstsabbat welcome!
SLOMATICS (IE)
The weekend draws to a close on this fine Sabbath Sunday and we welcome our third line-up announcement for Høstsabbat 2022.
We are thrilled to bring you the primal tidal wave of heaviness that is the magnificent Slomatics!
Slomatics have created a seminal benchmark in the doom scene for continuously manufacturing unrelentingly high calibre, expansive, sludgy heft.
Harnessing bone-shattering power alongside a tremendously stunning vocal range, a cavernous depth results from the beautiful, booming force of the interplay between thick walls of rhythm and oscillating guitar.
Crushing heaviness is the hallmark of the Slomatics experience and we can’t wait to welcome them back to Oslo for the first time since 2016.
KARAVAN (NO)
Happy Monday, Sabbathians.
We weren’t joking around with the promise of a daily onslaught of announcements for Høstsabbat 2022.
The way we figure it, why make you wait? We’ve got the goods and we’re letting it loose for you. And while Mondays are mostly blue, let’s hope today’s announcement can make your day slightly lighter with some heavy tunes.
We take pride in having our eyes and ears open to when new riffage unveils itself throughout our country, and we’ve had our sights on a new three-piece going at it full throttle, down in the southwest.
Distinctly dirty like devious denizens of a cold and dank cave comes the ghoulish rumbling of Karavan and they pick up on the classic stoner-doom sentiment that got Høstsabbat going in the first place. Despite being formed in 2019, they are already causing waves, and we are stoked to welcome Karavan to our 2022 edition.
Tickets go on sale at 12:00 sharp, Friday the 25th so keep an eye out. Cheers!
