Gåte
Copenhell - 2025
Text: Tobias Nilsson Photo: Lunah Lauridsen
Given that folk metal isn’t exactly the most represented genre at Copenhell, it felt like an odd choice to have two representatives overlap each other. It must also be said that Copenhell had found some interesting representatives of the genre. Gåte from Norway is a band I’m not overly familiar with, but all I’ve heard from them have shown me what a specific and personal style they have, so of course they ended up on our bingo card for the day.
“We’ve been in the studio so we haven’t seen people for two months. Thanks for coming out!”
- Magnus Børmark (guitar)
Gåte’s show opened in a rather unusual manner. With no intro to announce them or get the crowd in gear, vocalist Gunnhild Sundli entered the stage on her own and started singing in much the same way. After a while the rest of the band joined her one by one - first Jon Even Schärer on drums, John Stenersen on nyckelharpa, Magnus Børmark on guitar, and finally Mats Paulsen on bass.The band quickly showed their colours, in that they hurriedly rearranged their monitors so that instead of giving them an optimal sound, they were optimally positioned to stand on top of and jump from. If it was pent up energy from the long time in the studio, or if this is simply their normal way of going about a performance, I can’t say as a first time visitor, but my goodness, they were a nuclear explosion of energy on the stage! Børmark and Paulsen spent possibly more time in the air than they did touching their feet to the ground. This was perfectly exemplified when Børmark decided to climb the side of the stage and perform his solo hanging from a pillar just below the stage ceiling!
The other three were also adding theirs to the show, impressively making it so there wasn’t a dull second to find. Beside singing and dancing, Sundli also entertained with anecdotes and comments throughout.
“Release your inner troll!”
- Gunnhild Sundli (vocals)
Given that there were two folk metal bands on at nearly the same time, maybe it wasn’t so surprising that the audience was split up, but even so, Gåte had a very respectable crowd gathered at the Pandæmonium stage, and they were ready for some fun. While I could only nod and smile, several others sang along, either invited or not, to the songs, and there was a great deal of movement on the ground as well. My one regret here is that I didn’t know their material better beforehand, but I did recognise Ulveham and Bannlyst straight away, and I wasn’t the only one, clearly.
Honestly, the sort of party Gåte managed to create was exactly the type of festival magic you wish for, but so rarely see fully come to pass. All I could think was that we were bearing witness to the best damned show of the whole festival. Gåte is purebred entertainment, and every second was pure perfection!
“We’ve been in the studio so we haven’t seen people for two months. Thanks for coming out!”
- Magnus Børmark (guitar)
Gåte’s show opened in a rather unusual manner. With no intro to announce them or get the crowd in gear, vocalist Gunnhild Sundli entered the stage on her own and started singing in much the same way. After a while the rest of the band joined her one by one - first Jon Even Schärer on drums, John Stenersen on nyckelharpa, Magnus Børmark on guitar, and finally Mats Paulsen on bass.The band quickly showed their colours, in that they hurriedly rearranged their monitors so that instead of giving them an optimal sound, they were optimally positioned to stand on top of and jump from. If it was pent up energy from the long time in the studio, or if this is simply their normal way of going about a performance, I can’t say as a first time visitor, but my goodness, they were a nuclear explosion of energy on the stage! Børmark and Paulsen spent possibly more time in the air than they did touching their feet to the ground. This was perfectly exemplified when Børmark decided to climb the side of the stage and perform his solo hanging from a pillar just below the stage ceiling!
The other three were also adding theirs to the show, impressively making it so there wasn’t a dull second to find. Beside singing and dancing, Sundli also entertained with anecdotes and comments throughout.
“Release your inner troll!”
- Gunnhild Sundli (vocals)
Given that there were two folk metal bands on at nearly the same time, maybe it wasn’t so surprising that the audience was split up, but even so, Gåte had a very respectable crowd gathered at the Pandæmonium stage, and they were ready for some fun. While I could only nod and smile, several others sang along, either invited or not, to the songs, and there was a great deal of movement on the ground as well. My one regret here is that I didn’t know their material better beforehand, but I did recognise Ulveham and Bannlyst straight away, and I wasn’t the only one, clearly.
Honestly, the sort of party Gåte managed to create was exactly the type of festival magic you wish for, but so rarely see fully come to pass. All I could think was that we were bearing witness to the best damned show of the whole festival. Gåte is purebred entertainment, and every second was pure perfection!
