WHYTE ASH AND NUCLEAR ASSAULT!!!

Greetings once again, fellow metalheads!

The time has come to reveal two of our last bands, and to be honest, two great bands, one from when we were kids, and one for the kids of today, both great metal bands for generations to come. In addition to the already announced bands, we feel we’re putting together an extremely strong lineup for 2011 as well, so we are happy to introduce the following two acts:

WHYTE ASH – From the ashes (pun intended to both bands) of Burning Saviours, WHYTE ASH arose. Where Burning Saviours was a critically acclaimed doom band loved by the fans, WHYTE ASH has brought out Swedish heavy metal at its best from the guys. After some PRETTY convincing demo material, 2010 offers the debut album ”I Will Remain”, which we urge you all to get a hold of as soon as possible. Heavy metal according to old power masters is what we’re looking at, and WHYTE ASH at Metal Merchants Festival 2011 is what YOU are looking forward to!

http://www.myspace.com/whyteash

NUCLEAR ASSAULT – We could rant on and on about NUCLEAR ASSAULTS’S history, but this band you already know, since you’re an old school metal head. Mixing up the American and German way of thrash, adding some hardcore punk tendencies, NUCLEAR ASSAULT produced a couple of the really classic thrash metal albums of the 80’s. This one is a must, peeps! Dang, we’re proud just now!!

http://www.myspace.com/theofficialnuclearassault

So, as said earlier, the place is John Dee, Oslo, January 28th and 29th of 2011, and you can find all info you need on this website, and you can get your tickets at http://www.billettservice.no.

These are the confirmed bands for now:

NUCLEAR ASSAULT
BROCAS HELM
SOLSTICE
JAGUAR
ELIXIR
BLIZZARD
ASOMVEL
CONVIXION
WHYTE ASH

So, we’re of course looking forward to seeing YOU at Metal Merchants Festival 2011!

Best regards,
Mr. Softee Sigurd, Ronny the Pope and Nuclear Stian.

Three more bands added

Greetings once again, friends!

We’re getting close to a full lineup, and we’re pretty sure most of you are just as excited as we are over the new additions. No time for bull, here’s the gravy!

CONVIXION (GRE)

Believed to be one of the hopes of the Hellenic underground, the thrash metallers of CONVIXION will be brought in to the cold north to shake loose the most impatient headbangers amongst you. With an EP and one album in the catalogue, CONVIXION have already received great reviews and jobs such as Up The Hammers Festival II for their curriculum vitae.

BLIZZARD (DE)

Most of you already know BLIZZARD, the old school maniac crew that brought partying back to music from hell. With a handful of releases throughout the last decade, filled to the edge with mad metal, hard partying and insane attitude, you better hold on to your beers and souls when PURE FILTH AND MAYHEM fills Metal Merchants Festival as Blizzard enters the stage!

BROCAS HELM (US)

You didn’t see that one coming, did ya? Besides Manilla Road and Cirith Ungol, BROCAS HELM is widely considered as the finest thing ever to come from the American underground heavy metal stage. We’re not gonna rant on about this, but really, people? BROCAS HELM!! Hands down!

So, tell your friends and buy your tickets, cause this is gonna be a blast!

This is the lineup for january 28th and 29th so far:

JAGUAR
ASOMVEL
SOLSTICE
ELIXIR
CONVIXION
BLIZZARD
BROCAS HELM

Cheers from Sigurd, Ronny and Stian, ALL HERE TO ROCK!!!

ELIXIR to Metal Merchants Festival

Cheers, friends!

It is with great pride we now announce English veterans ELIXIR for Metal Merchants Festival 2011. Celebrating the 25th anniversary for their classic 1986 album “The Son of Odin”, and celebrating visiting the land of the vikings, the album will be played in its entirety in Oslo on this occation. And if that’s not special enough for you, we can inform that the bands lineup is the same now as it were then. We are for sure looking forward to this, and we have a feeling some of you might enjoy this just as much.

Alongside the bands already announced, we assure you that we have some very interesting names in the progress, which you will be informed of as soon as everything is confirmed.

So this is how it shapes up so far, and we’re not even halfway on the poster!

JAGUAR
SOLSTICE
ASOMVEL
ELIXIR

So there’s no reason to hesitate, but get your tickets for METAL MERCHANTS FESTIVAL 28th and 29th of january 2011 at billettservice.no or in English billettservice.no

We’re looking forward to seeing you all there!

Best regards from the The Sons of Odin; Sigurd, Ronny and Stian

Three bands ready for 2011!

First of all, we’d like to thank everyone that attended this years festival, and hope you all enjoyed it just as much as we did. Once again, the response was overwhelming, and even though we’re still paying the last few bills, we feel that we owe the audience another edition filled with classic heavy metal of all kinds.

On that note, we’re now ready to announce the first three bands on the bill for 2011, and the festival will be held at John Dee one more time, and the dates are January 28th and 29th. Tickets will be on sale very soon, and we will of course let you know the exact date for this. Remember that only 350 tickets will be on sale, if we should be so lucky that we sell all.

But that’s not why you’re reading this, is it? What we all care for, is what great acts Metal Merchants Festival 2011 will present. Without further hesitation, we’re proud to welcome:

JAGUAR (UK) – As many of you already know, mr. Garry Peppard will bring his legendary NWOBHM act JAGUAR to Oslo. Since the start in 1979 JAGUAR has become a household name for those of us interested in classic metal, not least with the infinite classic album “Power Games”.

ASOMVEL (UK) – Even though ASOMVEL has been around for many years, it was not until 2009 their first full length “Kamikaze” hit the shelfs. Although there are many ways to describe bands, there is only one description, or rather comparasion that fully fits the energy and rawness of ASOMVEL, namely this: Imagine Motörhead still with Fast Eddie. This is the closest you get! Beer glasses will be held high as ASOMVEL enters the stage in Oslo in January.

SOLSTICE (UK) – This is a god damned treat! Over 20 years has gone since Englands finest in epic doom metal raised their flag for the first time, and when they’re now back again, heavier than ever, there’s no reason why we shouldn’t invite Rich Walkers battleship of doom to these shores. Nothing less than magic is expected!

We know this is an awesome start to yet another brilliant festival, and hope that you all understand that with Metal Merchants, there are no compromise. It’s fucking quality or death!

Cheers,
Ronny Rapture, Cimmerian Sigurd and Stian the Fox

Changes in stage times

Due to bad weather conditions in Helsinki, Solitaire will not get to Oslo in time to open 19.15. Anihilated will therefore open tonight’s show, and hopefully Solitaire will be the second band on stage.

The new stage times are:

19.15: Anihilated
20.20: Solitaire
21.25: Lamented Souls
22.40: The Lamp of Thoth
00.30: Tank

Playing times

And now we also have set the stage times for each band:

Friday, January 29th

Solitaire 19.15–20.00
Anihilated 20.20–21.05
Lamented Souls 21.25–22.20
The Lamp of Thoth 22.40–00.00
Tank 00.30–02.00

Saturday, January 30th

Torch 18.15–19.00
Necronomicon 19.30–20.15
Dark Quarterer 20.45–22.00
Slough Feg 22.30–00.00
Omen 00.30–02.00

Day distribution

The bands are to play on the following days:

Friday, January 29th

Solitaire
Anihilated
Lamented Souls
The Lamp of Thoth
Tank

Saturday, January 30th

Torch
Necronomicon
Dark Quarterer
Slough Feg
Omen

Announcing Dark Quarterer

So, You thought we couldn’t go further back or more underground? Think again! This band is older than all of the promoters of Metal Merchants Festival, and is truly one of the hidden treasures and godfathers of epic heavy metal. From Italy, we present the one and only DARK QUARTERER! The fact that no album was released until the godlike debut “Dark Quarterer” in 1987, with the insane follow up of classic “The Etruscan Prophecy”, cannot diminish DARK QUARTERER’S earlier existence, of which you all can find on i.e Youtube. For the first time we present keyboards at Metal Merchants Festival, and for the first time we can really titulate ourselves an epic festival! Not all roads leads to Rome, but the Etruscan way leads to Oslo in January!

http://www.myspace.com/darkquarterer

That means it looks like this:

OMEN
TANK
SLOUGH FEG
THE LAMP OF THOTH
NECRONOMICON
ANIHILATED
LAMENTED SOULS
DARK QUARTERER
TORCH
SOLITAIRE
Get Your tickets at www.billettservice.no.

Ronny of Mire, Sigurd of Hell and Stian of Argil.

Torch to Metal Merchants Festival

Greetings, metalheads!

We are truly proud to present one of the original Scandinavian heavy metal bands at Metal Merchants Festival 2010. Founded in 1979, and releasing classics such as “Torch” and “Electrikiss” throughout the 80’s, Dan Dark and company made sure that Swedish heavy metal wasn’t soon to be forgotten. After touring with the likes of Motörhead and Warlock, TORCH was put on hold, until Dan Dark once again lit the flame a few years back. In January they will be raising fire at John Dee, and YOU better be there!

Torch at MySpace

As for the general circumstances, we’re marching steadily on towards January, and everything is in order. The bands are looking forward to it, we are looking forward to it, and hopefully you all are as well. There’s still one more band to come, as well as some small surprises if we can arrange it.

Cheers!

Cut Throat Ronny, Bad Girl Sigurd and Fire Raiser Stian.

8 bands ready

Greetings, fellow metalheads! It’s been a while since our last update, but now that the summer soon is over, and we’re on our way into the real metal season, it’s time to give you all an update on the METAL MERCHANTS FESTIVAL 2010 lineup. Alongside the bands already announced, which are OMEN (US), SLOUGH FEG (US), THE LAMP OF THOTH (UK), NEKRONOMICON (DE) and SOLITAIRE (FIN), we’re proud to present:

TANK (UK)
Really, there’s no need to say much about TANK, being one of the real legends of NWOBHM, and we’re extremely happy to welcome the heavy metal war machine to the Oslo winter nights. Since the start back in 1980, TANK has presented classic stuff for fans of all ages, and delivering magnificent albums throughout the 80’s alongside heavy touring, the revitalized filth hounds of Hades are ready for the payback attack on the vikings!

www.myspace.com/tankheavymetal

ANIHILATED (UK)
This is a personal moment of joy for us at Metal Merchants Festival. Long before thrash metal had gotten a grip on the British metal scene, ANIHILATED laid ground for vicious crossover and thrash metal, and even punk in the early days, for a whole scene. There will be innocent victims and slaughter at Metal Merchants Festival when ANIHILATED kicks off.

http://www.myspace.com/anihilated

LAMENTED SOULS (NOR)
Norwegian doom isn’t really the first blend people think of when it comes to metal. But if we had more bands like LAMENTED SOULS, it could easily be. In good doom tradition, things have never gone fast with LAMENTED SOULS, but since the start in 1991, they have at least managed to gather their do(om)ings on the highly recommended “The Origins of Misery”. Much of the lack of productivity could be set in relation to the many other bands the guys are working with, so it’s extra nice that they put in an effort to visit us in January. We’re really looking forward to seeing LAMENTED SOULS back on stage, taking their time with us Metal Merchants in an otherwise busy time schedule.

http://www.myspace.com/lamentedsouls

A couple of more bands, as well as maybe a little daytime surprise, will follow throughout the fall. We would also advise you all to get your tickets at Billettservice as the venue only takes about 350 people, and it will be sold out.

Best regards and a big cheers from us at Metal Merchants Festival.

Ronny Blood, Sigurd Guts and Stian Beer.