Author: Rok Klemše
Location: Rock Cafe / Postojna
Concert date: 03.03.2010
Attendance: 50
Ticket price: free entry
The first round of the Epic Rockline contest is slowly winding down. Just two more gig nights stand between us and the finish line. After that, the contest tips over into its second part, where the winners of each first-round night will sharpen their drumsticks and tighten their strings. The second round will also bring more varied, genre-hopping nights, but this time, for the seventh night running, Postojna got something blacker and more sinister again.
It was as if the weather knew that three of the more extreme metal acts were about to defile and desecrate the Rock Cafe stage. Snow, wind and cold breathed soul mostly into the black metallers Dark Sphere and Exsilium, and a bit less into the more modern Heretic. Kvlt!
First up, bringing cold and darkness to the stage from the eastern end of Slovenia, were the reborn and rejuvenated Dark Sphere. We remember the guys as a trio from the video for the track Dark Past, which came out just the right amount of black metal cliché, and the trio fell apart soon after. Band leader Gothmog quickly gathered a new legion of warriors around him, and Dark Sphere are slowly but steadily returning to Slovenian stages. In a good half hour they served up solid black metal. The most interesting part is Gothmog’s vocals, which are good, raspy, wicked and raw. He takes the usual fast black metal picking on individual strings and enriches it with varied, thoughtful, well-built solos. The keyboards add a feeling of icy atmosphere, while the rhythm section stays pretty restrained, in classic black metal fashion. You can tell Dark Sphere still lack a lot of stage mileage, and they especially need to step up the dynamics of their performance. Apart from the energetic frontman, I haven’t seen such a static band in ages. The bassist and keyboardist looked almost entranced up there. But considering that Dark Sphere made the trip all the way from Pomurje in the middle of the week, which deserves praise, it’s clear they’re hungry for gigs and the stage stiffness will vanish quickly.
Heretic from Slovenske Konjice carried on in a more modern metal spirit. True to the genre they play, the guys put on an energetic, dynamic show. Its main driver was vocalist Swed, who effectively switched between clean and rougher, screamier vocals. Fully in line with the new-wave school of American “heavy” metal, the guitars sawed away at more or less “chugga chugga” riffs, and there was a breakdown or two as well. Unfortunately the vocal performance wasn’t quite the best, since the vocals sound quite a bit better on the recordings on the band’s MySpace page. The music itself isn’t exactly wildly original either, with strong influences from modern metal bands à la Slipknot easy to spot. It’s certainly commendable that the guys are active in a kind of music that isn’t exactly well developed here, but Heretic still need a bit more of their own, more unique voice. The foundation is good, though, and especially promising are the occasional passages and guitar harmonies with some colorful riffing, which now and then recalled the guitar wizardry of the late Dimebag (Pantera).
With the closing act, the night swung back into darker corners, as the pagan/folk black metallers Exsilium took us back to pagan times. The band is returning to Slovenian stages with a slightly changed lineup, joined by drummer Khors (Zvier), and they’re currently working on tracks for a debut album that should be titled Too Many Years of Silence. The guys and the girl pushed us into a pagan ritual of good folk melodies mixed with the relentlessness of black metal. Luckily, Exsilium are no folk circus clowns in the style of Korpiklaani. They tackle the theme of paganism in a more serious way, and the music is tuned to match. The guitars carry colorful, dynamic, melodic lines, the rhythm section keeps a solid base, and the keyboards play the role of conjuring up the folk mood and atmosphere. Extremely effective is the vocal work of vocalist/bassist and frontman Vargrim, who switches effortlessly between black metal snarls, almost death metal growls and excellent clean vocals. They fit the concept of Exsilium’s music perfectly, and personally they remind me mostly of Nemtheanga from Primordial. It was great to see Exsilium back on stage after so long, and the creative break has clearly done them good.
So the seventh night of the contest ended with a win for Exsilium, who move on to the next round. Sadly, overlapping gigs were to blame for the almost empty hall at Postojna’s Rock Cafe this time. A shame, because bands that put in the effort the way Dark Sphere, Heretic and Exsilium did absolutely don’t deserve to play for such a tiny handful of people.
Photos: Mojca Perdih
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