Author: Rok Klemše, Primož Novak
Photos: Nina Grad, Aleš Podbrežnik
Video: Primož Novak
Location: Tolmin, Slovenia
Concert date: 23.07.2015
By the fourth day of the festival the fatigue was really showing, but Metaldays still had a few beasts up its sleeve, from respected underground names to bigger, more commercial-sounding giants. Thursday was marked above all by the return of the hugely popular Arch Enemy, but also by bands like Crowbar and Rotting Christ. And just like every day before it, Thursday brought brutal heat again, and the Soča once again proved to be the festival’s best side program. This is the place to give a big shout-out to the organizers’ best move this year – free running drinking water. It was available last year too, but to a much lesser extent, and this year there would surely have been even more people dropping like flies without it. The fatigue was also hitting our crew, who kept hunting for shade and cold drinks on Thursday and therefore caught a few fewer bands.
We dragged ourselves up to the main stage just as Germany’s Deadlock stepped onto it as the fourth act of the day. They first played in Slovenia back in 2007 at the Metalcamp of the time, and even then the band was presenting its own take on melodic death metal. Their special touch was singer Sabine Scherer, who brought the gentle side to Deadlock’s music, which was otherwise full of punch. The band has since released a few more albums and bowed to certain trends, but never managed to break through. This time the sextet tried to win people over with a set of »hits« that still has plenty of melody, but as an upgrade the band has added metalcore elements. With the low tuning (including an eight-string guitar), they pick up a more modern feel. All well and good, but even if Deadlock sound nice on the album, they’re pretty unconvincing live. Especially shaky on the vocals, where the singer was botching it quite badly. Maybe the sun was to blame. The rest of the members are solidly tight, but there were no standout moments. In short, after eight years Deadlock can go right back into oblivion.
At the same time, Morana got their half hour on the other stage. Named after the Slavic goddess of death and winter (a cheeky joke in this heat), they’re the local melodic death metallers who already have a season ticket to the festival. And not for nothing, because they once again ripped through their set with confidence. Their mix of melodic death and black metal sounds fresh and interesting enough to draw a pretty big crowd to the stage despite the afternoon hour, and the banter between songs still sounds endearingly shy compared to the rawness of the music.
In Tolmin we’ve already experienced and survived the hurricane force of the NOLA scene with Down and Eyehategod in past years, and although sludge fathers Crowbar also played Metalcamp a few years ago, Kirk Windstein and crew were welcomed with open arms this time too. Windstein, who with his looks could easily find a place in Tolkien’s Middle-earth, may be small, but he marched Metaldays through the Louisiana swamps like a giant and showed with ten-ton riffs how an alligator bites. Kirk’s raw candor hits straight to the heart, and the mighty sound shook Tolmin like Hurricane Katrina. Windstein has gathered an excellent instrumental trio around him who breathe with him as one and had no trouble winning people over with explosive energy, especially with the songs To Build a Mountain, Existence Is Punishment, All I Hade (I Gave) and the phenomenal banger The Cemetary Angels. To close, Crowbar epically slammed planets together, too fast and ultra-melancholic like in von Trier’s Melancholia, with the classic Planets Collide, and proved that the only good thing about Kirk leaving Down is that he brought Crowbar back to life!
We stayed glued in front of the main stage for the set by what were probably the only Scandinavians on the main stage this year, Norway’s Vreid. Not so long ago, the four-piece from the Norwegian town of Sogndal had to fight hard to shake off the label of »that band made up of ex-members of cult act Windir«, but today Vreid are a proud, standalone band that always delivers with energetic black ‘n’ roll. The Norwegians have six studio albums under their belt, which is a nice achievement for a good ten years of activity, all the more because practically all six are high quality. Vreid know no dips in that department, as they proved again with this Metaldays show. Although they’d have come across much better in the dark, Vreid won us over even in daylight with songs that are slowly but steadily becoming recognizable »hits« – The Reap, Eldast, I Krig and Raped By Light – and they even slipped in rarer cuts like the epic Blücher from the concept album Milorg, which deals with the Norwegian resistance movement during World War II. An excellent afternoon dose of Sognametal!
Unfortunately, because of unfavorable financial circumstances, quite a few bands pulled out of the festival at the last minute this year, probably causing the organizers plenty of gray hairs. Last-minute replacements are hard to find, but by confirming Canadian heavy metallers Striker, the Metaldays crew outdid themselves. The young Canadians were without a doubt one of the festival’s nicest surprises. With the untamed energy of hard-hitting heavy metal, and despite their youth (the band was only formed in 2007) and relatively small size and obscurity, they filled the area in front of the second stage and got the crowd moving. Striker stand out with strong choruses that you can sing along to with the band by the second go-round even if you don’t know them, the powerful and authoritative vocals of Dan Cleary, and the heavy/power metal bombast of an instrumental four-piece that shows no mercy. Throw in songs where robots, monsters, beer and women with real curves find their place, and a proper heavy metal party is guaranteed. One of the most pleasant discoveries of recent times and a band that could fill the void left by the prematurely retired 3 Inches of Blood.
On the small stage, while Swedish hard rockers Hardcore Superstar were playing, Betraying the Martyrs kicked off their set, which was mostly looked forward to by fans of modern metalcore. Even though their music is pretty dynamic, it feels like listening to a watered-down version of Born of Osiris, except that Betraying the Martyrs throw everything together even more haphazardly and with no particular order. The band gave a lot, and their effort was rewarded with a good turnout.
At eleven it was time for the long-awaited headliners Arch Enemy, who weren’t playing here for the first time, but were playing for the first time with new singer Alissa White-Gluz, who replaced the long-time and renowned Angela Gossow. The band was promoting their latest release War Eternal, on which Alissa also made her debut. The show almost lived up to all expectations. The band is very tight, the rhythm section doesn’t slip, and there are no missteps in the soloing either. Guitarist Jeff Loomis, who stepped into Nick Cordle’s shoes, also did very well. Loomis enchants in the solos as always, although he only had to learn the solos and so couldn’t bring in his innovative style, the one he was known for in Nevermore. There were no real surprises in the Arch Enemy repertoire. They played more or less the important hits from the album Wages of Sin (2001) onward. For festival gigs Arch Enemy skip their early period, even though that was some of the most innovative stuff in melodic death metal. The probably biggest crowd of the whole festival got, besides the new material, hits like Ravenous, No Gods, No Masters, My Apocalypse, We Will Rise, Dead Eyes See No Future and Nemesis. There’s really nothing to say about the instrumental side of AE. The band is still in top form. As for Alissa, we can say she needs a bit more experience, though that was to be expected given her previous time in The Agonist. She screamed her way through the repertoire solidly and doesn’t lack energy, but her communication with the audience isn’t exactly the best. Above all, it was impossible to understand what she was even trying to say. Finally, we can add that despite the long set Arch Enemy come across as a little worn out, because they constantly play the same songs over and over, even though their extensive discography has plenty of excellent tracks that could spice things up a bit.
Arch Enemy weren’t the end of the action on the main stage. Last up were American metalcore crew Unearth, who got a solid response. A good number of people had already left the grounds by then, but those hungry for breakdowns, melodic and groove riffs got all of it in Unearth’s hour. Unlike many metalcore bands, Unearth don’t go for pomp in the style of Heaven Shall Burn or for sugary sweetness, even though there are some melodic vocals too. But this is undoubtedly a superbly tight band. With the very first song, Giles, they let us know there’d be plenty of angry breakdowns, a punchy rhythm section and virtuoso solos. The band’s sheer energy showed they enjoy their gigs, and also that they’ve got loads of shows behind them. They’d actually suit a smaller stage better, so the crowd’s wildness would come through more. But in the end all we can say is that Unearth confirmed that this year’s edition of the festival is very diverse.
This year’s one-hour shift of the concerts was already a problem for plenty of people with a slightly higher EMŠO (read: a few more years on the clock), but there was no problem at all when Greek black metal giants Rotting Christ stepped onto the second stage as the big, long-awaited headliners and played, with their left hand tied behind their back, probably one of the best concerts of this year’s festival. Although the Greeks are fairly frequent guests on our stages, I don’t remember ever seeing them in a better light, because over their good hour everything simply clicked perfectly. The intimacy of the smaller stage, a jam-packed area full of a crowd in great spirits, the band’s fantastic form and especially frontman Sakis, who had the audience eating out of his hand, phenomenal sound and brilliant lights were the factors that made for a not entirely expected, unforgettable experience. In exceptional spirits, Rotting Christ, under the command of the charismatic Sakis, who on stage comes across as a cross between a Greek philosopher and the great chieftain of some polis, mostly presented their current album Kata Ton Daimona Eaytoy and once again confirmed that they’re one of the more unique bands in extreme metal. Rotting Christ have found the perfect balance of black metal with gothic elements and touches of traditional Greek music (especially the superb choir parts), which come alive in a whole new light live and easily conjure a truly diabolical atmosphere. On top of that, even though their core is still black metal, Rotting Christ stand out for guitar riffs that are totally atypical for the genre, not the usual buzzing tremolo but with a strong, epic feel, and made different also by meditative tribal drumming. Rotting Christ pull off what the Greek government can’t (and others too, while we’re at it) – they unite the (metal) nation. King of a Stellar War, The Sign of Evil Existance, Grandis Spiritus Diavolos, Noctis Era and the mighty anthem Non Serviam rang out superbly into the night and made for a perfect close to the fourth day!
Words on Deadlock, Betraying the Martyrs, Arch Enemy, Unearth: Primož Novak
Words on Morana, Crowbar, Vreid, Striker, Rotting Christ: Rok Klemše
Setlist
CROWBAR:
1. All I Had (I Gave)
2. The Lasting Dose
3. To Build A Mountain
4. The Cemetery Angels
5. Walk With Knowledge Wisely
6. Conquering
7. Existence Is Punishment
8. Planets Collide
VREID:
1. Helvete
2. The Reap
3. Disciplined
4. Blücher
5. Væpna lengsel
6. Eldast
7. Arche
8. I Krig
9. Raped By Light
10. Pitch Black
ROTTING CHRIST:
1. 666
2. P’unchaw kachun-Tuta kachun
3. Athanati Este
4. Kata ton Demona Eautou
5. King of a Stellar War
6. The Sign of Evil Existence
7. Transform All Suffering Into Plagues
8. Societas Satanas
9. In Yumen-Xibalba
10. Grandis Spiritus Diavolos
11. Chaos Geneto (The Sign of Prime Creation)
12. Noctis Era
13. Non Serviam
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