Author: Rok Klemše
Location: KUD France Prešeren / Ljubljana / Slovenia
Concert date: December 28, 2007
Attendance: 130
Ticket price: €7.00
The hugely packed and varied 2007 concert season went out with a big bang, courtesy of the Slovenian vikings Sweet Sorrow, who put together the Heavy New Year show right before the year ended. Instead of champagne, the toast came with riffs, blast beats and growls from Burning Legion of Slovenska Bistrica, Brežice’s goremageddon crew Dickless Tracy, and Slovenia’s very own Amon Amarth, Sweet Sorrow. Well, almost. Dickless Tracy had to cancel because their drummer Tegla was sick. Still, KUD France Prešeren opened up its pit one last time in 2007 with a fine metal double bill.
First to storm the stage in a whirlwind of war was the legion from Slovenska Bistrica, the highly promising and fresh Burning Legion. The guys recently put out their first EP, which boasts one of the best covers around here, great production and breathtaking death/thrash metal with a touch of the Swedish melodic school. I expected nothing less than confident, solid and energy-packed, and that’s exactly what they delivered. Mastermind Matic Mlakar and his brutal legion had KUD boiling in an instant with the opening salvo Bringing Salvation, which brought no salvation, only Matic’s commands for moshing, which he got over and over, in bigger and bigger doses. Matic kept the nicely filled KUD on edge with a brilliant, brutal growl and incredible passages modeled on the Swedish school of melodic metal, a.k.a. Gothenburg metal, which he and Matej Müller tossed back and forth like a dribbler going “tonight is my night” with the ball, Cime-style. Even the Amott brothers wouldn’t be ashamed of the solos and riffs these two were firing off. Burning Legion played the whole Controlling Existence EP, previewed some promising new songs, and tore through the Arch Enemy covers Enemy Within and Silent Wars so well that even Angela would have gone quiet. No doubt about it, Burning Legion are another breath of fresh air on an already busy and strong Slovenian metal scene, and there’s plenty more to expect from them. Smokin’!!!
Burning Legion setlist:
1. Bringing Salvation
2. Controlling Existence
3. To End Life
4. Prva
5. Nova
6. Slave To The Curse
7. Enemy Within
8. Silent Wars
9. M.O.T.L.
While Sweet Sorrow were getting ready with offerings to the Nordic gods and a cup of mead, the crowd drifted out of the hall to wherever the bar was, bottle of the gods’ nectar in hand. But the vikings from beneath the Alps soon raised their glasses with Skol, and the hall instantly filled with Slovenian metal warriors. Sweet Sorrow are without a doubt one of the most persistent local bands, having gone through a small sea of members, most recently vocalist Bufo, who was quickly replaced by Marko Košmrlj. At his first gig, at this year’s Metal festival at Bazen in Kranj, Mare came across as confident, but it was pretty clear he was still a bit rattled and not used to the stage. But the gigs he’s been steadily racking up have paid off, because this time he seemed way more self-assured and froze blood from the very first moments with brutal growls and high screams that he dragged up straight from Niflheim. Sweet Sorrow were extremely hard-working, playing only brand-new material in the first part of the show, which is tailor-made for Mare and also shows how far the band has come instrumentally, especially with the ever-better riffs of the Pero/Joco guitar duo. Too bad the sound system acted up a few times, which hurt mostly the clean vocal parts, which you could barely hear. Mare still addresses the crowd between songs in a somewhat monotone way and mostly falls back on flashing the horns nonstop, but if he keeps improving like this, there’s no worry that Sweet Sorrow have found one of the best local vocalists/frontmen. After a solid hour of Ragnarok, the guys took us off to the northern lands with a trio from the latest EP, Northland, where we paid tribute to fallen brothers (Einherjar) and toasted as brothers in blood (eeem… too much Manowar?). Heavy New Year hit the spot in this Christmas and New Year mood, and I hope 2008 brings us as many gigs like this as possible, and that Heavy New Year becomes a fixture. See you at Heavy New Year 2008, then – Skol!
Sweet Sorrow setlist:
1. Skol
2. God of War
3. Betreyals of Humanity
4. Metamorphosis
5. Gloria Transit
6. Human Hunt
7. Twilight of the Gods
8. Immortal
9. 1000th Millenium
10. The Scarlet Whore
11. Another Life
12. I Am Pain
13. Northland
14. Einherjar
15. Blood Brothers
Photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
Words: Rok Klemše
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