Author: Rok Klemše
Photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
Venue: Cvetličarna MediaPark / Ljubljana / Slovenia
Concert date: 16.12.2010
Attendance: 1100
Last summer the festivals were ruled by thrash metal’s big four: Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer and Anthrax. Sure, these four are the most commercially recognizable and best-selling names in the genre, but (with the exception of Slayer and Megadeth) they lost their true calling as purveyors of hard-hitting, killer thrash a long time ago. Luckily, there are still bands that, twenty years into their careers, play thrash metal with heart and yes, real grit. Three of them (Death Angel, Exodus and Kreator) joined forces for the winter tour Thrashfest 2010, which rolled into Ljubljana just before Christmas.
Our first stop was Athens, Greece, home of the thrashers Suicidal Angels, who were pushing their latest record, Dead Again, at Thrashfest 2010. The Greeks strode onto the stage uncompromising and confident and threw themselves into their set, but sadly the thrash they play is mostly generic and chewed over a hundred times already. The guys visibly try hard on stage, headbang like there’s money on it and do their best to look as “old-school” as possible, but their thrash is mostly soulless and empty. Suicidal Angels sound like thrash thrown together from every which way, with Slayer and Kreator as the strongest influences, but as the opener for three legendary bands, a better modern-day thrash outfit would have been a much better fit.
Bay Area thrash attraction Death Angel, on the other hand, was a whole different story from the gyros thrashers Suicidal Angels. The American crew with Filipino roots more than delighted at Metalcamp 2009, and back in 2004 they played one of the best thrash shows our stages have ever (sur)vived at Metelkova. So the expectations going into this show were heavy and high. But these seasoned, energetic stage cats once again lived up to the name of one of the biggest thrash metal bands out there right now. A few years ago the key members left (the Papa brothers and drummer Andy Galeon), which sparked talk of Death Angel’s decline and breakup, but with the new record Relentless Retribution they sawed the tongues off the doubters with an ultra-good thrash album and proved that Death Angel are stronger in 2010 than ever before. Under the watchful eyes of frontman Mark Osegueda and guitarists Rob Cavestany and Ted Aguilar, a new rhythm section has settled into the band, with showman bassist Damien Sisson (the skinny pretty boy was backstage getting ready for the show with sit-ups and “pumping” mini weights) and gunner Will Carroll behind the kit. Despite the rejuvenated lineup, Death Angel proved they’re a band with enviable mileage, the stage experience that comes with it, and above all the know-how and passion for great thrash metal. The Americans’ set wouldn’t have been the same without charismatic vocalist Mark Osegueda owning every centimeter of the stage. With his charm and compliments to the crowd he won over the packed Cvetličarna in an instant, and with a crushing voice that can scream, thrash-snarl and bark, plus a fantastic clean vocal on top, he proved that the years haven’t hurt him one bit. Mark’s incredible energy, seeping off the stage by the gallon, gets even the most demanding crowd on its feet, and the mosh pits followed one after another. As the foot-long dreadlocks on Mark’s head whirled, so did the crowd, in “good friendly violent fun”! The guitar duo didn’t lag behind in energy either, and on top of that they delivered a whole palette of unique riffs and brilliant solos that are a real feast for the eyes and ears. With an energetic, lively and full-on performance, Death Angel gave the crowd exactly what it came for: thrash that’s all Death Angel’s own, thrash that isn’t afraid to show punk influences one moment and slow the tempo down the next. The one real minus of the set was its brevity, since we only got nine songs. But they spun the setlist into one hell of a toxic waltz, mixing new killers from Relentless Retribution with ultra-violent classics. Sadly there was no time for the anthems Thrashers, Kill As One, or even the full instrumental EP The Ultra Violence (the start of which served only as the intro to the closing Thrown to the Wolves), but heads up, Death Angel are coming back to Ljubljana in March! They’re promising a headlining set of at least an hour and a half! Until then, it’s Relentless Retribution on the headphones and “relentless revolution”!
For the next part of the evening we’ll stay a while longer on the circular train ride around the San Francisco Bay Area. On your left you’ll soon see the famous Alcatraz, and on your right the well-known Golden Gate Bridge. Please stay in your seats and keep your hands inside the safety rail, because Exodus might rip them off with their beastly thrash metal. Oops, too late! That’s roughly how a tourist guide to planet Exodus would sound, and that’s exactly how this legendary American band’s show sounded. Along with the young Metallica, they were there for the birth, bloom and rise of thrash metal in the early eighties. Their cult debut Bonded By Blood came out in 1985 and is now considered one of the most influential albums of the genre, and 25 years on, Exodus are still a thrash force well worth fearing. The band, led by the one and only Gary Holt, marched onto the stage to the sound of the acoustic intro of the first track from the new record Exhibit B: The Human Condition, The Ballad of Leonard and Charles, and plunged us into the bloody story of the serial killers Leonard Lake and Charles Ng. And blood spurted and limbs flew in every direction from the very first pick on the strings, when an apocalyptic mosh pit erupted below the stage and didn’t let up until the last second of Exodus’ domination. For three quarters of an hour Exodus sank their teeth into stormy, lightning-fast thrash, bloodthirsty riffs and crushing rhythms with incredible raw energy, and showed what it would feel like to dive into a particle accelerator. The 2010 Exodus crew is phenomenal and shows no signs of aging or running out of steam. Boss Gary Holt turns into a proper beast on stage, ripping at the strings through sharp riffs and aggressive sawing, and when his brother in arms, the excellent Lee Altus, steps up beside him and the two run their fingers through marathon, breathtaking solos, you realize that Holt/Altus is right now one of the best guitar duos in metal. The H-team is dead, long live the HA-team! But Exodus don’t stop at slicing you up with riffs; they leave you lying in a puddle of blood with precisely measured blows from the rhythm section. The phenomenal Jack Gibson proved once again how to serve the tempo of the damned, with colorful bass lines and a unique metallic rattle, and Tom Hunting once again justified his name as one of the best drummers in thrash. The foundations of VPK (and the surrounding buildings) were shaking under a barrage of dynamic, twisting transitions, torpedoing bass drums and fast, razor-accurate thrash rhythms. Rob Dukes has been a bone of contention among fans ever since he joined Exodus, but with Exhibit B he made the best Exodus album with him up front, and this time he proved that he’s becoming a better and better frontman and vocalist live, and he even held back from his boorish outbursts. Uncompromising and aggressively energetic, dressed in a cool Dead Kennedys (!) shirt, Rob crowned the set with a call for probably the biggest “wall-of-death” the VPK hall has ever seen. The band tore through the setlist in three quarters of an hour, with two songs from the new record (which, no doubt, would have been better served by Hammer and Life, Class Dismissed or The Sun is My Destroyer than by Beyond the Pale), while the bulk was made up of immortal thrash classics, with the anthem Bonded By Blood leading the charge. It’s a real shame that records like Pleasures of the Flesh, Fabulous Disaster and Impact is Imminent are still mostly unfairly overlooked. Still, the “Exodus attack” is as brutal, uncompromising and underwear-shredding as it was twenty-five years ago!
After our Bay Area visit, we finished by pulling on our swimsuits, plunging into the ocean like a log (Martin Strel press) and swimming off to Germany. There, one third of the German holy trinity of thrash metal, the legendary Kreator, pulled us out of the water. They didn’t let us catch our breath, either. Led by Mille Petrozza, the standard-bearer of German thrash (alongside Tom Angelripper of Sodom and Schmier of Destruction, obviously), Kreator pushed us into a violent revolution lasting an hour and a half. Violent Revolution got the pulse racing just like the album of the same name did in 2001, the record that, after a few weaker attempts in the nineties, put Kreator back among the living rulers of German thrash metal. Kreator can come across a bit static live, with the exception of Petrozza, who impresses with nonstop headbanging, super aggressive vocals, deft soloing and still-broken English. But when the great leader howls “eins, zwei, drei, vier” and Kreator sink you deeper and deeper, a world opens up before you of mighty songs, strong messages and brilliant energy through epic tracks like Betrayer and especially the fantastic Voices of the Dead with its unforgettable chorus. And once Kreator had us in their fist, they never let go. The temperature kept rising as we traveled through an excellently put-together setlist that left neither old nor new fans cold. Eyes kept returning to the enigmatic and charismatic Petrozza, who isn’t one of the most respected figures in thrash metal for nothing, while Mille’s excellent string-sawing fully matches the static, cool Finn Sami Yli-Sirniö, who stoically walks his fingers up and down the neck through even the most demanding solos. For the band’s punch and crushing power, look above all to the fantastic drummer Ventor, who on his raised platform had every last piece of his kit totally under his command. Kreator come alive most in the fastest and most aggressive songs, and there was no shortage of them toward the end, from the obligatory Endless Pain, Pleasure to Kill and People of the Lie to the brilliant Coma of Souls, which closed out the regular set. But Kreator still had a few aces up their sleeve this time. Mille came back out in a Kreator jersey and poisoned us with the plague, the crushing The Pestilence from the cult Pleasure to Kill. It was clear what was coming when Mille raised a flag high in the air. Time to raise the Flag of Hate, and with it Tormentor beat us to a pulp to finish. Kreator undoubtedly fixed the very bitter taste they left after their last Metalcamp show and proved that after 25 years they’re still one of the strongest bands on the scene.
In The Toxic Waltz we were Throne to the Wolves, and as if Tormentor had grabbed us by the hand there too, we marched out of Thrashfest 2010 bloodied and bruised, but happy winners.
photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
This review was written in collaboration with Rock Hard Slovenija and Rockline.
Setlist
KREATOR 1.The Patriarch(Intro) 2.Violent Revolution 3.Hordes of Chaos (A Necrologue for the Elite) 4.Phobia 5.Terrible Certainty 6.Betrayer 7.Voices of the Dead 8.Enemy of God 9.Destroy What Destroys You 10.Amok Run 11.Endless Pain 12.People of the Lie 13.Pleasure to Kill 14.Coma of Souls —encore— 15.Choir of the Damned(Intro) 16.The Pestilence 17.Flag of Hate 18.Tormentor EXODUS: 1.The Ballad of Leonard and Charles 2.Beyond the Pale 3.A Lesson In Violence 4.Deathamphetamine 5.Blacklist 6.Bonded By Blood 7.War Is My Shepherd 8.The Toxic Waltz 9.Strike Of The Beast 10.Good Riddance DEATH ANGEL: 1.I Chose the Sky 2.Evil Priest 3.Buried Alive 4.Mistress of Pain 5.Claws In So Deep 6.Seemingly Endless Time 7.Truce 8.River of Rapture 9.The Ultra-Violence / Thrown to the Wolves SUICIDAL ANGELS: 1.Reborn In Violence 2.Bleeding Holocaust 3.Dead Again 4.Violent Abuse 5.Beggar of scorn 6…. Lies 7.Final Dawn 8.Apokathilosis
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