January 16th and 17th will be the final shows ever for Norwegian rockers Stonegard. Though they apparently split-up in October 2008 and I’ve known about these Farewell concerts in Oslo for a while, I still can’t shake my disappointment at having such a great act not being able to hold itself together. I’m even more upset that they will most likely be entirely forgotten.

Stonegard were always exciting enough to be called metal and yet always had really alert hooks that made their songs instantly memorable. Their music also displayed such a wide variety of influences, from Norwegian black metal to Swedish melo-death to classic rock and sleazy stoner riffs, that they were always a little hard to pin down. They made honest, music with a lot of mainstream potential which netted them a lot of great opening slots for touring bands from abroad (including Black Sabbath… quite the honor indeed!).

They released two high quality albums in the span of their career but it seems that internal conflicts and the unusual delay in remixing and publishing the European release of their last album, From Dusk to Doom, proceeded an untimely break up. Their last album showed them maturing significantly and I’m sure it could have gotten them even farther. Still, you have to respect them for saying enough is enough and even more for at least caring about their fanbase enough to lay the band to rest properly (with Sahg and Benea Reach opening, its gonna be one killer show, too)

Here’s the video for the title track from their debut, Arrows.

Stonegard R.I.P.

-DBR