There surely isn’t a more upper-middle class sport than skiing, is there? Just saying the word evokes images of wholesome, pearly white-teethed families, decked out in Ralph Lauren gear, sipping on cocoa by a roaring fire. Not very metal. But trust the good people of Norway to do its best to give it a heavy metal makeover nonetheless.
The 2011 Nordic World Ski Championships were chosen to be hosted by Oslo, and so, like most big sporting events, it featured an opening and closing ceremony, as well as some outdoor “cultural events”. A lot of it was of little interest to metalheads - Norwegian trumpet virtuoso Ole Edvard Antonsen wrote a song especially for the tournament called I Like to Ski, which we’ve given a swerve - but on one occasion, tens of thousands of skiing enthusiasts were treated to the bizarre sight of black metal legends Satyricon playing their classic anthem K.I.N.G. from their 2006 album, Now, Diabolical.
The performance itself is pretty wild, with frontman Satyr stomping around the massive stage, barking out the song, when he is suddenly joined by a bunch of catwalk models, who elegantly strut around in time to Satyricon’s grizzly riffing, and a bunch of dancers who seem to be voguing whilst covered in glowsticks. Voguing. To black metal. There’s also a huge gramophone on stage with the band. It’s absolute fever dream stuff.
Maybe the most surprising thing about it all, however, is the fact that the attendees (and there are a lot of people there) aren’t turning their nose up at Satyricon at all and appear more than happy to chant along with the band. Guess they just do things differently in Norway. It’s great to see, and it makes us a little jealous that this kind of thing isn’t more commonplace here in the UK.
We’re determined to take a leaf out of Norway's book and, quite frankly, we won’t be happy until we get Venom Prison down to the Royal Leamington Spa Bowling Club to have them close out the English National Bowls Championships with a run through Castigated in Steel and Concrete. If black metal is good enough for skiing fans in Norway...
Anyway, you can watch that bizarre Satyricon performance in all its glory below.
