ASCENSION FESTIVAL ICELAND MMXXIV: A REPORT WITH PHOTOS

At 3:15 a.m. on Sunday morning, July 7th, I walked back to my hotel in Mosfellbær, Iceland, from the Hlégarður community center where the 2024 edition of Ascension Festival had ended roughly an hour earlier. The photo above shows the sky I saw, a sunrise in a far northern latitude. It was a fitting vision for what I was feeling, a feeling of wonder.

I should have been exhausted at that point after four late nights of intense music, and I suppose my body actually was, but my head was still spinning from the closing set by Rebirth of Nefast and a very uplifting conversation with Rebirth‘s Stephen Lockhart, who was also the person responsible for organizing and presenting Ascension. But I’ll get to that at the end of this report.

As for what precedes that closing commentary, here’s what I’ve done:

During the four “nights” of Ascension MMXXIV I caught at least parts or all of the performances by 26 of the 30 bands at the festival. Two of the four I missed — Svartþoka and Nyiþ — were the opening acts on the first two “nights”, respectively, and the other two — Iskandr and Drowned — appeared at times when I was too immersed in eating, drinking, or most likely talking, to break away.

For every band I saw, I made some brief notes on my phone of what I was hearing and took phone photos of varying degrees of quality. What I’ve done here is to copy/paste those notes, with minimal editing, and add some of the photos I took. I’ve also included photos I received from friends, who are credited by name below (I took the ones without credits; theirs are better).

photo by Michelle Lundring Smith

I’m doing this partly to commemorate a great event, partly as a way of saying thanks to the bands and everyone who was involved in putting on the fest, and partly to encourage people to show up for Ascension 2025 whenever it happens — and I’m optimistic it will happen despite some earlier trepidations.

P.S. I’m putting “night” in quotation marks because this time of year in Iceland the sun never really sets, and true night never really falls, as you’ll see from some other photos of skies at the end of this report. Except inside Hlégarður, where night reigned endlessly.

 

 

“NIGHT” ONE

“Night” One was an all-Iceland event. It was also the first night when I had a chance to reconnect with a lot of old friends from previous editions of the fest, which explains why I missed Svartþoka‘s opening set following our drive from Reykjavik to the suburb of Mosfellbær. (The next day my Seattle-based friends and I checked into the Hotel Laxnes or the nearby camp site and spent the rest of the fest there, about a five-minute walk to the hotel from the venue.)

ÓREIDA (Iceland)

Sporting my new back patch and preceded by a medicinal dose of Icelandic moonshine, 2024 Ascension Festival Iceland begins for me with Óreida’s scratchy propulsive riffing, shrieking electronics, gleaming ambient waves, wailing singing, and fractured howls.

 

 

NEXION (Iceland)

Next set at Ascension was another good one, from Nexion: gloriously raging, wrenching, and glittering black metal, replete with barbarous chants and a commanding stage presence.

^^^photo by Tanner Ellison

^^^photo by Paige Marshall

 

 

MÚR (Iceland)

Ascension proceeds on in its first night, the crowd more swollen, like a [fill in the blank], and the music advancing too, with Múr providing howling, hammering, and harrowing black metal woven together with… I don’t know… a kind of trippy, poisonous, and bombastic prog. And the main dude is playing a fucking keytar…

 

 

NAÐRA (Iceland)

Naðra were one of the bands at Ascension I was most looking forward to seeing. Charred like ancient barbarians who’ve just spilled blood and burned battlements, they’re playing music that sounds like Ragnarok — sweeping, warlike, tragic, cataclysmic.

^^^photo by Tanner Ellison

^^^photo by Paige Marshall

^^^photo by Kristina Cullen

 

 

VÉVAKI (Iceland)

Heilung coined the phrase “amplified history,” and Vévaki is in their league. Not as numerous, just three amazing voices and three old instruments. Primal, spellbinding, and transportive music. Ascension has a deserved reputation for black metal but it’s never been entirely that, and Vévaki proves the point.

 

 

VAFURLOGI (Iceland)

Based on just the first song revealed from Vafurlogi’s debut album, I put it on my wish list to buy. Their set tonight capped a great first night at Ascension. I guess we heard a lot more of the album in what they played, and what I heard confirmed my first impulse. Like their homeland, the music was a thrilling communion of fire and ice, mystery and magic, endless night and blazing sun, ravishing but riffy, with piercing and emotionally moving melodic leads that were tormented and poignant.

On the record this is the band of guitarist Þórir Garðarsson of Sinmara and Svartidauði, who also takes on vocal and bass duties in Vafurlogi, and drummer Ragnar Sverrisson, whose resume includes Helfró, Ophidian I, Abyssal, and Valkyrja. Joined by two talented allies tonight, I guess this might have been their first live performance. It was tremendous. Don’t sleep on this band!

 

 

“NIGHT” TWO

FORSMÁN (Iceland)

Forsmán generate a gale-force hailstorm of sound with howling goblins riding the winds, but then suddenly divert into phases of freakish delirium or poisoned opium dreams or the wail of warped sirens. (Well that’s how I interpreted it,). A mind-broiling way to begin the second “Night” of Ascension Festival.

 

 

AUÐN (Iceland)

Auðn is a small army on stage. Consistent with their numbers, their music can be sweeping and towering, though almost always weighted with bruised and tormented moods, and the formidable bass lines continuously seize attention. They leaven that with softer brittle notes and syncopated beats that sound more thoughtful and lonely. Deeply immersive music.

^^^photo by Tanner Ellison

^^^photo by Michelle Lundring Smith

^^^photo by Michelle Lundring Smith

 

 

AFSKY (Denmark)

The chance to see Afsky was a big draw for me, and they proved to be every bit as tremendous live as I had hoped. Near-symphonic in scale, I began to think of the music as a black metal cinematic soundtrack to an epic tale of romantic tragedy, something like Tristan and Isolde. Unexpectedly, they also had the stage presence of rock stars, very entertaining and animated. They lost a lot of calories in that set.

^^^photo by Tanner Ellison

^^^photo by Michelle Lundring Smith

^^^photo by Paige Marshall

 

 

MISÞYRMING (Iceland)

Misþyrming. Ferocious, volcanic, as electrifying as ever. (I should have made more notes, but my head was too exploded.)

^^^photo by Tanner Ellison

^^^photo by Paige Marshall

 

 

“NIGHT” THREE

MANNVEIRA (Iceland)

I suppose some people might label Mannveira as “depressive” or “atmospheric” black metal, but the pain in the music is so searing and the torment so tempestuous, and the vocals so raw, that those labels seem too mild. Scheduled as an opening act on “night” 3 at Ascension Festival, the passion was so intense that it’s now one of my favorite sets of the fest so far.

^^^photo by Michelle Lundring Smith

^^^photo by Michelle Lundring Smith

 

 

NYRST (Iceland)

I’d forgotten how blistering and bizarre, fiendish and feral, Nyrst are on stage. Now I’m reminded. The rational part of my brain knows they’re human; the rest of it is insisting, no they really aren’t.

^^^photo by Michelle Lundring Smith

^^^photo by Michelle Lundring Smith

^^^photo by Paige Marshall

 

 

VÁSTÍGR (Austria)

Vástígr’s 2024 album The Path of Perdition is tremendous, and so is their performance at Ascension Festival. A union of soul-splintering heartbreak and blazing conflagrations, like the last sunrise that leaves the earth in ashes, augmented by one of the best drumming performances of the fest (which is saying something).

 

 

BARSHASKETH (New Zealand)

There have been greater and lesser degrees of ferocity at this festival. Barshasketh are at the hailstorm, blast-furnace, strafing-run end of the scale, but balanced by dissonant and deleterious teeth-clenching diversions into nightmare eeriness and agony, scathing in a different way. Your health is not their concern; their illness is yours.

 

 

KÆLAN MIKLA (Iceland)

I think Ascension made a smart decision to move Kælan Mikla to an earlier place in the lineup tonight. Their blissful, bouncy, and studiously theatrical performance made for a break in the action (playing to a packed house, btw) but probably would have been the wrong medicine for an exhausted crowd at 1 am.

 

 

ORANSSI PAZUZU (Finland)

Do you remember your dreams? Maybe just the final events of your mind’s fiction (the author you thought you knew but really don’t) just as you open your eyes and the air hasn’t evaporated the glaze yet? Maybe it’s frightful or erotic or perplexing or something with red eyes and teeth gnawing on your sanity, or the peripheral flash of some tremendous insight… if only you could remember the rest of it.

That’s how I’m thinking about the tremendous performance by Oranssi Pazuzu tonight. All of that and other experiences I haven’t found words for. I thought I was awake but the dreaming mind awakened, hungry for this kindred thing.

 

 

EMPTINESS (Belgium)

I thought I’d be staggering back to my hotel by now but instead my feet took root for Emptiness. Such a completely riveting and unpredictable alchemy of black and death metal, industrial and dreamlike electronica, tar-veined psychedelics and visions of a bestial child teething on a femur. With a gun to my head, I couldn’t pick my favorite set of this festival, but this one would be way up there. Transfixing.

 

 

BRIGHTER DEATH NOW (Sweden)

At 2 am in Iceland I started stumbling back to my hotel at the end of the “night”. Brighter Death Now were still playing. I only had strength enough for about a song and a half. The view of the sky on the way also seemed like a brighter death now.

 

“NIGHT” FOUR

PTHUMULHU (Iceland)

A bright blue sky glowed outside at the beginning of “night” 4, and so the contrast with Pthumulhu’s opening set on the last night of Ascension could not have been more stark. Just two of them (I think), one wielding a brutally distorted granite-heavy guitar, the other a hideously tortured madman with a mic. They come at you with hammer and tongs, then drag you by your ankles down into a mire choked with plague, then suddenly become tornadoes. Not for the faint-hearted.

^^^photo by Tanner Ellison

^^^photo by Michelle Lundring Smith

^^^photo by Michelle Lundring Smith

^^^photo by Michelle Lundring Smith

 

 

ALTARI (Iceland)

Bomb-burst and Gatling-gun drums, immense bass undulations, goblin howls and stricken yells, and guitars that often sound like a riot of sirens or the despair of wraiths. Simultaneously bowel-loosening and mind-rending. That’s how I’m thinking about Altari’s set at Ascension.

 

 

MORTUUS (Sweden)

Mortuus: mid-paced, morbid, pernicious and punchy, with moments of malignant grandeur and a well-placed plaintive piano melody to draw out the anguish in the lead guitar’s piercing trill. Despite periodic upheavals, the music creates a kind of cursed hypnosis but leaves abdominal bruising too.

 

 

INFERNO (Czechia)

Inferno: pure audio nightmare — cinematic, acidic, hellish, death-loving, macabre, but with rumbling earthquakes and primal throbs in the low end, and a great drum performance behind the mind-rending squall. Enhanced by a creepy, pale light show, as if the lumens were made of mist from another plane.

^^^photo by Paige Marshall

^^^photo by Kristina Cullen

 

 

KOLLAPS (Australia)

Kollaps had been playing for a while by the time I made my way into the music hall. When I did, I thought I’d entered an active nuclear test site with a skyscraper-sized pile-driver still operating as everything else melted to glass.

 

 

THY DARKENED SHADE (Greece)

I read a review of Thy Darkened Shade’s newest album (Liber Lvcifer II-Mahapralaya) that summed it up as “liberating, illuminating, and utterly captivating.” That would be a pretty good description of the band’s performance at Ascension. They had the crowd chanting “Glory Satanus!” within the first ten minutes, and it remained an exhilarating hellish revel from there on. The performance had an overarching air of ritual (a ritual made of one killer riff after another and an abundance of flaming proclamations and fervent chants). I haven’t tracked down who was on stage, but they all did Semjaza’s music proud.

P.S. I later learned that the stellar stage lineup included GM and KG from Barshasketh, Rune from Shaarimoth, and César from Ruïm.

 

 

DEAD CONGREGATION (Greece)

Ascension is not a mosh festival, not even close, but Dead Congregation came soooo close to opening up a pit, so many times, just missing some minor flash of gunpowder to ignite it.

Ruination can be emotional, mental, or physical. I think of this band as specialists in physical ruination, of landscapes, structures, bodies, but clawing along with them the burning and congealing agonies of what they’ve left in their wake. Also, there will be severe neck trauma for many listeners tonight. A monster ticket to headbang city.

^^^photo by Tanner Ellison

 

 

REBIRTH OF NEFAST (Iceland)

The end has come, and not just the end of Ascension Festival. The last band felt like the end of all things. The biblical legend of the leviathan who swallowed a man, who lived to tell about it… I felt like that man who lived to tell about the closing performance of Rebirth of Nefast. Immense, all-consuming, devastating, with memories of beauty (wrenching memories, because no memory can ever restore what we’ve lost).

Truly breathtaking, and honestly, the best set of a tremendous fest. No band at this fest “phoned it in,” but this one was at a stratospheric level of passion and performance.

^^^photo by Tanner Ellison

^^^photo by Tanner Ellison

^^^photo by Kristina Cullen

 

******

 

I think I was the last ticketholder to leave Hlégarður on Ascension‘s final night, thanks to dashing inside to hit the head after saying good-bye to friends outside. When I emerged from the bathroom, there was Stephen Lockhart, mastermind of Rebirth of Nefast and Ascension, standing in the midst of a sea of empty beer kegs.

While we talked, he seemed genuinely elated about both the performance of Rebirth and the festival as a whole. It wasn’t quite fair for me to ask him at that point if he would do Ascension again next year, but I did, and I got a smiling wink in return. Some days later he posted this on Ascension‘s Facebook page:

Well now…

Here we are, one week to the day since Ascension began. And we’re still floating on some kind of a cloud. A festival that had been marred by poor ticket sales and uncertainty, turned out to be what can only be described as a raging success. Still a financial loss as expected, still far from what we hoped when we first cut ticket prices, but in the end, with a margin close enough that…I think it would be premature to say you’ve seen the last of us. And that, hands down, is what is most important!

Our heartfelt thanks to all who attended, bands who performed, and our fantastic team! On our 4th edition of Ascension and 7th festival (Oration included), it feels like we may have formed a little community around this event. Seeing the same faces year after year, the endless kind words and support, the dedication just to get here in the first place – as always, it leaves us a little speechless, so thank YOU!

No matter the outcome of previous events, it’s always taken a little while to build up the ‘let’s do another festival’ hunger. This time around, all I can say now is that THE STARVATION IS REAL!

Our eternal gratitude,
Ascension Festival Iceland.

I’m certainly anxious to hear the word, at some point, that Ascension MMXXV will happen. It really is a special festival, supported by a true community that has materialized and matured in Iceland over those 7 years.

And with that wish in place, I’ll leave you a few more photos of the grounds around the event venue and the skies above it over the course of those four “nights”, including more pics of the glorious sunrise following the final one. (To find even better pics of the 2024 festival than the ones I took, check out the FB and Instagram links below.)

https://www.patreon.com/AscensionFestivalIceland
https://www.facebook.com/ascensionfestivaliceland
https://www.instagram.com/ascensionfestivaliceland/
https://www.ascensionfestivaliceland.com/