Author: Rok Klemše
Photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
Location: Ljubljana / Orto bar / Slovenia
Concert date: 20.05.2011
Attendance: 70
Ticket price: 12,00€ / 15,00€
Vicious Rumors is a band that, by every measure, should be counted among the greats. This excellent San Francisco power metal outfit laid the foundations of American power metal with their classic debut Soldiers of the Night (1986). And after 2007, Vicious Rumors returned to the scene of a criminally good gig, which they played at Orto alongside Agent Steel.
But before that, the stage saw the premiere of the brand-new Desc, about whom nobody really knew anything going in, except that the band is made up of old dogs who cut their teeth in groups like Iron Median, Lady’s First and Ivje, and that they play heavy metal. So expectations were high, but sadly not much was delivered. What people hoped for was a good dose of original heavy metal, but that’s not what we got (this time, anyway). Desc instead served up an interesting and varied batch of classic heavy metal tunes, played with confident and very solid instrumental chops, with all the solos in particular nailed precisely. You could tell the guys were playing their first show, as there was no shortage of small slip-ups and flubs. All well and good so far, but things snagged on the vocals, which did a pretty poor job. Especially in the falsetto, higher registers, the singer lost a huge amount of control and swallowed a fair number of consonants, vowels or even whole syllables. The band’s stage show was also, sadly, pretty clunky, wooden and static. Right now Desc is still eating Čokolino for breakfast and drinking Lumpi juice, and it needs a few more miles on the clock before it grows into real manhood.
A little after ten, though, the war machine finally got rolling and summoned the members of Vicious Rumors to the stage, with boss Geoff Thorpe at the helm. The band spun into a deadly waltz with the first track from the new record Razorback Killers, Murderball, unfortunately still in front of an almost empty Orto. But the murderously tight guitar lines, venomous riffs and mighty vocals quickly drew people up to the stage, and with the first real classic of the night, Digital Dictator, Vicious Rumors were already playing to a good half of the hall. Under the vocal lead of the band’s newest member Brian Allen, they rattled off one classic after another, one wrecking ball after another. The cream of the heavy metal crop was picked from the new album, with perhaps only the excellent Deal With the Devil missing, while for fun Vicious Rumors pulled aces out of their sleeves like Lady Took a Chance, Ship of Fools, Abandoned, Soldiers of the Night and others. Allen, with an excellent, razor-precise voice lifted to inhuman heights, screamed his way with distinction through even the late Carl Albert’s most demanding lines and got the increasingly fevered crowd properly going. Thunderer Larry Howe torpedoed and demolished walls behind the kit with well-thought-out, lively and dynamic transitions and cannon-fire double bass drums, while also handling reliable and melodic backing vocals that filled out an already mighty sound. As for the band’s only constant and founding member, guitarist Geoff Thorpe, you couldn’t have missed him even if you’d wanted to. His heartfelt sawing away at six strings sucks you straight into the vortex of a riff meat grinder that leaves you as nothing but a bloody heap of bones and slush. Thorpe reeled off riff after riff and breathtaking solos that seemed to have no end, and the orgasmic strings-rubbing hit its peak especially when the Thorpe/Morgan guitar duo stood shoulder to shoulder. And after all that, these true metal warriors won everyone over even more with Thorpe’s words that they didn’t come to milk our wallets and play twelve songs like most bands. No! Even after 25 years of career, Vicious Rumors play twenty songs, uncompromising and without a hint of fatigue, though because of Orto bar’s strict curfew they sadly had to skip the killer Sonic Rebellion. Live shows full of inexhaustible energy and simply murderously good heavy metal, plus an excellent new record, prove that Thorpe’s gang knows no rest.
photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
Setlist
1. Murderball 2. Razorback Killers 3. Digital Dictator 4. Minute To Kill 5. Lady Took A Chance 6. Out Of The Shadows 7. Dust To Dust 8. Bloodstaind Sunday 9. Black 10. Worlds & Machines 11. Ship Of Fools 12. Abandoned 13. You Only Live Twice 14. Let The Garden Burn 15. Axe To Grind 16. War – Soldiers Of The Night 17. Hellraiser 18. Don’t Wait For me
Photo Gallery
