The feminist black metal band Witch Club Satan has attracted attention both in Norway and internationally for its theatrical concerts with witch rituals, nudity, blood and extreme black metal. When Roskilde Festival and our home Tons of Rock now announce new artists, the trio is on the poster. At the same time, they are releasing new music this December.
– To have the opportunity to not only play at one, but two of the biggest festivals in Scandinavia, is a teenage dream. If we had heard rumors that it was going to happen a year ago, we would have laughed our heads off, says the band, which consists of Johanna Holt Kleive on drums, Nikoline Spjelkavik on guitar and Victoria Fredrikke Schou Røising on bass.
Witch Club Satan hasn’t lasted more than a year. They began as a theater project before taking on the music scene with their neo-feminist black metal that has prompted Mayhem’s Jørn Stubberud to state that the band is “the new thing that black metal needs now”. The concert at Kafé Hærværk during Bylarm was described here in Dagsavisen as a ritual performance and concert, where “undressed energy, dark and pagan symbols, feminist confrontation, blood, corpse make-up and a lot of inspiration from the witch traditions of the dirtiest and earliest Norwegian black metal made their way current”.
[ Ghost og Pantera på plass – slik blir neste års Tons of Rock ]
Feminist black metal
So far they have played on the smaller theater stages or concert stages such as Bylarm. With festivals such as Tons of Rock and Roskilde, it is a completely different and much larger format that they will enter.
– Witch Club Satan is a project where the visual elements are given a lot of space. On these big festival stages, it’s clear we have to find a new gear, and we already have far too many ideas. What we can promise in any case is that we will not skimp on the gunpowder, and that people who know Witch Club Satan from before can look forward to a new level of burning hell, says bassist Victoria Røising to Dagsavisen.
Witch Club Satan are ready for the Nordic countries’ biggest festivals. (Helge Brekke)
– What message do you want to convey to an audience that may not know much in advance about who you are, what you stand for and what the aesthetics of the band express?
– Witch Club Satan is an art project, a feminist black metal band and a movement that everyone who wants to be part of is welcome to join, says Røising.
– The alarm we want to be, and the energy we want to get out, is still the core of Witch Club Satan. We don’t think we need to tell the audience what they should experience, or get out of a concert, but trust that those who come will share in that energy with us.
[ Jubelkveld for Sondre Justad i Oslo Spektrum (+) ]
To Roskilde
Roskilde is Northern Europe’s largest festival, and has already announced, among others, Norwegian Karpe on next summer’s poster. In the context, Tons of Rock is a more pure festival for all kinds of hard rock and metal, and is dominated by mainly male artists with few elements of female bands. Witch Club Satan will be able to constitute an obvious feminist “counterforce”.
– People will either love it or hate it. Some probably find it provocative that we play so primitively and mix in theatrical elements, some probably find our explicit feminism difficult, or have completely different reasons for not liking the project. At the same time, we feel that those who like it, really like it, and that Witch Club Satan strikes something different in them than other bands do. It is hugely exciting that people have such strong feelings about us, says Røising.
Witch Club Satan at Bylarm 2022. (Fashion Steinkjer)
The band says they have no intention of stopping performing arts, even though they are now releasing more music and will be playing at the big festivals, which will be a strong contrast to the performance they have recently had on theater stages such as Black Box in Oslo and BIT Teatergarasjen in Bergen.
– On 13 December we will release a new single. “Solace Sisters” is the sound of a light ruthlessly cutting through this dark Lucianatta. We believe that light can be just as brutal as darkness, Røising believes, and adds: – Nihilism, the romanticization of death and doom often represents the black in traditional black metal. We are not so interested in hopelessness as a concept, nor the darkness alone. The light, life and hope are perhaps as brutal as their opposite in our time. It is extremely unpleasant to see our world fully lit. Nevertheless, we want to invite our listeners into the brutal hope, states Røising.
Tons of Rock has previously announced bands such as Pantera, Ghost, Behemoth, Nightwish, Gojira and Norwegian TNT. Norwegian Mayhem, Witch Club Satan’s mentors and among the founders of the black metal genre, are also booked for next year’s festival. The one that gets off the ground at Ekebergsletta in Oslo from 22 to 24 June, the weekend before the Roskilde festival in Denmark opens with, among others, Blur and Queens Of The Stone Age on the bill.
Keep yourself updated. Get a daily newsletter from Dagsavisen
