Author: Rok Klemše
Venue: Orto bar, Ljubljana
Concert date: 05.05.2012
Attendance: 100
Folk metal is something that makes every self-respecting metalhead flinch. Accordions, lutes, whistles and a clay-pot bass in metal? No, thanks. And then the turbo folk metallers Pero Defformero from Novi Sad announce another visit to Ljubljana, and the metal community goes through the roof like Iron Maiden or some band of similar caliber was coming to Slovenia. A phenomenon of a special kind, even more so when you witness a packed Orto bar full of metalheads practicing their vibrato to hits that would feel perfectly at home on Pink TV too. But let’s take it from the top.
Combining the seemingly audibly impossible – Serbian turbo folk and heavy metal – was the idea of guitarist Saša Friš, who founded Pero Defformero in the early nineties, a band that borrowed its name from none other than Alan Ford. In 1995 the lineup released their debut Pero Defformero, and after a change of members and the arrival of the band’s icon, vocalist Goran »Biške« Bišević, a follow-up that was never released. The band stopped playing in 1997 because of internal friction, but reformed in 2003 and three years ago put out the album Undergrand.
Pero Defformero are slowly coming full circle, and the band returned to Ljubljana once again, this time to Orto bar, where the four-piece took the stage around half past ten to the roaring enthusiasm of the crowd and wrapped Ljubljana in the melos and pathos of real Serbian turbo folk and heavy metal. This interdisciplinary metal is something that could only have been born in the sick minds of metalheads, something that would have been cast out if Headbanger’s Ball had knocked up Pink TV. And the perfect personification of this bastard, this devil’s spawn, is the one-of-a-kind frontman Biške, who strutted onto the stage in a white tuxedo and a chain (that even Flavor Flav wouldn’t turn down) like a big star of Grand Show. And if anyone thinks turbo metal doesn’t work in practice, they’re badly mistaken. Over punchy heavy metal riffs, lightning-fast Friš solos and a crushing rhythm section, Biške strung together lyrics that give you goosebumps, sung in the style of Šaban Šaulić and other turbo folk veterans. In fact, Pero Defformero are instrumentally pure-blooded heavy metal modeled on pioneers like Judas Priest and Iron Maiden, and technically and compositionally it’s the guitar lines that are astonishing, cutting precisely and ferociously. And over them, like an air-raid siren, Biške rambles about metal, cowboys from Bosnia, Goth girls (with infectious Maiden melodies and »sing-a-long« oooooo parts), sevens at the lottery and Silvana. In between, Biške rattles off jokes that knock you on your ass – for example a little dummies’ metalheads’ guide to folk vibrato, after which the whole Orto bar wailed like Mile Kitić or Ceca (and you get there thanks to the sounds of a Yugo that just won’t start). And for one evening Orto turned into a raft on the Sava.
Sure, Pero Defformero aren’t something you’d voluntarily put on at home (even though they’re excellent musicians!), but you’ll be hard pressed to find a more entertaining (metal) live experience. All that was missing for pure perfection was an MB beer and a portion of Leskovac čevapi. Heavy metalac to sam jaaaaaaaaa!!!
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