Author: Primož Novak
Video: Primož Novak
Location: Kino Šiška / Ljubljana / Slovenia
Concert date: 25.01.2016
Ticket price: 25€/30€
About half a year after their Metaldays set last year, Canadian hyperblasters Kataklysm were back on their club tour, continuing the promo run for Of Ghosts and Gods. Like its predecessor, the album got a warm reception thanks to a simple recipe built on punch and melody, which is more than ideal for big crowds. In keeping with Kataklysm’s popularity, the show was announced for Kino Šiška.
Of course, there were supporting acts too. First onstage at 8:00 PM were another set of old friends, Aborted. In a mere half hour, Aborted delivered a great warm-up built mostly on newer material from the new EP, Termination Redux, and the current album, The Necrotic Manifesto (review HERE). Svencho and co. even remembered a few older records, so we got Hecatomb as well as the staples Meticulous Invagination and the closer The Saw and the Carnage Done. In their short set, Aborted got a chunk of the crowd windmilling, but as for a proper moshpit, they can only dream. Maybe Aborted have gotten a little boring over time. A few of the songs make it clear that the band has nothing more to offer than fast, brutal tracks with simple grind passages. Every now and then a slow, groovy part pops up, but that’s not enough. Aborted have been visiting Slovenia regularly for more than ten years, and in that time they’ve gone through countless members, yet the music hasn’t changed drastically (apart from that deathcore album). Aborted do satisfy their fans, but there aren’t many of them.
With Greece’s Septicflesh, expectations are undoubtedly high, given how megalomaniacal their albums are, especially the latest one, Titan (review HERE). Sadly, the band doesn’t have the budget to bring an orchestra and a choir along to the live shows too. You have to settle for the fact that everything that makes Septicflesh special comes off a backing track. That includes the clean vocals of guitarist Sotiris Vayenas, who doesn’t tour with the band. The band still puts on an energetic show, with the focus on material from the last three albums, the ones that made them recognizable. The standout member is undoubtedly singer/bassist Spiros Antoniou, who has a powerful voice and tries to keep the crowd pumped through the whole set by saying »My friends« a few too many times. Drummer Krimh, who caught people’s attention earlier with his excellent playing in death metal outfit Decapitated, has also slotted into the band very well. Septicflesh are definitely worth seeing, even if the backing-track parts don’t exactly give off a feeling of originality.
There’s probably no need to say much about Kataklysm. If you’ve been to any of their shows in the past decade, you can pretty much predict what the band will play. Besides some obligatory new stuff meant to promote the latest album, Of Ghosts and Gods (review HERE), you’ll hear the staples like As I Slither, Crippled & Broken, Push the Venom and Shadows and Dust. In short, it’s hard to expect any big surprises at a Kataklysm show. But since this was a club gig and therefore a slightly longer setlist, Kataklysm sometimes do pull out an older tune. This time they revived Manipulator of Souls from the album Epic. As a surprise, they also added Open Scars from In the Arms of Devastation, a song they’d never played live before. Maybe they could pull moves like that more often to make their setlist less predictable. Anything older than that we can pretty much forget about. As always, Kataklysm got through their set competently, though it was quickly obvious that they were mostly going through the motions. The crowd wasn’t as big as at Metaldays, and the band’s effort matched it. Since their last club visit, at Gala Hala two years ago, Kataklysm have gained an incredible amount of popularity. The latest, more commercially minded albums confirm it, with ever more emphasis on melody and simplicity, even if they’re still plenty brutal. Drummer Oli Beaudoin helped too, being more precise and more inventive than his predecessor. But the drummer is pretty much the most interesting member; the rest of the guys played their parts on autopilot. Vocalist Maurizio Iacono also shows that his voice isn’t as strong and expressive as it used to be, though he holds up quite well for his age. Because it was a Monday and the crowd wasn’t showing much enthusiasm, Kataklysm simply skipped their two-song encore.
Kataklysm’s routine set probably thrilled the younger fans, while the older crowd could only hope for an old-school track or two to spice up an already worn-out setlist. Still, considering the band turns 25 this year, it’s respectable that they’re still at it.
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