DIARY..

Saturday 5th of november:

Minas played live at the Nordic Fest - Oslo.

Friday and saturday 21th and 22th of october:

Stian went back to the fifties and sixties as guitarist in Linda Gail Lewis' band on a couple of concerts in Oslo.
(Tranen, 22th of october). Linda is Jerry Lee Lewis' little sister...

Summer of 2005:

Frode joins Funeral as bassist and vocalist.
He will also appear as vocalist on their forthcoming album..
The roumers say that there also will be another recording from Tulus with Gonde.

Saturday 18th of june 2005:

Tjernefestivalen (the Pond-festival) was held for the first time this summer. Minas Tirith, along with Dredd, were the only metal bands this day, strategically placed last on the program, under the definition of headliners. Curiously this date, 18.6.05, was our first gig since 18.3.05. Even more curiously is the fact that scientists claims to have discovered a copy of Revelations that indicates that the math is wrong. It appears as if though the paranormal forces of reality needs an update!

Anyway, the weather up here through may and june would have been nothing but a harsh winter in, for instance, Spain. Until, the day of the festival, the weather-gods finally gave us their good-will. Young and talented local artists played everything from jazz to rock under a cloudless sky, in beautifull nature surroundings. The arrangement was very well organized with beer-tents, sitting groups, and the opportunity to buy food, if hungry. Everything spread over a pretty large area, on this warm day.

As Dredd finished of their gig at around 11 in the evening, it was our turn to play, and to scare people home:) As we entered stage we were impressed with the crews engagement in making this a positive happening for both crowd and artists. Broblems were fixed and stress was dissolved. The company that had been hired to engineer the sound also did a splendid job, from our humble opinion. All in all enabling us to deliver a handfull of our good old music to a cheering crowd, as the moon turned red in the horizon behind us. We had a good time on stage as it should be, and the audience rewarded us, with their presence and their supporting feedback!

So, we definetively hope that this festival will continue and grow, and that we will be given the honour to play there again!

Cheers!

Friday 18th of March
South Of Heaven - Betong, Oslo.

On Chateau Neuf(pronounced chat enough), a place for the student society of Oslo, Betong is a stage in the basement of the house. The academics obviously keep their beasts in the cellar, as this is where South of heaven is held as a monthly metal-event. On the 18th of march, an interesting combination of numbers to some of us, we played there along with Anti-Depressive Delivery from Trondheim.

We arrived there sometime in noon, to meet with the members of ADD. Witty, friendly, warm and neurotic people like ourselves. Some of us had allready been introduced earlier, since their drummer is the brother of our guitarist. Anyway, we had our beers, soundchecks and the usual dirty-talk, until it was time for ADD to start the show. They entered stage despite the fact that their long-time vocalist had left the band a week earlier. For the occassion he was replaced by an one-armed artist, who compensated for his birth-defect with an enourmous voice and musical intelligence, times many. He had only had four rehearsals with them! They impressed everybody, including ourselves, with their fine-tuned blend between the prog-rock of the 70s and the metal-sound of today. Had it been a contest between bands, they would definitively had been the winners.

Then it was our turn. A down-turn, some would say, but we will come to that later. Our intro faded out, and then everything went to hell. That was, might I add, completely according to the plan, as allways. However, guitarist was a little more drunk than usual on our favourite fluid, while bassist was a little bit more lobotomized than usual. It sounded like shit on stage, making us feel like shit on stage, finally projecting that insecurity to the audience, probably unconsciously received by most of them. Still, our true fans rocked and pushed us on, keeping us on the move, enabling us to finish the gig with dignity. We held a lesser than mediocre gig this night, compared to our own standards. We do not allways have our days. Yet the night should be considered successfull, mostly owed to our friends and fans, who sometimes knows us better than we know ourselves! See ya soon!

Friday 28th of January
Markens - KRISTIANSAND

Fresh from the Mayhem tour we went down to Kristiansand to play on Markens pub on Friday the 28 of January. Mayhem
actually played there the day before we went with them on tour, so it was like walking in their footsteps. Kristiansand, on the south tip of Norway, is undoubtly one of Norways prettier cities, so we were really excited to play there. After 5-6 hours on the road we finally arrived at Markens, where we were welcomed by the friendly local metal-heads. Markens was a nice small
scene, with room for maybe 150 people, ideal for a band of our size. We were supplied with food and beer, and a finer dinner at Midnight rock-pub. A really stylish place. They had an authentic Lemmy-bass on the wall, which to our bassists sorrow, was not for sale. For once, we got to have a decent sound-check, where upon we got to know the local support-band, Scum Culture, who proved to be really nice and sympathic fellows.

Scum Culture went on at 2230, in front of a dissapointing thin crowd. But, they played and rocked like heroes, and made us,
the headliners, feel like ski-jumping after Wirkola. They played technical death/trash. Meshugga must be the closest comparison
to their music. As it was our turn, we went on stage in front of a relatively disencouraging thin crowd. But we had to do our job. Cannot punish the ones who are there because of the ones who aren`t there. And I can tell that we have played for crowds
of hundreds of people, that has rocked, banged and trashed less than our audience in Kristiansand. They really saved our day, and made the long trip worth it. A few pretty girls in the audience too, we shall not forget. We also sold a good deal of our merchandice.

So, was it worth it, economically speaking? Hell, no! But it was fun, and we hope to come back, sooner than later!

Friday 14th and 15th of January 2005:

TOURING WITH MAYHEM TO HAMAR AND TRONDHEIM

Prolouge

On rather short notice we were invited to support for Mayhem on two dates of their Norway-tour, Hamar
and Trondheim. We were maybe a little bit nervous when they picked us up on Kløfta, to travel with a band
that some consider to be the most extreme in the world. And they are really tough guys, but we were never
treated with anything else than friendly respect.

Hamar

We arrived at Hydranten at Hamar around 1830. We were supposed to open up at around eight, but due to
different problems we did not get to enter stage before eleven. In the meantime we were treated really nice by
the arrangement. We were provided with lots of beer and good food. We finally entered stage to play a relatively
decent gig for about 400 people. It should be mentioned that some politician can go out on the web and tell
thousands of people that we sucked, or that nobody liked us. We could only tell those 400 people what we are
about, and they definitively seemed to enjoy our interpretion of how metal should sound. We played for half an hour.
During the last song our guitarist snapped a string, giving the audience a very alternative version of Beauty and a
beast. We finished off and handed the stage over to a more ordinary black metal band, before it was finally Mayhems
turn around one o`clock in the night. They played well, but could have deserved better sound.

Trondheim

After, for some of us, absolutely no sleep, we got up early in the morning and settled for the long journey to
Trondheim. A very boring trip, until someone uncorced the whiskey. We arrived at Samfundet in Trondheim at four.
Very cool Colloseum-like stage. They also had the most beautiful stage-worker mortal eyes has ever beheld. A girl
that was. The preparations in Trondheim were a bit more chaotic than the day before. The arrangement was a bit
stressed. We did not even get a line-check. At least we got our obligatoric beer and food. We shared backstage with
Chton, a local, friendly and down-to-earth band. They opened up first. As it was our turn we entered stage to play
for maybe 700-800 people. It was a different audience than what we are used to. We are probably not as known up
there as we are down here, The crowd was wery open-minded and un-condemning. They soon picked up on our groove
and rocked with us. A really rewarding experience. We played relatively well, also here. It could allways have been
better, but it could of course have been worse, too. We played for half an hour and luckily no strings snapped this
time. Finally Mayhem entered stage to make Trondheim unsafe. They had much better sound than in Hamar, and, tired
as we were, we still really enjoyed the nights show. We spoke with them afterwards, to hear that they were dissatisfied
with their performance, something that we do not understand. At last we went to our very fashianable hotel-room,
and fell asleep like tired army-recruits.

Epilouge

If it weren`t for bands like Mayhem, norwegian bands would still be competing about who can play "seek and destroy"
best. A lot of younger bands has gotten to experience fame and success because of the way things have turned. Mayhem
wanted us for support, despite our musical differences. We like to think that this is because we do our own thing
regardless of what other people say, just like them. If we were to suddenly change our style after the way the flag
turns, we would probably not get another opportunity to play with them. So thanks to Mayhem and thanks to the
people we have met and played for on this tour.

Review from Samfundet/Trondheim

18th of december 2004:

"Julekonsert" at Garasjen Rock Cafe. The last gig this year. This happening celebrated it's 10 year anneversery,
and Minas also celebrated 15 years as a band this evening. True to tradition the Holtermafian warmed up. For
foreign readers Holtermafian means "the mafia of Holter", where Holter is a small local community. They entered
stage ca 1030 in the evening, performing their typical punk, spanning from Ultima Thule to Sex Pistols covers,
as well as their own, straight in your face, dirty punk tunes. We are proud to be their friends, and glad for the
opportunity to warm up, eh, after them. The pub was fully loaded with a totally wild croud.. It was tough going
in the bar, but the bartenders were all doing a splended job as allways, not leaving the headbangers thirsty.

After many beers, it was our turn to enter stage at around 1130. Our new album is still fresh, so we played most
of the tunes from it. Continued with several tunes from "demons", before we cut of a little bit short, due to the
alcohol-consume of a certain bassist. A little less monitoring on the stage than it usually use to be, but nothing
less than good sound out in the croud. Mr. Skoveng did a good job as a live sound engineer this time also... cheers...
A couple of journalists from a mexican metal magazine visited Garasjen this evening, due to make a review on Minas.
All in all a nice evening. To meet with you warm-hearted people,again,gives us the strength to survive until next year.
And, as usual, someone had puked down the toilet, concluding this years dark, but yet so warm, celebration...

26th of november 2004:

Interview by the Norwegian net based magazine "Eternal Terror".

26th of august 2004:

Radar booking kindly invited us to do this support job for the polish death metal act Vader.
On John Dee, the daughter stage of Rockefeller music hall in Oslo. Zeenon also supported, so it was
a three band marathon. It was a bit stressful for awhile, as all the bands were to have their sound-checks
before the doors opened at eight. But, with that settled, we could relax backstage with a couple of beers
before the show. Free Record Shop, a norwegian chain, actually held a stand this thursday night, promoting
and selling our new album at the show. Zeenon opened up at 930 and did a great gig. We got to know them
a little bit backstage. They are very cool people, and good musicians. Thanks for the breakfast, by the way.
We entered at 1015 and felt pretty good on stage. The crowd was great. A few new faces too, I think.

Because of limited space on stage the drummer was all upfront with the rest of us. Pretty cool, actually.
The bass was extremely loud up on stage. Manowar would have been jealous. But, from what we hear it
sounded ok out in the audience. We only played a couple of songs from the new album this night, giving
people a little bit from all of our cd`s. Thanks to the devoted people in the audience who makes it all
worth it! Vader went on at 11. Haven`t seen them since 98. They were great then and they were great now.
Their bassist is fucking beyond the rest of us mortals. Finished off around midnight. Heading back to
Goosetown, once again.

See pics below:

Mr. Forsmo is tuning his bass as our live-sound engineer is relaxing...
Too much Coke...
Rock on...

 

19th of august 2004:

Minas Tirith Release party on Rockin (Oslo).
On this rather warm thursday we arriwed at Rockin at four in the afternoon. The people there where
really friendly and helpful. The sound-engineer was very skilled, and a nice person, too.
This was the official releaseparty for our new album. Regrettably, fewer people than we had hoped
came to the gig, but, as we were told, the concert had been poorly advertised. While we were
tuning our guitars backstage, the toilet tried to communicate with us. It sounded like something
out of the Hellraiser-movies. We tried to communicate back, but the conversation kind of died out.
We entered stage around 11 and played for about an hour, mainly songs from the new album.
We did not feel that we played as well as we usually sometimes do, but the cavalery semt pretty satisfied,
saving our day as usual. It was once again proven that those who enjoy our music, they truly do so.
We rounded of with an improvised listening party, having a few beers, and socializing with you people.
Thanks for coming, and remember to keep places like Rockin alive, as they keep us metalheads alive.
Here you have some pics from the gig:

	Some more please...
Tony even locates the drums through the dark sunglasses...
Deeply consentrated...

 

15th of august 2004:

interwiev in High Voltage, a radiostation in Oslo.

 

14th of august 2004:

pre-Release-party on garasjen rockcafe (Jessheim). www.garasjenrockcafe.no
records for sale by Free Record Shop. The sweat shirts Sold out. Approx. 120 headbangers.
support: dread.

 

Monday 2nd of August 2004:

Releasedate on new album: "Dissertatio Prophetae".

 

20th of march 2004:

Minas Tirith was headlining on a pub called "Skuret" in Oslo. . . Cheap beer. . .
Support: Vesen & Diskord. approx. 150 headbangers entered the pub - a nice place.

 

17th of jaunuary 2004:

Gig in Fredrikstad (St.Croix).
All went well this night also - a nice meal in the old city. We visited an Italian restaurant by the river before the gig.
A nice town - lots of headbangers...

 

20th of december 2003:

The legendary event of the year (the christmas-concert) was a sucsess as allways.
Allmost 200 stepped into Garasjen Rock Cafe this evening and made it a nice christmas-kick-off!

Thank you all!
Next year there will be a 10 year anneversery of this happening...see you then.

A couple of pics. from the gig on Garasjen Rock Cafe..

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