Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
Location: Komen, Karst region / Slovenia
Date of the show: 13.08.2011
Attendance: 1,200
Ticket price: €45.00
A calm, fresh morning sprinkled with dewdrops at Metal Mania Open Air. The second and final day has rung in. The brutal first day of “lifting weights filled with alcohol derivatives” claimed its victims. Still, in the glow of the morning I catch up with my good comrade, the enthroned icon of Metal Mania Open Air, Bojan Bidovec, metal patron to many young Slovenian bands taking their first steps. After a hearty snack of Komen grill goodies, we dragged ourselves into the only shade in the middle of the asphalt playground, the one cast by the Youwdin sound tent. Slavocracy were on stage. Exactly eight people watched the show from the front, counting Bojan, Yowda and me. And what a show we got. Slavocracy delivered one of the festival’s nicest surprises, and at a time when the campsite was still asleep.
A quartet risen from the ashes of Nova Gorica’s Entreat. Remarkably tuned! Remarkably tight! Remarkable groove! A modern “groovy” take on death metal. Technically, surely one of the most polished bands of the festival’s second day. The tone of the growl vocals kept lifting the core of the riffy resurrection, which, together with the witty and varied combinations of the rhythm line, rocked the place. A napalm blaze for a good morning, with a nice dose of tasteful humor from the singer between songs. Besides an excellent show, bursting with conviction and surplus energy, the band deserves praise for building on a polished look that suits their musical mission, white tie on the singer included.
The Scourge, who crowned their MetalCamp appearance with a gig at the second-biggest metal festival in Slovenia, brought more pure-blooded death metal to the festival than Slavocracy’s fashionably grooved version. Still, this is also a band that can’t and won’t stay locked in molded forms. The songs constantly switch between lead motifs held together by complex rhythmic textures. These keep flowing into one another, and the mood ebbs and flows with them. The band combines dual growl vocals, and does it very effectively! The songs also feature plenty of melodic passages caught in harmonized thirds (even with sped-up picking), which relieve the tension and the otherwise gloomy atmosphere hanging over the tracks. A seriously interesting set from a band that isn’t afraid of musical experimentation and proved with its presence that it’s also extremely technically sharp.
Speaking of doses of musical experimentation, out of the three bands so far Mothermound definitely take first place. Their take on metal is something completely unique and one of a kind. The vibe is doomy, even though you can’t say they play doom! At the same time they can roll along raw, like the most warped rock n’ roll jumble, and on top of that a touch of musical experimentation throws the doors wide open, so these guys come across as totally unpredictable. There’s plenty of room for psychedelic detours, as well as swerves into excellent melodic passages. And it’s all cooked up together in a way that the guys never lose the red thread or a single drop of their elemental punch. The roaring vocals push the band’s reach even further. This is a band that would have no trouble opening a show for experimental Quebec “weirdos” like Voivod.
After the first peak of the festival’s second day, when that excellent triad of musical innovation, Slavocracy – The Scourge – Mothermound, played back to back, the festival mood dipped a little. Never mind that the noon heat hit the grounds; musically, too, we got no special highlights when the Croatians Decomposing Entity took the stage. The guys left a rather pale and derivative impression. Despite a fair bit of noise and vocal cord stretching, with the vocalist trying out quite a few different extreme vocal techniques, the band somehow lacks that spark of individuality. Average. Solid, but average all the way. The Italian hunters of Pleistocene terrestrial fauna hides, Krampus, didn’t squeeze any more adrenaline rush out of the crowd either. Folk rockers, a septet that tried out a whole bunch of instruments on stage, especially wind instruments, as well as rustic “plunk” things meant for scratching at strings, they somehow didn’t belong in the lineup because of the genre detour. Only Eruption, who, given their years in the game, you’d expect to play a bit later in the running order, brought back more interest. The band now works with a changed lineup. Of the old guard only vocalist Buco and the excellent guitarist Tim remain, and with his lanky blond build Tim could pass for the retired K.K. Downing of Judas Priest. These wound-up old school thrash revivalists have dynamite, and with a tight, compact show, which also introduced guitarist Andrej in the new lineup for the first time, they proved they have an excellent starting point for building on their bold studio debut “Lifeless Paradise” from 2009. The crowd definitely hasn’t forgotten the band, and the area in front of the stage came to life for their set, but what entertained most of all was the banter between band and audience.
An interesting set follows. Vigilance. Guys who draw deep inspiration from the achievements founded by the long-ago N.W.O.B.H.M. movement. Yes. The world keeps turning, and we’ve reached the point where more and more freshly formed bands look back to the cradle of metal’s heritage. Judging by the impression they left with their gig at the end of January this year in Ravne na Koroškem, the band has taken a decisive step forward. They’ve also seriously gotten down to recording material that should see an official release in due course. In short, the guys have tightened the ranks, matured a little, and upped their tightness a notch. You could feel all of that in the set of the band led by the up-and-coming guitar “shredder” Gigo. Despite the fact that at the start the band is doomed to a clichéd expressive arsenal that, in its original phrases, will always remind you of this or that old band, caution is anything but superfluous here. Two songs shamelessly came close to straight-up borrowing phrases from Iron Maiden’s first two studio albums. In one of the phrases Vigilance venomously leaned on one of the lead motifs of the Iron Maiden classic Phantom Of The Opera, and in another on the “Killers” track Purgatory. The resemblance is too obvious. And that’s not exactly great. Otherwise, we wish the guys all the best from the heart on the road they’ve set out on.
Tomcat are a band their bassist Gregor Šujica, aka Šujo, was still frantically searching for around the festival grounds half an hour before the show. And luckily they found each other. After Cyclone, the unwavering Šujo finally hit the nail on the head, as Tomcat is the most convincing band he’s ever taken on, and hats off to him for his persistence. The guys have really nice starting points. They cultivate an approach that borrows from the classic hard & heavy rock templates of late-seventies bands. Rok is a charismatic singer who, with that bushy mane, surely has no trouble winning the favor of the fairer sex, which is a great asset for a band just starting out. But he’s first and foremost a guitarist, so combining vocals with guitar acrobatics holds him back a bit. Given the bold dose of stage dynamics they showed, the band could make use of its potential by adding a new member as a “frontman” to free Rok up to devote himself fully to the guitar. Otherwise, exemplary banter from the guys on stage. Of course it wasn’t without Metal Mania Hangover, which couldn’t have found a more fitting setting for its performance, there was also the old Cyclone song Follow Me, and for one of the numbers singer Katarina jumped on stage for lead vocals.
To keep anyone from wading too dreamily into the melodies, the grindcore guys from Brežice, Dickless Tracy, were on hand. The Cepanec brothers’ duo keeps working its relaxed “stand up comedy” approach, which instantly stretches your mouth from ear to ear. Perhaps Cepo, a fan of the Angus Young line of Gibson SG guitars, is a kind of Slovenian version of Opeth’s Mikael Åkerfeldt in this. His thunderous, lower-pitched growl vocals of course work great. The band played once again in a trimmed-down lineup. Without a bassist. At the same time they introduced a new member on stage. Guitarist Andrej, who with his trimmed little beard fleetingly reminded you at first glance of Elvis Jackson guitarist Boštjan Beltram. A thankless comparison, with the Nova Gorica fans of inflatable toys and water pistols, but that’s how it is. Tegla, meanwhile, after the Eruption set, appeared on stage for the second time at this year’s Metal Mania.
Next up: Metalsteel. A well-established name on the Slovenian metal scene, whose crowd once again ate out of their hands. Still, you’d have expected a bit more orgy and general raging in front of the stage, especially remembering 2008 and the gig in the middle of a terrible downpour, when the band saved the situation with fearless playing and kept a sizable crowd of crazed metalheads in front of them despite the wild weather. You can feel the nice mileage of past gigs, the band’s extremely confident stage presence. Another polished set without a slip-up, then. The tightness is great. Among other things, the cohesion of the multi-part harmonized vocal lines confirms it.
From here on, the festival climbed toward its peak and wrapped itself in an abyss of hellish frying that knows no mercy and grants no redemption! The turn of day into night was accompanied by the music of Finnish black metal outfit Baptism. A nice measure of melodic work in the background of the instrumental backing, mixed with sudden switches to blast-beat pulsing, which hugged the mid-tempo Flames nicely, while in Chalice Of Death we got a speed-up of the same! The multi-instrumentalist, main songwriter, arranger and of course singer remains the “one man band” Kommander Lord Sargofagian (Ossi Mäkinen), who gathers suitable underlings for the tour to handle the music for his live rituals. Now, if we combine the report with the next act on the scene, Sargeist, we expected more from the latter. Sargeist are a band that brings members of Behexen under one roof, and for the second time in two days we got to greet guitarist Shatraug on stage, who played Metal Mania the day before as a member of Horna. Sargeist also kept up a similar icy blast of black metal longing, just like Baptism before them. Both bands delivered polished stage shows, with the well-oiled dose of black metal theatrics not missing. Maybe a bit of an overdose for back-to-back consumption, given how stylistically similar the two bands are. However you look at it, people with serious staying power who lasted two hours of such views on stage were richly rewarded.
Most of course were impatiently waiting for Entombed! Legendary pioneering death metallers from Scandinavia who played a decisive role in the development of the distinctive death metal sound of the old continent, which many bands later jumped on. After the album “Wolverine Blues” they lost touch due to a longer break, and of the original members only singer Lars Goran Petrov and guitarist Alex Hellid remain in the band today. Entombed took the stage with the full support of an audience that closed ranks and threw a real storm in front of the stage. People were literally being tossed around and the barrier in the front row was dangerously creaking at the seams. And the little hunched-over fellow Lars Goran Petrov is no pushover. He still pulls out that ear-splitting growl, whose quality didn’t waver in the slightest. A fierce set, fueled by the crazed crowd, brought the festival a majestic peak right in its closing beat. There were the “more” death metal marches like Chaos Breed (“Clandestine”, 1991), and again more rollin’ ones like Wolverine Blues (“Wolverine Blues”, 1993), with which the guys ended the show. An even more majestic moment came when Petrov told the crowd the band is very happy to play in Slovenia again after fifteen years (well, he was off by two years on that), and announced a song from the debut “Left Hand Path” (1990), Drowned. The set list was also filled out by Sinners Bleed (“Clandestine”, 1991), and another classic from the debut, Revel In Flesh, which instantly sent people into wild moshing. That spilled over into another “Clandestine” track, Stranger Aeons. The band leaned especially on its classic album “Clandestine”, so we absolutely can’t skip the venomous opener Living Death (“Clandestine, 1991), which announced the final blaze of Metal Mania Open Air. Then there were Chief Rebel Angel (“Morning Star”, 2002), Out Of Hand (“Wolverine Blues”, 1993), Damn Deal Done (“To Ride Shoot Straight and Speak the Truth”, 1997), as well as the newer Serpent Saints, … a truly cult set list full of classics, so it’s no wonder the crowd lost its marbles. You can’t ask for more at a festival like Metal Mania Open Air. Bullseye! Entombed have outstanding stage fire and commitment in their playing, so let’s hope they squeeze out a new studio record as soon as possible, followed by a new tour.
After Entombed, the Slovenian band Convulsive kept the festival’s gig pulse going, though their presence only modestly provoked mild scratching at the ears of a more or less uninterested crowd, still busy licking the wounds picked up in the Entombed slaughterhouse.
Hats off to the organizer and everyone involved in any way for making it all run so smoothly! Superior organization, with security guys who work with the visitors and don’t beat them up. Much less littering than in past years. Attendance topped the magic 1000 heads, which means the organizer broke even. Let’s hope Metal Mania will now hold on as a permanent fixture of the yearly concert offering on the Slovenian metal scene. Seen globally, through the lens of the whole of Slovenia, this is an event far too important for Slovenians to ignore. If they don’t attend, they can at least be openly proud of it. Because it fulfills its purpose of maturity! It supports local unestablished bands and keeps the genuine pulse of the metal subculture in Slovenia alive. See you next year, then.
photos: Martin Prezelj & Aleš Podbrežnik
Set list
00.35-01.15 CONVULSIVE 23.00-00.20 ENTOMBED 21.20-22.30 SARGEIST 19.50-20.50 BAPTISM 18.30-19.20 METALSTEEL 17.35-18.15 DICKLESS TRACY 16.40-17.20 TOMCAT 15.45-16.25 VIGILANCE 14.50-15.30 ERUPTION 13.50-14.30 KRAMPUS 13.00-13.35 DECOMPOSING ENTITY 12.10-12.45 MOTHERMOUND 11.20-12.45 THE SCOURGE 10.30-11.05 SLAVOCRACY
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