Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
Venue: Schwarzl-Freizeitzentrum / Unterpremstätten (Graz) / Austria
Concert date: June 22, 2013
Attendance: 7,000
Ticket price: €95.00
Morning at Schwarzlsee. A leisure resort a stone’s throw from Graz, Austria, near the little village of Unterpramstätten. It was day two of See Rock festival. The night before, Iron Maiden had delivered a fantastic show dedicated to celebrating the 25th anniversary of the cult album »Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son« (1988) – RockLine’s report by Rok Klemše is HERE. Expectations for the next day of the festival were way lower. The reason? Motőrhead had pulled out of their slot. In fact, they’d canceled all their summer shows. Lemmy’s health is anything but rosy. A hematoma, heart and vascular problems. Heart surgery, a defibrillator, and so on… So no physical exertion, and from now on only a strict diet for the iron chancellor, who by the way has also been suffering from a milder form of diabetes for years. Which means no more Jack Cole! Let’s hope the iron chancellor »licks it« and that Motörhead in Ljubljana on December 10, 2012, was not the last time we’ll see them.
Without Motörhead, the lineup looked awfully miserable. Three local Austrian bands, Denmark’s Mnemic, then two bigger German bands, Oomph!! and Eisbrecher, thrash titans Slayer near the end, and after them nu metallers Limp Bizkit closing out the festival. Local veterans Alkbottle stepped in to fill the Motőrhead slot. That fact washed hordes of visitors right off the festival grounds, and they headed home as early as the morning hours. Even the RockLine crew seriously considered turning toward Slovenia. Even before the festival, The Dillinger Escape Plan had canceled, and in their place the lineup got the German band Niie, a name that’s surely totally unknown to Slovenes. Sorry excuse for a consolation. And yet…
The show was kicked off by local matadors Parazite X, who stirred a hefty dose of Metallica influences into their modern groove, only to soften it with some Disturbed. After them, Rohstoff tore up the air above Schwarzlsee with their vibrations in the same time slot, but didn’t deliver a very different experience. Yet another trendy metal band that never stuck in the ears. The air was then completely blocked by the Germans Niie from the town of Hartberg, who served up a totally generic version of pop rock, while the vocalist also showed plenty of shakiness in the higher registers (especially in the choruses). Lots of singing about booze. Something that may impress the Germans. About what you’d expect from the general intellectual reach of the German-speaking lands. The festival grounds stayed empty and dreary. Miserable prospects.
Only when metalcore guys Mnemic stepped on stage did the space in front of the stage start showing signs of life. The Danes, who have been fighting their way through the scene since 1998, have earned the status of a respected, quality band recognized in the scene. That was confirmed by the larger crowd that gathered for their show. Mnemic kept their name and spread it thanks to their label, too. They’ve always served loyally the biggest metal label in Europe, Nuclear Blast Records, which also put out their fresh studio effort »Mnemesis« (2012). The band plays modern metal and effectively fuses the genres of metalcore, melodic death metal and even industrial. Of course, the influences of the traditional thrash metal school are noticeable too. Finally, a band cut from the right cloth, one the big stage didn’t chew up. A fistful of aggressive piroxene that finally woke up the second day of the festival!
Next up was a bigger German band. Big on the scene in the German part of Europe. Or at least in the German-speaking countries. Eisbrecher. Some of you may have caught them recently in Germany, opening for The Scorpions. Eisbrecher are a logical continuation of the musical offshoot known in Germany as »Neue Deutsche Härte«, abbreviated NDH. The band has developed an excellent balance between simple metal groove riffs inherited from bands like Sepultura and/or Prong, and then reinforces them with the rhythmic suspension of the industrial paradigm in the vein of Rammstein and/or Ooomph!!. Wherever those two bands are, the pioneering Laibach are of course nearby. There’s also just the right amount of melody, so the biting German verses, weighed down by a hard »R«, fit perfectly with the band’s stature and voice on stage. With Eisbrecher the festival gained a higher quality dimension. But not everything went as smoothly as you’d have wished. Almost right at the start of the set, a cloud burst and it started raining. Raining? Hailstones were flying from the sky. As big as walnuts. The show was temporarily interrupted. After about 15 minutes Eisbrecher continued and took the show to the end in grand style. You could feel the crew’s exceptional routine and tightness. And the hail incident? You can hardly get more fitting than that when it comes to Eisbrecher! An icebreaker on stage and crushed ice from the sky! All that was missing was a bottle of white rum and a splash of cola, and a »Cuba Libre« would’ve been ready!
We mentioned Oomph!! earlier. The band from Wolfsburg, Germany, influenced Eisbrecher alongside Rammstein. Oomph!! released their self-titled studio debut at the same time Rammstein released theirs. Unlike Rammstein, though, Ooomph!! dress up as sailors and also use nautical sets on stage. So this is yet another band that contributed to establishing the term »NDH«. Unlike Rammstein, they don’t use that many »macho antics« on stage (though that doesn’t go for the lyrics), and especially lately they’ve shaken off some of the gloominess and goth. Oomph!! like to turn things into a joke. The current studio album »Des Wahnsinns fette Beute« (2012) brings a real step away from the gothic industrial mass that Oomph!! otherwise lean on in their tradition. And you could feel it in the set list itself, which was heavily stocked with new songs. All the attention, in a jokey getup, was drawn by singer Dero Goi. He started off trying his hand as a percussionist, and later as a keyboardist too. The guy was dressed up as a kind of »superman sailor« who’d fit right into one of the stories by the legendary Alan Ford. Just like Eisbrecher, Oomph!! delivered an extremely interesting show with a special energy. It’s really an experience that only clicks in Germany and Austria. A tried-and-true shtick that Germans and Austrians generally get.
Alkbottle, from Meidling (on the outskirts of Vienna), jumped onto the list at the last minute as a replacement for the canceled Motörhead! In truth, there’s no real replacement for Motörhead in this galaxy, but given the general level of musical understanding of the Austrian crowd, made up mostly of the hard-hitting working class, the organizer solved the whole puzzling mess rather elegantly with Alkbottle. The band, which doesn’t hide its big sympathies for the character and work of AC/DC, has been around since 1990 and plays exceptionally well. The sound is heavy, glowing, gritty, crushing! Alkbottle offer a stage show full of dynamite and real »badass« energy. Thanks to the charismatic and fully committed vocalist Roman Gregory, Alkbottle at least partly soothed the wounds the folks suffered after Motörhead canceled. Alkbottle thus got a longer slot in the lineup. So they stretched out their repertoire and helped the organizer hit Slayer’s officially announced start time. That meant Slayer, the first on the second day’s lineup, didn’t have to adapt to the otherwise radically changed timetable.
Slayer! Cult American thrash metallers, ranked among the »big four«. A band recently plagued by ill health. Not long ago we all said goodbye to the creator of the Slayer bible, the guy who brought all the most important riffs into the songs – Jeff Hanneman. With that loss, it’s almost irrelevant that the band simply can’t manage normal communication with drummer Dave Lombardo, who has left them once again. Before the band’s summer tour, the experienced Paul Bostaph (Exodus, Testament,..) jumped into the lineup, while Gary Holt (Exodus) is a proven legionnaire, whom the band first tried out two years ago, when Hanneman could no longer play guitar because of a flesh-eating bacteria infection in his arm (the result of a venomous spider bite). Slayer, though, put on the reaction of a »wounded lion«. They played an all-or-nothing show. No holding back, no calculated tactics. Just full-on shredding. A wild Kerry King, charisma without equal, who has apparently donated a few kilos to the aged, gray-haired frontman Tom Araya, keeps up the look of defiance and sheer ferocity. Given his stocky posture, the guitarist’s agility and stage dynamics are surprising, and he joined Holt shoulder to shoulder on his right a few times during the show. Unlike King, Holt isn’t allowed to move much toward the center of the stage, as he takes up his far-left position (as seen from the stage). That’s the band’s internal agreement, and for Slayer Holt still plays only the role of a hired gun.
Araya sang the show excellently. You couldn’t feel his vocals getting worn out or weak in the performance. The vocalist kept his strength and freshness throughout the show. The band opened with the title track of the current studio album »World Painted Blood« (2009)! Interestingly, the band didn’t say a single word about their departed comrade Hanneman. Instead, a flag was raised during the encore reading »Angel of Death« with a modified »Heineken« emblem riffing on Hanneman’s surname. Araya has never been a talkative frontman. Nor has he ever lavished philosophical musings on the crowd. It’s rooted in the band’s character that they don’t do pathos and aren’t allowed to show any emotion, any compassion. Still, I think they could have mentioned the late Hanneman’s name in one sentence during the show, in any context whatsoever. The playing, though, was outstanding. Beyond expectations. Razor sharp! As the band’s name hints, a real slaughterhouse! A show that turned around in an instant. 80 minutes of live, white-hot playing! No flubs!
And to close the festival, Limp Bizkit! The band woke up after a six-year break in 2011, when they released the new studio album »Gold Cobra«, and this year they’re already announcing a new one titled »Stampede of the Disco Elephants«. Limp Bizkit are one of those phenomenal so-called nu-metallers who give you only two choices. You either love them or you hate them. Their set brought See Rock festival to a close! They remain a pseudonym for extreme crudeness. Rapper and gym rat Fred Durst in a truck driver getup. He spent the first few minutes ranting at the crowd and showering it with a swarm of colorful American curses. The whole thing, which in some normal story would have felt humiliating, of course had the opposite effect. The crowd cheered Durst enthusiastically for every single swear word. Paradoxical, no? Someone insults you, and you applaud and glorify them for it. That’s just how it goes with Limp Bizkit. Fred Durst is a kind of rapper lost in the warped form of the metal game. Limp Bizkit are absolute oddballs. The quartet showed that despite the moronic use of »redneck« shtick (apparently those caps with the »visors« boost their self-confidence), they successfully compensate for the »intellectual shallowness« with some interesting musical solutions, as confirmed right away by the opening cover of Ministry’s song called Thieves. Durst overdid the workout as much as anyone possibly could. On his left (as seen from the stage down) stood the untamed guitarist Wes Borland. He was once again thoroughly slathered in dark goo all over his body. Despite Borland’s extreme kitsch, which of course overshadowed absolutely all the folks in Austrian Styria that day, it’s worth pointing out that the band made up for all these excesses with excellent playing. Limp Bizkit didn’t forget to reel in the most important covers of cult acts either, including Faith (George Michael), Killing In the Name Of (Rage Against The Machine) and Behind Blue Eyes (The Who), while sensibly loading the repertoire with songs from every period of their discography. A very important part of the job on stage for Limp Bizkit is also done by a guy named DJ Skeletor (who replaced DJ Lethal last year), who handles the computer programming and sampling, which really came through in the pauses and transitional parts between songs. A confident set to close the festival. And, last but not least, a fairly surprising choice by the organizer!
All in all, See Rock festival ended successfully and kept its »head above water«. But only just. The event is conceived on a grand scale. Too grand. The organizing crew therefore struggled to get the place under confident control. Most often it got stuck on communication with the security staff. They were working off different orders, so plenty of bans still ended up being enforced. The venue itself is very charming. You can cool your overheated head in the lake any minute of the day. The VIP area is richly stocked with delicious food. Only the drinks are pricey. From a journalist’s/photographer’s standpoint, by far the dumbest decision is not letting journalists and photographers into the fan pit! We had to juggle like crazy, especially at the Iron Maiden show. Another pretty nasty move by the organizer is that they skimped on drinking water in every way imaginable. With a single purpose! To squeeze every last cent out of the crowd! The tap water in the restrooms’ sinks, for example, barely trickled. And on top of that, it was only hot. God forbid anyone should drink tap water by accident! Maybe clever, sure, but on the other hand utterly inhumane!
The content of See Rock festival, from the standpoint of the average Slovenian rock/metal fanatic, was far from delivering the optimum, let alone perfection. Most of the performers were of German-speaking origin. So it was really hard to wait for the festival’s highlights across both days. Next year the lineup needs to be sensibly spiced up. Trim the German-speaking bands. Keep at most 20% German-speaking bands going forward. This year, in fact, half of all the performers at See Rock festival were from Germany and Austria, and it breathed the mold of festivals like Nova Rock and FreQuency. The question is whether See Rock can successfully develop its own original identity and festival character this way! Motörhead dropped out, The DIllinger Escape Plan didn’t get a decent replacement in time, and so on. On the second day, many people left the festival because of the Motörhead cancellation. It was precisely Motörhead’s appearance that had convinced them to make the trip to See Rock festival in the first place. Let’s hope the organizer learns something useful from this year’s clumsy decisions and next year puts on the same festival at a much higher level than this year!
Setlist
SLAYER:
1. World Painted Blood
2. Spirit in Black
3. War Ensemble
4. Hate Worldwide
5. Bloodline
6. Disciple
7. Mandatory Suicide
8. Chemical Warfare
9. The Antichrist
10. Die by the Sword
11. Postmortem
12. Hallowed Point
13. Seasons in the Abyss
14. Dead Skin Mask
15. Raining Blood
—encore—
16. South of Heaven
17. Angel of Death
LIMP BIZKIT:
taped intro:
1. Thieves
2. Rollin’ (Air Raid Vehicle)
3. Hot Dog
4. Eat You Alive
5. My Generation
6. Livin’ It Up (Instrumental Outro)
7. My Way
8. Counterfeit (only up to the transition section)
9. Nookie
10. Re-Arranged (only up to the transition section)
11. Killing in the Name
12. Faith (up to the transition section)
13. Gold Cobra
14. Behind Blue Eyes
15. 9 Teen 90 Nine
16. Take a Look Around
17. Break Stuff
taped outro
Photo Gallery
