Warm-Up for Tolmin’s MetalDays Hits Cvetličarna This Time! (2013)

Arhiv Arhiv Last updated 11 June 2026

Author: Rok Klemše, Urban Bolta
Photos: Nina Grad

Location: Cvetličarna / Ljubljana / Slovenia
Concert date: 06.06.2013
Attendance: 500
Ticket price: free entry

Just over a month separates us from the start of the biggest festival on Slovenian soil, MetalDays in Tolmin, which this year marks the tenth anniversary of the MetalCamp festival and, for the first time, is truly and completely thrilling with its killer lineup. The fever before July 21st is being pushed even higher by a series of MetalDays Warm Up gigs, and this one, probably thanks in part to the free admission, went down in front of a big crowd that nicely filled Ljubljana’s Cvetličarna.

At a academic quarter past eight, the first blooms on stage were the young Kranj death metallers Armaroth, who had released their first EP False Vision just a day or two before the show and used the gig to promote it. In a good half hour the guys chopped heads off with hellishly sounding death metal that draws mainly on American death metal a la Monstrosity and Immolation, plus Dutch death metal with a dash of Bolt Thrower »primitiveness.« In that half hour they strung together technically complex riffing, polka-rhythm drumming, and the pleasantly twisted and brutal vocals of Filip Košnik. He delivered a really confident, well-executed growl, though he spoiled the good impression with some dim-witted, drunken banter between songs. But fine, let the music do the talking, and in Armaroth’s case it was backed by a truly fat sound, mostly thanks to the »immolationish« guitars of the Klemen/Martin duo. You can tell the band has been racking up the miles, because they look far more confident on stage and approach the thing with precisely measured bursts of promising death metal. This time Armaroth were carried on the hands of the loyal Kranj crowd, and they’re definitely one of the most promising death metal acts in the country right now.

Second up were BLACK DIAMOND, a project of two wholehearted guitarists from Novo Mesto, Igor and Nejc, who after years of effort and sweat launched their long-awaited debut »Last Man Standing« this spring. After its premiere presentation at Orto bar a few weeks ago, this gig was only the Black Diamond’s second ever, which made them probably the biggest exclusive of all the acts. The quintet kicked off with the single Power of Mind, which drew a surprising number of curious ears into Cvetličarna. I say a lot because Black Diamond cultivate a complex style of heavy metal that takes many listens to fully win you over. Unlike at Orto bar, the band had plenty of room on stage, which did a lot of good for frontman Žanil Tata – Žak, who needs conditions tailor-made for him to get his engine fully running. He’s an extreme perfectionist, which he proved every moment of the show, including on the vocally demanding epic Edge of Sanity. Because of the project nature of their existence, Black Diamond are a little shaky in the confidence of their delivery, but on the other hand they’re saved by the instrumental genius of every single member – led by the unerring rhythm section of Klemen on drums and Urban on bass. The band had technical problems on stage, and the lack of sound rehearsal showed in their furrowed brows. The stage sound was bad, which is all the more awkward given the progressive nature of Black Diamond’s expression, but they still pulled themselves out of the situation damn well! Because of the time crunch of the whole evening they had to seriously cut their set, closing the half-hour show with one of their mightiest compositions, Dreams of Tomorrow. A good gig that lacked only a longer running time to be the cherry on top. Black Diamond, see you next time!

The genre-diverse mix continued with the third act, Dead Dildo Drome, with whom we swam into far more modern metal sounds. The band counts (former) members of Leaf Fat, God Scard and Language of Thought Hypotesis in its ranks, and genre-wise they move between death and thrash metal, with strong modern metalcore elements always lurking behind it. Their show is just as chaotic, mainly thanks to the unhinged frontman Robert “Šerot” Šercer, who once again put on black gloves and the white coat of a mad scientist. Psychotic outbursts (vocal and otherwise) are always a feast for the eyes and ears, and on top of that the instrumental four-piece is technically stunningly well-versed and could easily kick the ass of plenty of more orthodox metal bands. The energetic, constantly headbanging guitarists throw down some brutal death metal riffs, but mostly they fire off melodic passages that recall Swedish melodic death metal or newer American bands like Lamb of God or Shadows Fall. The whole thing is capped off superbly by truly devastating and quite innovative drumming, full of colorful and varied transitions and thundering double bass. Dead Dildo Drome may not be for everyone, since despite the aggression and rawness of death metal, the core elements still dominate, with annoying breakdowns at the forefront and sappy, sugary clean vocals, but there’s no doubt this is a band that knows exactly how to serve the music they play, because they do it at a high level of quality.

Almost two years had passed since Rockline last met up with METALSTEEL from Medvode, one of the most experienced bands on our heavy metal scene. In that time Metalsteel wrapped up the promotion of their last album »Entertainment« (2010) and already turned their minds toward a new project, proof of which was this concert at Cvetličarna, where besides some evergreen hits they served up new compositions that will grace the album currently in the works. This is a band with extreme live mileage, so despite their relaxed approach the Medvode boys had no trouble keeping the crowd in front of the stage. One of the more monumental moments of the show was the performance of The Trip, with its outstanding riff theme from the fingers of guitarist Rok, who during the instrumental section moved over to Matej on the right side of the stage, where the two headbanged together in classic Status Quo manner. The new songs, premiered live, followed the harder-hitting sound of the previous album, which is definitely encouraging news for all fans of classic Metalsteel! Toward the end of the (way too) short get-together, the mostly newer material was calmed down by the ballad Topla je smrt, on which Beni handed vocal duties to drummer Daša, and for the farewell they of course hit us with Novi svet. I have no doubt that two gigs in a row (in just a few days they’ll play Kino Šiška in front of the legendary Saxon) will do the Medvode boys good and pour fresh creative energy into them during the demanding process of composing the new album.

The hot finish to Thursday night was delivered by the veterans of the local metal scene, Noctiferia. The guys have been popping up on home stages more actively again lately, slowly heralding the upcoming studio record that’s currently in the works. The moment the band stepped on stage, a strong wind of professionalism blew off it, and Noctiferia are truly a band that can hold its own on stage with bigger foreign metal names. Whether you like the current genre mix of the music they play or not, the mileage and experience show from a mile away. The Ljubljana five-piece once again focused on their newer, later period, from the album Slovenska morbida onward, with an even greater emphasis on the still-current album Death Culture. The excellent sound pushed to the front the deep, rhythmically chopped and crushing riffing of the guitar duo Igor Nardin/Roman Fileš, plus Nardin’s always spectacular solos, while the ever-reliable Uroš’s deep, rumbling bass and Matjaž’s dynamic drumming lagged behind not one bit. Gianni roared flawlessly and convincingly, and he also filled the silence between songs effectively and confidently, especially with the topical dedication of the song and especially its chorus (»Money Is Your God«), Demoncracy, to our dear Janez. This time the most eagerly awaited thing was definitely the little preview of the studio album in the works, which Noctiferia offered by presenting a new song. For it Igor strapped on an eight-string axe, and it wasn’t hard to figure out who is currently the biggest influence on Noctiferia’s work. That would definitely be the Swedish masters Meshuggah, whom Noctiferia sadly got a bit too close to with the new song in many ways. The massive, fat riffs sounded like something from under Thordendal’s fingers, and Matjaž’s drumming also reminded us of Haake’s more than once. It’ll be interesting to hear how the new studio release sounds as a whole, but there’s no doubt we once again witnessed a top-notch show that fittingly capped an excellently prepared warm-up for the eagerly awaited Tolmin paradise that is MetalDays!

Text on Black Diamond and Metalsteel: Maja Kadunc
Text on Armaroth, Dead Dildo Drome, Noctiferia: Rok Klemše