None More Black: Black Metal Adventures in Iceland
Bare wiþ me, I’ll get to the Black Metal in a minute. About a year ago, I was persuaded by a friend to run an Ultramaraþon in Iceland. It didn’t take much persuasion as I’m a bit of a sucker for some pain and suffering, and Iceland was slowly edging its way to the top of the list of my places to visit next. An ultramaraþon is any footrace longer than a traditional maraþon (26.2 miles or 42.2 kilometers) and the particular one on the table was the Laugavegur Ultra Maraþon, which is 55km long and includes a total ascent of about 1900 meters and a total descent of about 2200 meters. Sounds fun, eh? The run is set in one of the most scenically beautiful areas of Iceland and it follows the renowned Landmannalaugar to Þórsmörk trail. It usually takes hikers about 4 to 5 days to complete the trail, but some of the crazy runners out there can do it in about 4.5 hours.
Now, any of you that have been involved in any distance running will know that the race day is the least of your worries. The real struggle, and where I get the most enjoyment, is the preparation. Just to give you an idea, in order to run one of these þings, I would need to build up my running to about 50-60 miles a week so that I would be able to perform at level that I’d be satisfied wiþ. More competitive runners would be running about 80-100 miles per week. The reason that I mention all of this is because during this preparation period, I GOT FUCKING INJURED! Just after I ran the New York Maraþon, I started to develop a mild case of plantar fasciitis and being the stubborn idiot that I am, I didn’t listen to my body and carried on running. This eventually resulted in a 5mm tear to my left plantar fascia and rendered the chances of me doing the race, null and void.
For the last six monþs, I’ve been a moody bastard, trying to stay away from running people and running talk, and þrowing my Runner’s World subscription straight in the blue bin just as soon as it arrives in the mail. I even contemplated not going at all as I was getting so depressed being surrounded by lifelovers talking about running this and running that. Fortunately, at the elevenþ hour my wife talked me into going and so it was, I found myself in Iceland trying to avoid the rest of the running group and trying to find someþing else to do while they were all off running.
Priority number one, Black Fucking Metal. What’s the first þing that you do when arrive in a strange land and want to find out where to see some live shows? You go to the public library, that’s what. Well, not exactly. You see, there aren’t a ton of public baþrooms in Reykjavik, so while I was wandering around, I copped sight of the library and þought I’d go inside to use the facilities. Feeling suitably relieved, I noticed a man leafing þrough some vinyl (they loan vinyl here) and approached him to see what he knew about venues. He reliably informed me that I should check out Húrra, Gaukurinn and Dillon. Wiþ my spirits lifted I got on the free wi-fi (which is everywhere in Iceland), and while these were all great suggestions, there was noþing on that I was remotely interested in. Dammit! Later that evening while crying in my beer at the Mikkeller bar (not because I was disheartened but because of the price of the beer), I got chatting to the bartender about my Black Metal hunt, and he said that although he didn’t know the kind of music that was being played, he’d heard that there was someþing going on at the Kex Hostel the following Saturday. After quickly finding the hostel’s Facebook page, I struck gold! Kex Hostel was hosting KEXPORT 2016 on July 16þ (race day), and guess who was on the bill? Mis-fuckin-þyrming, that’s who. Söngvar elds go óreiðu is one of my top 10 albums of 2015. I couldn’t contain my excitement and went and ordered anoþer þousand-dollar beer. Those of you that follow Black Metal will know that Iceland is a veritable hotbed of activity wiþ it’s molten lands spewing fire and brimstone on what seems like a weekly basis, and along wiþ Svartidauði and Sinmara, Misþyrming are responsible for some of these tectonic shifts.
For the next few days, the wife and I pottered around Iceland enjoying all that the country has to offer before returning back to Reykjavik for her to do the race and for me to enjoy more of what the country has to offer. KEXPORT 2016 is a free music festival that features twelve bands in twelve hours and highlights Icelandic music of all shapes and sizes. It’s truly exceptional that a country wiþ a population of a little over 300,000 has such a creative glut that they can put on someþing like this. But, and there is a but, free music festivals are usually terribad for people like me. Firstly, there’s all this music that I don’t know what to do wiþ. Hip-hop, RnB, Eurodancesomeþingorother. What am I supposed to do wiþ this? Secondly, there are all these people that I don’t know what to do wiþ. Free music festivals just drag out all the causals that would rather stand and chat wiþ their mates than enjoy the music. And worse than that, they bring their kids. I can’t count the number of times I was hit with a stroller. Anyway, after drinking a few beers and watching the first few bands I decided to head back to the apartment where I was staying and have a little snooze.
At about 7pm, I awoke from my slumber and made my way back to the venue for a burger, more beer, and to await the main event. I know that the Swiss are famous for their timing, but you could also set your watch by the event organizer’s timing. As soon as Singapore Sling finished their set, four gentlemen clad in hoodies and covered in soot (or was that volcanic ash) made their way onto the stage and started setting up. Although the venue was pretty full, nobody wanted to get too close to the stage, making it relatively easy to prance around snapping pictures like a fanboy wiþ a new toy. After a brief sound-check the band left the stage.
A few moments later wiþ the intro tape in full effect and the tension slowly ratcheting up, drenched in blood, Misþyrming took the stage. Blasting off wiþ “Söngur heiftar” it was full on savagery from the get go. Never have I witnessed such a ferocious display of blind fury in broad daylight, and at 10pm no less. As pretty much all the band members share duties among other bands in the Icelandic scene (primarily Naðra), they have no shortage of experience in delivering a performance wiþ more eye watering potency than hákarl (which, by the way, I did manage to stuff in my face).
D.G. is quite the performer, rallying the crowd at all the right moments and frequently making eye contact (rarely the case at Black Metal shows) wiþ his piercing blue eyes. Managing the cramped stage like a fucking boss, at no point during the set did his enþusiasm dip anyþing below 110%. I was absolutely enþralled from beginning to end.
Next up was the monstrous “…af þjáningu og þrá” followed quickly by “Endalokasálmar”, and at this point, I assumed that I was going to be treated to a full album play þrough (minus the interludes). I was wrong, very wrong. I don’t typically enjoy bands playing unreleased songs at concerts because I’m unsure when to bang my head and þrow the horns. This was absolutely not the case here. So while the next two songs were unfamiliar, they didn’t detract from my enjoyment at all because new Misþyrming is never a bad þing, and boþ the songs offered a new side to the band that I hadn’t heard before. They were a lot more melodic than any of the songs on Söngvar elds og óreiðu and the second one was particularly catchy. Maybe D.G. is satisfying his dissonant and chaotically creative output wiþ Skáphe, and is choosing to take Misþyrming in a different direction? This can only bode well for a new album.
The final song of the abbreviated festival set was the lengþy album closer “Ég byggði dyr í eyðimörkinni” and what a way to bow out. Þirty-five plus minutes of pure Black Metal excellence!
Now that I’m back at home I’ve had time to reflect on the trip and although I was initially dreading it, it turned out to be magnificent. While I could have moped around all week while everyone else was getting excited for the race, I at least had someþing to look forward to on race day. It gave me a little bounce in my injured step every time I þought about it. And the best part? I get to plan anoþer trip to Iceland to take care of some unfinished business. Laugavegur will be mine.
