Location: Ljubljana (Slovenia), Orto Bar
Concert date: 15.10.2006
Attendance: 70
Ticket price: 600,00 SIT
Lycanthrope and Wartune! Who would’ve thought! On Monday night at Orto Bar, right after most of the Slovenian metalheads had gone nuts for W.A.S.P. in Maribor, the bands from Styria rolled into Ljubljana to play and smash up the froggy capital, just the way it likes to hear it! A brave promoter pulled together a decent crowd of about 70 fans of the more extreme flavors of metal, so the two young Slovenian hopefuls never looked lonely inside Orto Bar.
WARTUNE: 21.45 – 22.30
Up first on stage were the promising young death metallers Wartune. They surprised with some seriously technical, complex stuff. In three quarters of an hour they spewed out all their black bile in the most elemental way, a primal volcanic eruption of teenage rage and wildness. A vicious crossfire between counter-rhythms and soloing set almost constantly in a semitone, anti-melodic face. The guys sank their teeth into their material with zero mercy. Hellishly scorching riffs, machine-gunned scales played at light speed and a magnified, intense approach from the whole five-piece opened the door to the road down for a straight-up visit to Lucifer. Luckily Orto Bar has great acoustics and the guys got the right sound. The death metal vision came alive through their outstanding approach, as they literally pressed and pursed their lips in a trance, a climax of extreme speed that they built up as they played. A tight five-piece with real technical talent. And the crowd? They were simply passive and dreamy through the whole show. Even after the singer announced the second song and pointed out that it was one everybody should know, none of the regulars got visibly fired up. It was a performance of Arise, a Sepultura cover, and the fact that Wartune are truly full of rabid, crazy notes was confirmed by a seriously brilliant take on the Death cover called The Philosopher. In the seventh track, I Am Become A War (The Destroyer Of Worlds), the singer confronted the audience with the fact that he couldn’t sing the song, because it’s so fresh that they haven’t managed to write the verses and vocal parts for it yet, so he mixed into the crowd during it. Time is their ally. A little more practice to get that real working chemistry going, and then they’re ready for a proper satanic march, which will hopefully be rewarded accordingly in the future. With this kind of drive, know that Wartune can definitely become an important factor that will contribute a lot to shaping a real extreme metal scene in Slovenia, and aim abroad as well.
LYCANTHROPE: 23.00 – 23.45
Then the hungry Lycanthrope guys took over the stage, stomping and thrashing around! Unlike the hellishly fast Wartune, Lycanthrope offer something that, melody-wise, is much closer to ears used to the global emptiness of everyday life. At its core it’s a classic “eighties” school of guitar riffing, with a noticeable influence from the Iron Maiden legacy. Over those riffs sits a shrieking, high-pitched vocal that’s closer to the sound of black metal vocals. Like Wartune before them, the guys staged a proper metal onslaught and attacked Orto Bar from all sides. As big Iron Maiden fans, they treated themselves to two Iron Maiden covers, Fear Of The Dark, and to close out the night they gave the crowd Hallowed Be Thy Name too, played insanely fast! The band’s lead guitarist outgrew Adrian Smith and Dave Murray – “Brlavi” – long ago when it comes to breakneck guitar skills, which honestly doesn’t even need mentioning, otherwise I wouldn’t be singling out this performance! Of course, it also reminded me of the good old version of that song by Cradle Of Filth, and right then it flashed through my head that Lycanthrope’s melodic style might not suffer from the addition of classically atmospheric Dimmu Borgir synthesizers. During Wolves Of Karantanija, the singer grabbed a big white flag with the Carantanian coat of arms. Obviously that’s the new fad among the youngsters, and with that flag, in all his on-stage gymnastics and fierce zeal, the dude almost swept his bandmates off the stage. Lycanthrope convinced us too with their full-on approach and zero respect for anything, and so we really got to enjoy two tight live performances from two up-and-coming young bands. The metal scene is growing in Slovenia! No room for the weak here!
A few closing thoughts! The place painted a completely different experience from the one we got at the Mediapark hall two days ago at Blind Guardian. At Orto Bar there was no routine, no sound problems and no security guards. It felt like being in my own living room, in the middle of a wild hellish tornado radiating the authenticity of two bands hungry to prove themselves. So at Orto Bar the whole picture was turned on its head! Both bands threw themselves in completely – no routine, but with a spontaneity that Blind Guardian lacked two days ago! On top of that, a really decent sound, which was missing two days ago too. And unlike the ecstatic 1,000-headed crowd that carried Blind Guardian high on its wings, Lycanthrope and Wartune can only dream of something like that for now! But there’s something else here. Remarkable courage and a drive to prove themselves, both fueled by sincere enthusiasm and loyalty to chasing their goal! Keep it up, guys!
Setlist
Wartune:
1.) Sights Of Remorse
2.) Tale Of The Bitch
3.) Endless Cruelty
4.) Arise
5.) Return Of The Wolves
6.) Identified Progression
7.) I Am Become A War (The Destroyer Of Worlds)
8.) The Philosopher
Lycanthrope:
1.) Intro
2.) Shape Shifter
3.) Fear Of The Dark
4.) The Unname Grave
5.) Holy Phantoms
6.) Blood Moon
7.) Wolves Of Karantanija
8.) Hallowed Be Thy Name
