The vibrant city of Trondheim is undoubtedly worth a visit for many different reasons. From its pulsating urban nightlife to the stunning natural surroundings that envelop the place and further on to its historical landmarks and arts scene, there is something for everyone here. As if that was not enough, it also boasts a most excellent and interesting metal festival appropriately named Legend Metalfest, which has become a bit of an annual late-September mecca for fans of black metal, death metal, and thrash metal as the line-up is consistently impressive each year. RAMzine reached out to its organiser/booking manager, namely the ever-reliable Rune Grande, for a most pleasant conversation about the marvellous festival as well as other music-related events and endeavours that he is involved in. The tickets for next year’s edition of the festival are already on sale, and the bands who have been announced so far ooze quality through and through. 2025 is indeed going to be very exciting festival year for lovers of metal.
For those readers who may not be familiar with the name and concept of Legend Metalfest, could you perhaps enlighten us a bit and introduce us to its many qualities and outline what the whole thing is about and what its attending crowd can expect from such an event?
Rune Grande (R): Well, Legend Metalfest is a relatively small extreme metal festival held in the heart of Nidaros, or Trondheim, if you like. The festival was held for the third time this September and has been held over four days for the last two years. We organise two concerts with two bands each specifically designed for our youngest audience. These concerts take place on Wednesdays and Saturdays during the day and there is always free entry for anyone under the age of 25 at these youth concerts. The main part of the festival itself begins on Thursday with a triple concert at one of Trondheim’s oldest and rockiest clubs. On Friday and Saturday, we move to a bigger stage where we have five and six bands respectively. We have a headliner each of these three days. As the booking manager for Legend Metalfest, I have a strong focus on booking only good bands and preferably a surprise or two every year with completely or partially unknown bands that I know are very good. It has worked all three years so far and is quite certainly something I will continue with. We in Legend Trondheim, the group behind Legend Metalfest, have two other focuses that we value very highly. The first thing is that the bands should have as good a time as possible when they are here so that they want to come back. The second is to have very good sound at all our concerts. And I really feel we are succeeding in this, especially this year. Other than that, I have a pretty simple philosophy myself. I compare the bands and the audience to my girlfriend. As long as she’s happy, I’m happy.
I am rather curious as to how you stumbled on the idea of organising a festival of your own and what inspired you to do so. Was the wish to run a festival something that you had been harbouring for a while before it actually materialised and turned into a very real thing?
R: It was a pure coincidence. I had certainly toyed with the idea of having a festival a few years ago, but deep down I didn’t think it would happen. But then suddenly I was sitting there with Blood Red Throne and Ragnarok booked for the same weekend in September in 2022. Then I brought up the idea of a festival again and without thinking too much, I had booked five more bands for the same weekend. Then there was no way around it, and the festival was a fact.
What was your primary and most vital introduction to music back in the day and do you by any chance recall where and when you were exposed to the wonderful sounds of hard rock and heavy metal music? When did your interest in the more extreme variants and subgenres of metal rear its ugly head?
R: As a child I was mostly interested in football, fishing and cartoons like Donald Duck and that sort of thing. I remember I got interested in music when they started playing music over the loudspeaker system at school during the long breaks. We had an arrangement where students were allowed to bring the music that was being played. I remember something in me awoke when I heard Live in Scandinavia by Gasolin for the first time. Then I showed great interest in my youngest uncle’s record collection, which consisted of everything from dance bands to hard rock . . . and precisely Gasolin’s Live in Scandinavia. It was probably there that I first became interested in harder music. I think I was around 12 or 13 then. The following year, when I was 14, I bought my first stereo along with the very first LP I bought with my own money. It was Van Halen’s debut album. I still have that record in my collection. Eventually, I got hold of mail-order catalogues where I started ordering records based on the actual record covers; the toughest record covers probably had the toughest music or at least I thought so. It wasn’t always like that, but I caught glimpses every now and then. Among others, I discovered Celtic Frost, Kreator, Bathory and Venom this way. I had some other methods of finding new bands as well. Slayer and Metallica were tipped off to me by some friends who were punks, and I remember that I discovered W.A.S.P. through an article in a music magazine called OKEJ. Ahh, what a wonderful time. This was long before the internet was invented and we only had sources like Radio Luxembourg, a local music shop that took in very few LPs, music magazines like OKEJ and mail-order pages at the back of mail-order catalogues.
How did the 2024 event turn out and were you satisfied with the overall outcome of this year’s rendition of the festival? I thought you had a really solid and great lineup for this year.
R: This year’s festival went very well. All bands delivered, enough people came, the sound was perfect and there were a lot of people who remarked exactly that. And then the two surprises I had in store became very positive experiences for the audience . . . and my co-conspirators in Legend. It does a little extra good for an old metal heart that something like that works. The only thing people complained about was the weather. It rained a lot all weekend, but as you know, we can’t do anything about that. I can only hope it will be better next year.
Is next year’s edition of Legend Metalfest already in the works and have you booked any bands or made certain preparations yet?
R: Yes, of course. All the bands are ready, and half have already been announced. There are still some negotiations here and there, but for the most part I’m almost done with next year’s lineup. The dates are also clear. Legend Metalfest 2025 will take place from September 24-27 at Verkstedhallen. The bands that are ready are Lik (SWE), The Batallion (NOR), Crawl (SWE), Sepulcher (NOR), Visegard (NOR), Incinerator (NOR), Hate Angel (NOR) and Psudoku (NOR). All the headliners remain for now, so we think it will be a pretty good lineup for next year as well. As for the non-musical side, we have started to look at the possibility of bringing in a food truck so that our festival participants can buy food right at the venue. The festival shirt is under construction, as it is so beautifully called, and otherwise we believe that most things are on track. I’m already looking forward to next year’s festival like a child.
In retrospect, what are some of the most memorable and outstanding performances that you yourself have ever witnessed at the Legend festival? Do any specific bands spring to mind where you simply went “F*cking hell, that was brilliant!” after having witnessed them on stage in Trondheim? Is it important to you on a personal level to help promote Norwegian bands that you consider noteworthy and interesting?
R: There are some bands that have stood out as memorable with an example being Blood Red Throne who played the first year; they gave 110% from the first riff. They came and crushed the other bands. They dropped the sound check as always but still delivered perhaps the best concert we’ve seen in Legend’s three-year short history. Other bands that we will definitely remember for a long time are Nekromantheon and Abhorration from 2023 and Vomitheist, Sovereign and Inculter from this year’s festival. I could probably mention more, but there you have at least some of the goodies we’ve had so far.
Whether it’s that important personally, I don’t know. But it is important for the bands that they are promoted and that they get to show themselves to the public. We ourselves believe that festivals such as Legend Metalfest are an important platform where the bands can show themselves to the fans. We have, after all, a Norwegian profile and the lion’s share of the bands we book are Norwegian.
What other wicked and interesting gigs and mini tours can we look forward to next year? Judging by the Legend Facebook page there have been many other events and happenings beside the actual festival, so are you currently also organising other gigs and concerts? There is the Wacken Metal Battle competition in various Norwegian cities, correct? I truly enjoyed the Wacken Metal Battle event in Bergen earlier on this year – so much talent and enthusiasm on display.
R: You are probably referring to the Facebook page of Legend Trondheim. Legend Trondheim is the organisation behind all the fun, i.e. Legend Metalfest, Wacken Metal Battle Norge, Punks not Dead Live and many individual concerts and some other projects. For now, I don’t want to say anything concrete about what we will book for next year. But we will have some goodies throughout the year. We already have four or five potentially awesome gigs coming up in Trondheim.
Wacken Metal Battle Norway will take a year off in 2025, but we will be back in 2026 and then hopefully with heats in five Norwegian cities plus the Norwegian finale.
I have moved from Trondheim up to the beautiful Lofot Island in Northern Norway. I’m about to start doing concerts here too. And then there will possibly be concerts for both children & young people and adults . . . and possibly another festival.
Thanks once again for taking time out of your schedule to talk to us today, Rune – much appreciated – and best of luck with your future endeavours.
R: Many thanks for the interview, Jens. We will certainly see each other in Bergen when Wacken Metal Battle Norge comes to visit again in just over a year.
