Copenhell was definitely branching out from the traditional metal and subgenres branch of music in 2024, and in one of their more surprising choices, Sort Sol was set to close the festival from the Hades Stage.

“What a welcome you’ve given us! Wow!”
- Steen Jørgensen (vocals)

If you don’t know them, Sort Sol is a Danish band which started out back in -77 as a punk band, then called SODS. By -81, they changed their name to Sort Sol, and the musical direction has since gone in more of an artsy rock direction with hints of goth than actual punk, yet their popularity seems undamaged. Still, the announcement was met with some ridicule and incredulousness from the more die hard metalheads, and yet, when looking around me as the show rolled up, the place was absolutely jam-packed!
If you’ve read my previous review of Sort Sol from 2018, you’ll know the band didn’t exactly wow me back then, but maybe it was time to give them another chance?

Sort Sol presented themselves in a striking, minimalistic way. The backdrop was the classic three monster heads without text, and the stage dressing consisted of musicians and a few speakers standing askew. The lights were turned low, and the band, consisting of course of Steen Jørgensen, Lars Top-Galia (guitar), and Tomas Ortved (drums), assisted by bassist The Ace and second guitarist Manoj Ramdas, were all clad in black from head to toe - on Jørgensen quite literally, as he was not only wearing a black cap but also some form of black net over his head. Not entirely sure what he was going for there, but there you have it. For the song Life Took You For Freq., they were joined by a female singer as well, though I don’t recall her name being mentioned, and it was not someone I recognised.
In fact, Jørgensen wasn’t much for speaking at all, except for a very few select remarks.

The funny thing is, a lot of what I criticized the last time around still was, and yet, it was also completely different. Sure, the stage wasn’t nearly as messy, there were fewer people on it, and importantly, Jørgensen’s vocals were absolutely on point, and it all helped to heighten the experience. I also got the distinct feeling that this band is one that is without a doubt best experienced in the dark of night rather than in full daylight - an added bonus here was that we got to see the beautiful lightshow they had arranged.
Yes, the feeling and atmosphere was definitely present this night, and while the band didn’t actively reach out for the audience, their whole being was sucking our attention in. The crowd was hooked, and any earlier naysayers were proved wrong in the most jaw-dropping way.

I’m not going to claim that this was the best show of the festival or anything like that, but Sort Sol and their performance was perfect for what they were here to do - give a memorable ending to a memorable four days of Copenhell. In the end, I walked away with a strengthened respect for the festival for their choice, and for the band for their performance. What a great night!

Setlist:

Angelus Novus
Dog Star Man
Copenhagen (SODS cover)
Next Century
Kiss The Streets
K-141 Kursk
Life Took You For Freq.
Erlkönig
Daughter Of Sad
Siggimund Blue
Abyss
A Knife For The Ladies
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Wolf
Shaheeba Bay
Let Your Fingers Do The Talking
Tatlin Tower