Photographer Per Ole Hagen is now out with a new book about Norwegian black metal music. He is also the artist behind the current photo exhibition ‘Norwegian Metal – in Concert’ at Gallery Map in Oslo.
The exhibition is based on his photographs from the Norwegian black metal scene in a series of ‘action-portraits’, as he calls it. All photos are taken from various black metal concerts.
Per Ole Hagen has worked as a concert photographer for many years. Through his background as a musician, journalist, music critic and music director in the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation, he has long experience working with many different music genres.
For the last years, he has traveled around Norway to document the black metal scene in numerous concerts and festivals. The materials used for his photographs are mainly photo paper and metal plates. Among the bands he toured with, we find Dimmu Borgir, Satyricon, Enslaved, Mayhem and 1349.
‘The common herd was first introduced to the Norwegian black metal scene through church burnings and murders. I have rarely met a social environment that is so little violent in their expressions. The music is so violent in its own expression (…) ‘, says photographer and artist Per Ole Hagen to Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten.
The exhibition interferes with the Inferno festival from April 4th to April 7th in Oslo.
‘The whole metal genre is a rebellion against the establishment, but I do not believe that many people think about ideology, they think more in terms of the quality of the music they deliver’, says head of the Inferno festival, Runa Strindin.
Norwegian black metal is known worldwide for its excellent musical quality and mythical authenticity.
The exhibition opened at Gallery Map in Oslo on Friday 30 March and lasts until April 22.
Text by: Anette Broteng Christiansen, ThorNews
Photos: Gallery Map
thornews.com 
Awesome! (but said in death metal growl)