Celebrating Berggeflvster: Amethyst, Arrows, and more!
Gaswerk - Winterthur - June 20, 2026
〰️
Gaswerk - Winterthur - June 20, 2026 〰️
On this hot sweaty and sticky night in Winterthur (AKA Winti!), your pal Chern managed to put one leg in front of another to go to a great celebration of Swiss metal and Zurich’s best metal record store. Yes, I’m talking about the one and only Berggeflvster, a name as hard to pronounce as it is to write. They hosted a night to remember for their anniversary, apparently exactly 6 years, 6 months, and 6 days of their existence. It was full of local underground metalheads at Gaswerk, none of whom looked like they listen to metalcore (thank god), and they looked pumped for a proudly local bill assembled in conjunction with Eros At Arms, spanning all genres, with every act flying the Swiss banner.
LINEUP (in no particular order):
Amethyst (Heavy Metal, CH)
Deathcult (Death Metal, CH)
Arrows (Experimental Black Metal, CH)
SGATV (Synth-Metalpunk, CH)
Vollmondprocession (Black Metal, CH)
Túmulo (Black / Speed, CH)
The Opening Salvo
The venue was waaaay further than I thought (clearly I’m still used to farting around Zone 1 London), so apologies to Túmulo, but they no doubt slayed it with their brand of speed/black. I imagine them like mountainous Midnight. For next time! I promise not to fumble the ritual. The first band I actually managed to see a little bit of was some rad OSDM style death metal, courtesy of Deathcult. The vibes were impeccable and the sound was suitably crushing with a very pleasing dense muddy atmosphere. The heat helped bring the Florida DM vibes. They played tracks spanning their two albums (check that amazing artwork on their last!), Doxology and Putrescence and Beasts of Faith being my favourites. Go check them out!
I was planted at the barrier all night, which is usually the best place to be if you want the full baptism by amplifier, sweat, and ear-concussion. It also meant having a front-row view of one gloriously plastered punter beside me, head down for almost the entire evening, who nevertheless achieved the sort of drunken battlefield promotion that saw him somehow make it all the way to the barrier (well the crowds here are way nicer than London). That, in its own stupid and beautiful way, felt perfectly appropriate for a celebration built on underground devotion.
Now granted I’m in my full black metal phase, so I was super excited to see Vollmondprozession, with their early demo praised elsewhere for old-school character, punk traces, and a touch of strange flair had a genuinely badass stage presence even if the live presentation did not completely match the mystique suggested by the merch and artwork. It was my first time hearing them and I was genuinely impressed. Its exactly the type of black metal I love, with melody, foot-tapping moments and a TOUCH of UNHINGEDNESS and spookiness. The chainmail-clad vocalist especially was a highlight, unleashing howls, anguished screams, chants, and various ceremonial noises to great effect. They only have one full-length Lazarus (they opened with the title track), so most of that was played but they sprinkled in a few from the demo including Das Pilgergrab. Can’t wait to see where they go from here.
Get Arrowed!
And then there was Arrows, who for me were one of the real revelations of the evening. I mean sure, I love Ungfell (picked up a pin at this gig too) and so if there’s any side projects would I automatically like it? YES! The best way I can describe them is this: imagine taking the most transportive, chant-laden, hypnotic passages from Nile (like Unas), sprinkling even more of the triple vocal attack, mixing in a bit of The Ruins of Beverast and then building whole songs around that sense of ancient, grooving grandeur. Onstage they looked like cowboys dragged through an H.P. Lovecraft fever dream. TOTAL DRIP. Their vibe was unique, their presence was commanding, and they felt like the sort of band you remember because nobody else quite scratches the same itch. They played most of their new album Yearning Arrows; Cloven Suns. Sadly there was no vinyl available.
Speaking of… One of the more charmingly disorienting parts of the night came at the merch table, where everybody seemed to be cracking jokes in Swiss German while I stood there grinning like an idiot and pretending I was fully in on it. Naturally, none of that stopped me so I grabbed a pin and a sweet signed copy of the Amethyst record, all tucked away in a Berggeflvster bag and shirt. If you’re going to leave confused, you may as well leave loaded with merch.
The End of the Knight
Amethyst arrived like the night’s victory lap. The Swiss heavy metal outfit, who broke out with Rock Knights in 2023 and followed it with their debut full-length Throw Down The Gauntlet in 2024, already had a crowd primed for battle before they hit full stride, and from the barrier it felt like half the room was ready to GET ROCKED once they got moving. The response was wild, the energy was immediate, and the guitarist was such a maniacal blur of movement that he nearly stepped on my head at one point. That is not a complaint, it’s just simply value for money at a metal show. I love being at shows where everyone know the words to. I can just comfortabley yell out ROCK KNIGHTS FOREVER!! They played several from their EP and album including ‘Stand Up and Fight’ and ‘Queen of a Thousand Burning Hearts’ I had to be home at a reasonable time so missed out on the last 2 songs (someone please tell me they played Serenade and Don’t Stop believing’!). Finally, the band closing the night was SGATV who are some sort of synth metal punk? Ok that sounds amazing. Gutted to miss it.
What made the whole evening hit so hard though, was not just that individual bands delivered, but that the event’s central idea held firm. Berggeflvster explicitly framed the night as a commitment to the Swiss underground scene, and the lineup itself backed that up by assembling local acts across a wide stylistic spread rather than defaulting to one-note curation. That matters. Nights like this are how scenes stay alive through conviction, weirdness, risk, and enough volume to spill your Einsiedler (only 7 francs!). TOTAL SUPPORT!!
