APRIL 17th 2026
ZEROMANCER

 Review by: Martin Storm-Olsen
Photos By: Polina Kulikovskikh
Full Gallery:
http://www.metaltitans.com/concertpics/zeromancer/

It’s not every day I go to see a band that makes me feel genuinely nostalgic. Zeromancer, however, is one I’ve followed since their early days. I still remember when they released their debut album, Clone Your Lover, in 2000, back when I was a teenager. I even saw them live in 2002 at Rockefeller, shortly after the release of their second album, Eurotrash.

Adding to the connection, most of the original members hail from my hometown, Tønsberg, which has always made them feel like a local band to me. That’s despite the fact that Zeromancer was actually formed in the U.S., where three former members of Seigmen relocated in 1999 following that band’s breakup, looking to start something new. Today, their base is in Tønsberg, Norway.

At this point it has been 7 years since Zeromancer’s last live show. It also means they’ve never got to perform their most recent 2021 album, Orchestra of Knives. One of the most important reasons for the long break was a pandemic, following serious health issues, so there are many reasons to be pleased to see them enter the stage tonight. Not only is this the first show in 7 years, it is also the only gig on Norwegian soil confirmed for 2026.
With no surprise on my end, a sold out venue awaits, and just a little after doors open, the venue is filling up nicely.

First out is Zero Bats. A synthwave duo, also from Norway. Getting an 80’s synth soundtrack movie vibe at times. Seeing as most of what they do are fixed backing tracks from their sampler, it was a bit disappointing that the guitarist got more or less buried soundwise through most of the show. You could hear subtle hints that he was playing at times, but he was mostly way too low in the mix compared to the sampler. Both did vocals and they were pretty decently placed, so maybe it was a deliberate decision?

They did a good job overall and seemed well received by the crowd. The set length was a bit over the top for this kind of music to my personal taste, and also a bit long for the vocalist’s vocal chords near the end it seemed.

During the warm-up, I thought the venue was getting full, but sold out proved to mean something else. By the time Zeromancer entered the stage and sent the first heavily anticipated soundwave across the room, it was significantly more crowded, leaning onto stuffed with people all over the place on two floors. 

From that opening note, they had the audience at their fingertips and never let go. They even opened with “The Underground,” a song only ever released on a compilation and as a single back in 2013. I had to do some digging afterward to identify it. Brave choice, you might say, but causing no trouble at all for the Zeromancer-hungry audience to latch on anyways.

One of the cool things about Zeromancer, to me, is that even songs I don’t know intimately still work perfectly within their signature framework, something that becomes even more vivid in a live setting and was very true with a, to me, unknown opener the way they did. The crowd clearly agreed. People were genuinely pleased, with sing-alongs breaking out regularly, and nearly every song I’d hoped to hear from the older albums appeared alongside newer material.

This wasn’t just a show, it felt like a reunion for Zeromancer as well. They visibly enjoyed themselves on stage, and anyone with a mic took the time to express, sincerely, how good it felt to be back. Vocalist Alex also deducted via crowd conversations that this was far from an all-Norwegian audience; there was a solid group of international fans in the crowd that evening.

The evening was a great showcase of the songs I remember from back in the day, while also proving they’re still very much present with newer material that deserves to be heard—and works just as well live. Hearing “Need You Like a Drug” and “Clone Your Lover” again after all these years was a personal highlight, and a welcome bonus. "Orchestra of Knives" was obviously represented too, but I was very pleased with the song composition allowing songs from so many of their albums, rather than being too exclusively focused on the most recent album.

If there’s anything to pick at, it would be that I think they deserved a bigger venue. Then again, the intimacy of the setting, plus the openness of emotion it allowed was a vital part of what made this particular night so memorable, so maybe I’m not right about that. Regardless, I think everyone present needed this evening, both on stage and in the crowd. As for the dosage, it felt just right: a great reunion with the material for everyone present, delivered with confidence and care by excellent musicians who left me with nothing to nitpick on when it came to the performance.