Metal as it used to be

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

Get your exclusive t-shirts from the first ever Metal Merchants Festival now! We still have more festival t-shirts left from February, and have decided to put them up for sale through the excellent distro Unborn Productions. The shirts are available in black shirt with white/red graphics or white shirts with black/red graphics. They come in several sizes, including girlies.

Head over to unbornprod.shore-of-nothingness.com for more details and ordering, or send an e-mail to unbornprod at gmail.com.

Yessire!

We’re happy to announce that ticket sales now are open, and with a capacity of 350 people, you shouldn’t wait too long before you get your festival pass at www.billettservice.no . The price is NOK 500.

Why should you attend? Besides the great party, here’s five damned good reasons!

OMEN (US)
Kenny Powell and his legendary OMEN is considered one of the godfathers of US Metal. With thousands of gigs, but none in Norway, we’re looking forward to that moment when we’re all singing “Death Rider”.
MySpace

SLOUGH FEG (US)
(The Lord Weird) SLOUGH FEG we’ve already given you the key notes on, but make sure you get familiar with the heavy metal brilliants before january.
Official website
MySpace

NECRONOMICON (GER)
The german book of death is once again opened, and its most thrashy parts you’ll read in Oslo! This is a treat.
Official website
MySpace

THE LAMP OF THOTH (UK)
Probably our youngest starter in 2010, nonetheless with the quality and sound of ages melted together. Imagine Cathedral doing theatre with the help of Lamented Souls. This is what you get. Weird, funny and GREAT doom metal.
MySpace

SOLITAIRE (FI)
We started a speed metal ball this year with Beehler and Enforcer, and we loved it. Therefore we decided to look to the speed metal desert of Finland, and invite the awesome SOLITAIRE. This is gonna be kickass on stage! Be there!
Official website

And there will of coure be more to come!

Cheers,
Sigurd, Ronny and Stian