ESP’s First Year Sponsoring Inferno Festival

April 23, 2025 12:27

ESP’s First Year Sponsoring Inferno Festival

While the USA still has the highest number of metal bands overall, the countries of Scandinavia and the entire Nordic region — namely, Finland, Sweden, and Norway — have by far the most metal bands per capita. Norway, for example, has 27 metal bands for every 100,000 people; the USA has just 5.5.

That’s why it’s no surprise that the Inferno Festival, held annually in Oslo, is quickly becoming one of the top destinations for heavy music fans from across Europe and around the world. In 2025, for the first time, ESP Guitars was the official guitar sponsor of this event, and based on how things went this year, it won’t be the last time.

Held April 17-20, a good number of ESP players in bands such as Behemoth, Satyricon, Rotting Christ, Septic Flesh, and Gaerea were creating sonic mayhem on the various stages of the fest. At the same time, the Inferno Music Conference on Saturday April 19 featured an exclusive ESP guitar clinic featuring Nergal, Orion, and Seth from Polish metal giants Behemoth. The room was packed for this rare and exciting event.

We asked ESP’s director of artist relations Tony Rauser, who attended the Inferno Festival in person, about his impressions.

“In all the festivals over the years, I’ve never met more customers who were so excited about ESP,” he says. “So many guitarists from all ages coming up to talk with us with their stories about why they love ESP, their favorite ESP guitars and artists, and just general enthusiasm that ESP is doing events in Norway.”