Our only plan had been to grab a beer from the shady tap, but when Norway’s metal battle band Irr took the W.E.T. Stage, we were immediately sucked into the dark, damp cavernous mine that is their world.
My first thought, after these guys look cool, was that we were going to hear some more typical evil Norwegian black metal, but I was quickly proven wrong as Irr provide much more in the way of odd rhythms and slowly crawling chaos than your expected blast beats. Even though some of the inspirations stood clear, I can’t remember ever hearing them combined in this way before.

The show value was a given, as the band was intense to behold, and their worn, dirty and partially bloody old-time outfits helped the atmosphere to grow even bigger.
A cool break in the normal play-style came with singer/bassist Christian Scheby picking up a pick-axe and slowly but methodically beating the stage, as if digging for some unnamed metal. The only thing which broke the illusion of power was the noise of the impact; it sounded like he was hitting a plastic cup! That part definitely needs some work if it is to work properly.

Apart from that small hiccup, I think the show went exceedingly well, and it was a shame there were not more people present to see it. This may very well change later on, and it is a nice thought to know that I was there in the very beginning. We’ll see where this leads to in the future…