Avtor: Rok Klemše
Kraj: Orto Bar / Ljubljana / Slovenija
Datum koncerta: 23.03.2008
Število obiskovalcev: 40
Cena karte: 5,00€
After a weekend of stuffing our faces with Easter treats, the Easter bunny (well, the Dirty Skunks, really) wrapped up the long weekend with a double bill on the traditional metal Monday at Orto Bar. Monday night brought a proper snowfall, so sadly a few less metalheads showed up hungry for growls and scorching guitars, probably stuffed to the gills with everything churchy that Easter force-feeds us in abundance. Still, the upstairs room at Orto filled up nicely, because two promising Slovenian metal acts were waiting for us, this time the Styrian pairing of To Hate and Infidia.
First up, taking the stage in the middle of the Easter sermon, were To Hate from Čeršak, which is turning into a real band hatchery. Since 2004, To Hate have been bringing melodic death metal in the vein of In Flames, At the Gates or Dark Tranquillity to the Slovenian scene. As a welcome, they torched the hard-hitting Key to the Suicide Area without compromise, which unfortunately showed right away that the sound at Orto was sloppy yet again. The rhythm section of Olci on bass and Tuty on drums is dynamic and varied, but sadly so loud that the guitars got lost more than once. A shame, because the guitar duo of Jure Vandur and Marko Strnad fire off excellent riffs inspired by Swedish death metal, plus melodic passages that nicely spice up all that aggression and brutality. The brutality lies mostly in Jure’s great, raw growl, which works perfectly live, and with plenty of charisma Jure is a proper frontman too. The vocals were mixed well, only the clean, spoken part of Colour of My Death came off worse. Since To Hate and Infidia are already related through a shared drummer, the two bands decided to cook up a little surprise. For Omen, Infidia’s singer Tina joined the To Hate guys on stage. The combo of harsh growl and clean, softer female vocals came off, if nothing else, as very interesting, because Jure and Tina clicked brilliantly. After Burn Down With My Existence came the obligatory In Flames cover, this time Swim from the album Clayman, again with Tina, who did great even though female vocals aren’t exactly written for this genre (let’s leave Arch Enemy aside for now). To Hate then torched three more real anthems of Gothenburg metal and proved that it’s still possible to write fresh, punchy songs in an already pretty played-out genre. To Hate – from Čeršak to Gothenburg!
TO HATE:
1. Key To The Suicide Area
2. Colour Of My Death
3. Omen
4. Burn Down With My Existence
5. Swim
6. We Fuck ‘Em Young
7. Room Of Eternity
8. Step Of Truth
After To Hate came something softer, with the Maribor power metal outfit Infidia, who caught everyone’s attention mainly with their excellent EP Led By The Light, released last year. The girls and guys proved they aren’t resting on their laurels by playing plenty of newer songs, like the opener Soulburn. Sadly, the weak guitar sound showed up again, and the guitars were often hard to hear. Still, they played at a solid level instrumentally. Unfortunately Tina went slightly off a few times, mostly on the covers, but she sang their own songs that much better. The first cover was a fantastic song by Swedish progressive power metal band Evergrey, Blinded. It’s a vocally pretty tough track that only Tom Englund, the band’s singer, can pull off with incredible feeling, so this was the song with the most vocal slip-ups. The ballad Lunaine suited the softer souls, followed by a newer cover, the bouncy pop ditty from the new Nightwish, Amaranth, which at least is written fairly well for Tina’s voice. It was interesting to hear Starchild in an acoustic version (personally I like the original much more), then the punchy One Step From Hell and Losing My Dreamland, and then the best cover of the night, the cult Gutter Ballet by the legendary Savatage, played and sung confidently and with dignity. The taste was spoiled a bit by a cover of Sonata Arctica’s clichéd power metal staple My Land, but one of the better songs off the EP, Vision, set it right. It was time for Jure to return the favor for Tina’s guest spot, and together with Infidia he sang the Children of Bodom hit To Hate. To finish, Šujo got a nice surprise when the band dedicated the W.A.S.P. classic Wild Child to him, which closed out the show. But of course the crowd demanded “Zugabe,” and for the very end Infidia gave us a nicely played Edguy hit, Superheroes.
INFIDIA:
1. Intro
2. Soulburn
3. Alive!!!
4. The Dreamer And The Nightmare
5. Blinded
6. Lunaine
7. Amaranth
8. Like No Tomorrow
9. Starchild
10. One Step From Hell
11. Losing My Dreamland
12. Gutter Ballet
13. Twist Of Fate
14. My Land
15. Vision
16. Hate Me
17. Wild Child
—dodatek—
18. Superheroes
Fotografije: Aleš Podbrežnik
Besedilo: Rok Klemše
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