”Germania! Scream for me Germania!”
- Helmuth Lehner (vocals/guitar)

Because we all know that Germania is the trvest fvkking way of saying Deutschland, or Germany, or however you’d like to say it…
Yes dear friends, the demonic fiend of Belphegor was the band of the hour, and they were back with more blood and gore than ever before! I mean, just check out the photos of their mic-stands, that’s like half a butcher-shop right there!
The band-members had also been generously hosed down with blood and looked quite grim indeed. Sadly, they were playing while the sun was still pretty high in the sky, and this clashed pretty badly with their intended spook-show.

Still, shame on those who give up; and Belphegor had an impressive following at this festival, ushering them on not to give in to the dreadful light. No, they did their best to drive the day away, and make way for pure hedonistic darkness. The crowd, led by Lehner, screamed defiantly at the skies, and even though the place was pretty well-packed there was still room for massive headbanging and lots of crowd-surfing.
The band, and especially Lehner, was obviously in a very good mood this day, and even though their preferred style of music might indicate otherwise, they managed to generate a really good, almost party-like, atmosphere at Metalfest, and Lehner was even firing up for some, although a bit dry but still, humour. While having a sip between songs, possibly to get the dust washed away, he tried to reassure us of his true dedication; ”This is not water, it’s fucking alcohol, believe me!”

Musically, it sounded just the way you’d imagine Belphegor (or other blackened death metal bands for that matter); it was full speed ahead, heavy and raw, and the not quite perfect mix of the live festival sound helped underline the gruff music. There were a couple of songs taken from the latest album, blood Magick Necromance, including the title-track, and the rest of the set was mainly made up of known and tried live-favourites, just the way a festival should be.
The stage-show however, had seen some renewal since the last time we saw Belphegor live (Copenhagen, 2010). Gone was the studded bondage mask Lehner would put on at the end of the show, and in its place the song Bondage Goat Zombie was visited by a young girl who entered the stage wearing a long, dark robe and an antique gasmask. The gasmask she kept on for the entire song, but it didn’t take long for the robe to fall off, revealing an almost naked body underneath, only covered (if you can call it that) by small patches of gaffer-tape.
She half-danced, half-squirmed her way through the song, probably mostly to the enjoyment of the male audience, and to show her obedience and subjugation Lehner both kicked her in the ass at one point, and while she was down on all four he put his boot on her back, like you would normally see it done on the monitors.

Some technical problems did cause minor issues for the band, one in particular being an annoyance through a large part of the gig; there seemed to be some cable or connection problem somewhere along the line, which caused the sound to periodically go almost completely silent on the side of the stage I was standing on. I’m guessing the reason for it not being completely silent was that there was still music coming from the other side.
The other little thing was when, other cable problems aside, Lehner accidentally yanked his own guitar cable out of its socket; he was quick to command the other guitarist to go and fix it however as he himself kept on singing...

I wasn’t completely blown away by this show, probably mostly because this isn’t really my preferred style of music, but I do admit that this band knows how to please a crowd, and get a good party going.

Setlist (incomplete):

Belphegor – Hell’s Ambassador
Angeli Mortis De Profundis
Blood Magick Necromance
Stigma Diabolicum
Lucifer Incestus
Rise To Fall And Fall To Rise
Bondage Goat Zombie