On Saturday 13th August, KVELERTAK will end the festival on the large tent stage Sirkus. Now organisers add a three-leaf clover of heavy bands joining them – the French band ALCEST, American’s INTER ARMA and from Norway BLODKVALT! These are three very different quality bands that have developed their own expressions in hard, heavy and powerful music.
The French duo ALCEST delivered the very strong album Spiritual Instinct in late 2019, and were quickly confirmed for Øya. After the band has repeatedly had to change their plans, it is with great pleasure that organisers can welcome them in 2022. ALCEST was originally intended as a solo project for Stéphane ‘Niege’ Paut in 2000, but nine years later, drummer Jean ‘Winterhalter’ Deflandre joined and since then, ALCEST has acted as a creative duo, receiving the help of regular live musicians during concerts.
INTER ARMA from Virginia mixes several dark styles in a first-class way. Here you will find doom, psychedelia, extreme metal and more fused together. After the debut album Sundown, they signed with Relapse before the critically acclaimed sequel Sky Burial in 2013. Since then, they have impressed with Paradise Gallows (2016) and Sulfur English (2019).
In addition, they have released the 46-minute work The Cavern and a play with other people’s songs on Garber’s Days Revisited (2020). They have toured with Russian Circles, Windhand, Deafheaven Pelican and Baroness, among others, and are known as a fantastic live band.
BLODKVALT impressed organisers with hectic, brutal and intense music during by: Larm this autumn. They combine styles such as black metal, noise rock and punk, and make it sound like a natural fusion of aggressive expressions. They are absolutely right when they describe themselves as “a chaotic and icy cold breath on the Norwegian metal scene”. Last year they released the single Stench / Rotting Flesh, and in 2022 the debut album will come. The band’s creative core is Eirik A. Reithaug and Tibor Teskeredzic, and they promise an exceptionally raw soundscape.