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It is with immense joy and great pride we present the ultimate godfathers of Black Metal, none other than the mighty VENOM.

Photo by Pablo Villagra

Venom has been on top of our wish list for years, being a festival of our kind with a heavy emphasis on extreme metal; it feels like coming full circle with the actual founders of the genre topping the bill of our eleventh festival.

Their impact is enormous and this quote from Wikipedia says it all:

Welcome to Hell influenced “literally thousands” of bands. Venom’s music helped shape the development of many thrash metal bands, specifically the Big Four of Thrash (who in turn were highly influential): Metallica, Slayer, Anthrax and Megadeth (Metallica opened for Venom on an early 1980s tour and Slayer played with them on the Combat Tour in 1985). Venom would also be of extreme importance to the black metal and even the early death metal scene, with numerous bands copying styles, themes and imagery from the band.

Venom came to prominence towards the end of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal and is widely regarded for their seminal classics Welcome to Hell (1981) and Black Metal (1982). The band has continued releasing cracking albums to this date, with their latest opus being Hell from 2008.

Photo by Pablo Villagra

Needless to say, this will be an event to remember.

Veteran British doom/stoner band CATHEDRAL will release its ninth full-length album and second for the Nuclear Blast label, “The Guessing Game”, on March 26. The CD was recorded at the Chapel studios (THE DARKNESS, NAPALM DEATH, URIAH HEEP, WET WET WET, SIMPLE MINDS) in Lincolnshire, U.K. and was once again produced by Warren Riker (DOWN, CROWBAR). It also sports stunning new artwork from band collaborator Dave Patchett.

“The Guessing Game” track listing:

01. Immaculate Misconception (2:24)
02. Funeral Of Dreams (8:28)
03. Painting In The Dark (6:18)
04. Death Of An Anarchist (7:12)
05. The Guessing Game (3:08)
06. Edwige’s Eyes (7:08)
07. One Dimensional People (2:30)
08. Casket Chasers (6:41)
09. La Noche Del Buque Maldito (aka Ghost Ship Of The Blind Dead) (5:46)
10. The Running Man (8:46)
11. Requiem For The Voiceless (9:50)
12. Journey’s Into Jade (10:36)

Last year, Night Of The Vinyl Dead Records released CATHEDRAL’s “Caravan Beyond Redemption” album on limited-edition double splatter vinyl with a gatefold cover. The LP, which was originally released by Earache in 1998, was limited to 500 copies.

CATHEDRAL’s most recent LP, “The Garden of Unearthly Delights”, was released in Europe in October 2005 and in North America in January 2006. Produced by Riker, the follow-up to 2002’s “The VIIth Coming” was said to be the band’s “most varied effort so far.” Using every stylistic device — from female vocals up to violins — and embedding it all in that typical CATHEDRAL brand of doom, “The Garden of Unearthly Delights” was described as “a treat for every fan of the band, old and new alike.”

Source: BLABBERMOUTH

Hole in the Sky 2010 is already shaping up to be a massive event.

We’ve previously announced legendary doom metal in the shape of British Cathedral and occult classic rock garnished progsters The Devil’s Blood. That should make room for some well crafted old school and groove soaked death metal.

Who would be better to represent that chapter in history than the masters of the art, Obituary themselves?

The legends are back! These Floridians do not really need an introduction, being one of the leading lights of the US Death Metal explosion of the early 90’s.Their latest album «Darkest Day» is business as usual; the inimitable Obituary-groove coupled with John Tardy’s inhuman death grunts. Obituary banged our heads mercilessly at Hole in the Sky 2005, and finally the time has come to invite them back – The End is Complete!

With good help from Norway’s own shooting stars, Obliteration, this calls for celebration.

Norwegian Death Metal has been a somewhat overlooked concept in the annals of Nowegian Extreme Metal History, but the Oslo-scene has seen a resurgence of NDM as of late, with bands like Diskord, Execration and, of course, Obliteration leading the pack.

Hailing from the same town as Darkthrone, these guys specialize in downtuned, Autopsy-ish death injected with an (un)healthy dose of Doom, and their most recent release «Nekropsalms» is already being rightfully hailed as a contemporary classic. Norwegian Death Metal lives.

This August, Hole in the Sky celebrated the festival’s 10 year anniversary, and what a joyful celebration that was.

By many, it was hailed as the best festival to date, with magnificent performances from such legendary acts as Pentagram, Voivod, Nifelheim, a surprise appearance from Sodom, and a special crafted anniversary set by Enslaved with guests from Emperor, Mayhem, Entombed, and Darkthrone.

With the overwhelming success of the 2009 festival firmly placed in our mental scrap book, we can't wait to start a new and exciting chapter in the Hole in the Sky legacy.

So here we go with the first batch of bands lined up for the 2010 festival.

We've been eager to book the mighty hard hitters Cathedral for quite some time and this time we finally made the schedule work.

Cathedral have been pioneers within the legendary British doom scene for almost 20 years now, never afraid to explore new territories and always coming across as fresh and revitalizing.

Another first is the fantastic Dutch occult rockers The Devil's Blood.

Their debut album “The Time of No Time Evermore” is nothing short of a unique piece of classic hard rock melted together with tasteful hints of 70's prog and psychedelia.

Hole in the Sky is extremely honored to be granted with their first and exclusive appearance on Norwegian soil.

We're also proud to present the rising death metal force Dead Congregation from Greece. As the band put it themselves:

Born in 2004, Dead Congregation focus on the main aspect lacking in today's Death Metal bands/releases: Feeling, spirit, atmosphere and quality. Creating Darkness and Blasphemy is the only goal…

Tickets are on sale now.

Hole in the Sky will take place the 25th – 28th of August, 2010. Also, be aware of related activities around the official festival dates.

Please check back for further band announcements.