Author: Rok Klemše
Photos: Rok Klemše
Venue: Metelkova, Gala Hala
Concert date: February 14, 2008
Attendance: 150
Ticket price: €5.00
Ljubljana’s avant-garde black metal outfit Dekadent is without a doubt one of the best metal bands around here. In just two short years of existence, they’ve gone from being the underground project of band mastermind Artur Felicijan, Vigred, through settling on a lineup, the debut album Manifestation of Seasonal Bleeding and a deal with the Swiss label Pentacle, all the way to the latest chapter in the biography of this big homegrown band – the opus The Deliverance of the Fall. Just under a month ago they premiered the film of the same name that accompanies the album, and they did it in grand style at Kino Dvor, and February 15 was tailor-made for a return to the stage of Gala Hala at Metelkova. Exactly one year had passed since their first gig at the same scene of the crime, and the time to mark a new release was more than right. Ladies and gentlemen, Dekadent and guests!
First to desecrate the stage was the coastal supergroup Grimoir, made up of former members of two big Slovenian black metal bands – Skorbut and Torka. To be honest, despite the big names I didn’t expect anything more than average black metal, but Grimoir stunned and surprised me, and judging by the crowd’s reaction I wasn’t the only one. The guys from the coast ripped through a good three-quarters of an hour of excellent, blasphemous black metal that is far from indistinct guitar buzz and ultra-fast double bass pedals. Grimoir of course have nihilistic black down to a T, the kind even a goat would bang its head to, but they know how to season it more than well with calmer, melancholic acoustic passages in between, which are a little reminiscent of the likes of Taake or Windir. Instrumentally, Grimoir proved to be an extremely confident and tight band despite the poorer sound, and Mgla showed he can growl well, though I wouldn’t have minded if he’d brought a bit more frontman energy and charisma to the stage. True, they play black metal and have to be grim and necro, but a little more communication with the crowd definitely wouldn’t have hurt. And that they’re true masters of their instruments was proven by the guitarist who broke a string. Boštjan from Dekadent selflessly came to the rescue with his seven-string, which the Grimoir guitarist was holding for the first time ever. It’s no small feat to jump from six strings to seven, especially on stage and for the first time, and on top of that he pulled it off very successfully. Hats off! Grimoir ist kvlt!
After saying goodbye to Grimoir, the tension in the hall visibly grew, as a black metal sensation was getting ready on stage: Dekadent. It had been quite a while since they could be seen on home stages, and people were more than obviously hungry for them. After all, that already showed with the jam-packed hall at Kino Dvor for the premiere of the film The Deliverance of the Fall. To the sounds of the gorgeous symphonic intro Legates of Blackness/Path of Lamentation, Gala Hala was wrapped in darkness, and the crush in front of the stage visibly swelled. And when the band members walked on stage, the real black metal ecstasy began. Despite a few minor slip-ups, the guys were tight and confident, and what’s even more important, visibly happy to be playing again in front of their loyal home crowd. Dekadent, of course, used the gig to present tracks from the new album, which sounded fantastic live, although because of the hall’s poor acoustics they didn’t quite come into their own. The seductive, melodic and epic keyboard parts by Alen Felicijan in particular didn’t really come to the fore, which is a shame, since they play an important role on the album. But never mind, Dekadent gave it their all and put together a truly spectacular show that gave you goosebumps here and there. Artur, as frontman, vocalist and guitarist all at once, was uncompromising and raw. Vocally he shone and gave everything he had, delivering the aggressive, brutal black metal vocals in a mighty and emotional way, and the clean vocal parts suit him no worse. The Artur/Boštjan guitar tandem, with its timeless guitar lines, once again summoned that feeling of ethereality and eternity, and it’s easy to say that Dekadent live are something wonderful and unique. Although with a big emphasis on the new material, Dekadent also remembered the debut and treated us to the blazing Kres from it, plus the closing track that has already become a real fire-starting classic, Dissident Dream. I hope we won’t have to wait another year for the next Dekadent show in Ljubljana!
For many people the Dekadent show was the highlight of the night, and not very many stuck around for the last band of the evening. The Slovaks Demonic Chorals are partly to blame for that themselves, though, since they spent more than half an hour setting up on stage. The Slovak trio presented their own vision of death/black metal, which sadly sounded pretty average live and nothing out of the ordinary among the flood of similar bands. Demonic Chorals sound a lot better on the debut Power of Immortal Hatred (2005), even though at its core it’s still somewhat generic, brutalized death metal. Vocalist Damien (hehe, cool name for the frontman of a death/black band… remember the embodiment of evil in the little brat from the cult horror movie The Omen?) can pull a decent growl out of his vocal cords, but unfortunately it’s totally impersonal and sounds like hundreds of other growls. Well, the guys deserve congratulations for a confident performance and two well-played Behemoth covers, but they still need to do some work on their own material.
The night wrapped up with a well-intentioned and interesting idea for an after party with metal karaoke and a corpse-paint drawing contest, which, as usual, degenerated into unlimited boozing. Luckily I didn’t witness that part, but regardless, Dekadent deserve all the praise for organizing an excellent concert event – let’s have more of them!
text and photos: Rok Klemše
Photo gallery
