Death Metal From an Unlikely Source: Japanese All-Girl Band Galmet (2016)

Arhiv Arhiv Last updated 11 June 2026

Author: Aleš Podbrežnik

Location: Ljubljana / Orto bar / Slovenia
Concert date: April 3, 2016
Attendance: 50
Ticket price: €9.00

On Sunday, April 3, 2016, the Orto fest festival dedicated an evening to death metal. Four young women performing as Galmet took the stage in the smaller upstairs hall of Orto bar.

The night was kicked off by Celje death metallers Morywa, who delivered a more than solid set and warmed up the admittedly small crowd nicely. Barely 50 fans of heavy rhythms showed up for the death metal night. Morywa started playing at 9:15 PM, and given how the crowd responded, they deserve credit for a job well done. The lineup is Peter Gologranc (guitar/vocals), Matic Mušić (bass), Luka “Lux” Zagoričnik (drums), and Miha Klančišar (guitar). The guys are tight on stage, and the two guitarists, Peter and Miha, really stand out with their seven-string Ibanez guitars, which are still not exactly a common sight. During one of the songs in the set, Peter even apologized to the crowd in advance because the track was originally written for a six-string guitar, but the two guitarists clearly had no trouble with it anyway. During their set Morywa also announced some upcoming shows, including an appearance at the Metaldays festival on July 29, 2016, on the second stage. After a good hour, Morywa left the stage and handed it over to the main attraction of the night.

At 10:15 PM the Japanese young women of Galmet stepped onstage, with a lineup of Miki (vocals), Ruki (guitar), Ayano (guitar), and E-chang (drums). The lineup alone is unusual, since the band plays without a bass guitar. It has to be said that there was quite a bit of skepticism in the crowd before the set, because the girls don’t look anything like what they actually showed us. Even vocalist Miki’s speech, full of gentle giggling and broken English (which you can’t hold against the girls, of course), gave a completely different feeling, a completely different impression of the band compared to what followed soon after. The girls themselves also apologized in a couple of sentences for their awkward English pronunciation. Once they started playing, there was serious eyebrow-raising going on in the crowd, because let’s be honest, judging by the band’s looks, nobody expected this. Vocalist Miki especially stood out, with a voice that any hardcore “dec” in a death metal band wouldn’t be ashamed of. And you have to admit, if you were listening to the band on record without knowing who was behind the performance, you’d never guess it was these girls playing like that. Gamlet are currently on a European tour, and the invitation from Dirty Skunks to play in Ljubljana too was a more than pleasant addition to this year’s Ortofest program. They’re super tight and don’t slip anywhere. Besides the aforementioned Miki, guitarist Ruki especially stands out, showing off her skills to the crowd on a Dean “Dimebag Darell signature” guitar. The girls are proof that metal is clearly alive and kicking in the land of the rising sun. Their music sounds a lot like Arch Enemy, The Haunted, and Carnal Forge, and they have two albums out, Hellmet and Dawn Of The Rebellion. After about an hour and a half, the girls wrapped up their set, and they definitely didn’t leave the guests of the death metal night at Orto bar indifferent. There was no shortage of comments like: »What was that?« »I can’t believe it.« »Totally wrecked.«

Kudos to the organizer for spicing up the program like this. I’m convinced that if the show hadn’t been on a Sunday night, it would definitely have drawn a bigger crowd. We’d gladly see the girls on Slovenian soil again.

text and photos: Klemen Udovč