Author: Rok Klemše
Photos: Nina Grad
Location: Bohinjska Bistrica, Slovenia
Concert date: March 24, 2017
Friday’s late afternoon belonged to local heroes Morana, who have become a fixture at Metaldays and who also got the honor of playing the very first Winter Days of Metal. Every time I catch Morana, there seems to be one more new member, and this time was no different: keyboardist Tjaši has been joined by a second keyboardist, Zora, and singer Tom by a female vocalist, Nina (Sen). That put a full eight people on stage, who spent a good half hour delivering their vision of melodic/folk death metal. The girls and guys have made nice progress, as their music finally has a common thread and more coherence than before. The drum and guitar solos and the Wintersun cover were totally unnecessary, though, and the photo and video shooting of themselves on stage was distracting. Still, the improvement is definitely there.
The first foreign guests were Dutch death/thrashers Izegrim, who already introduced themselves to the Slovenian crowd at Channel Zero a bit less than five years ago, alongside Onslaught. This time the girl and guys visited Slovenia with their latest album The Ferryman’s End, which they played generously. Sadly, the most memorable thing about the band is still vocalist and bassist Marloes with her ultra-long blond mane, who can unleash a seriously heavy voice that’s nothing like a girly one. The rest of Izegrim, meanwhile, sticks firmly to perfectly solid death/thrash that doesn’t deviate from the genre’s guidelines, let alone stand out in any significant way.
German thrashers Dew-Scented, on the other hand, stood out big time. We haven’t seen them on our soil for an eternity, even though they used to be regulars on our stages, as vocalist Leif Jensen pointed out several times. His voice still sounds like he drank a liter of gasoline and then swallowed a lit match. The Germans have ten studio albums behind them (all the titles start with I) and hundreds of shows played, and it damn well shows. Their slightly-under-an-hour set was a real masterclass in German thrash, ruled by excellent riffs, a crushing rhythm section and the raw voice of great frontman Leif. It was more than wonderful to snap my neck live again after so long to bangers like Cities of the Dead and Never to Return! Let’s hope we don’t have to wait that long again for Dew-Scented to come back to our stages!
If the energy curve shot way up with Dew-Scented, it sadly plunged deep into the negative with Orden Ogan, as the Germans played one of the most boring shows I’ve witnessed in the last few years. All that’s left in my memory of their desperately average power metal is that only a few German-speaking festival guests enjoyed it, while the rest of the crowd waited painfully for it to end. The band’s name, which is supposed to mean Order of Fear, is actually spot on. Power metal this generic is always something to be wisely afraid of.
Luckily, the closing impression of the festival was rescued by a cult thrash name, Arizona’s Flotsam and Jetsam, where Jason Newsted started his metal career. Even after his quick departure, the band released some really great material but always stayed in the shadow of the “bigger” names in thrash, which is a real shame, since the albums Doomsday for the Deceiver and No Place for Disgrace deserve a spot in the thrash encyclopedia, and last year’s Flotsam and Jetsam proves that real thrash blood still runs through the band’s veins. The Americans first played here almost two years ago at Orto Bar, but because of this and that obligation I sadly missed the show, and I figured my chance to catch the Flots live had gone down the drain. To my great delight, the Winter Days of Metal organizers made it up to me, and the band couldn’t have presented itself in a better light either. Even though there were only about two hundred people in the hall, the band was in great spirits and gave it everything. The energetic Eric A.K. is in excellent vocal form, and the rest of the members are not lagging behind in the slightest, especially guitarists Michael Gilbert and Steve Conley, who also delivered an outstanding solo duel during Smoked Out, and the beastly drummer Jason Bittner, probably one of the best additions the band has ever made. In an hour and twenty minutes that passed way too fast, the Americans played the best tracks off the new album, led by the brilliant Iron Maiden (I missed Time to Go, but Eric would probably have keeled over live during those ultra-fast verses), and a few old thrash tomcats with a bit higher ID numbers had us enjoying unforgettable thrash anthems like Hammerhead, Desecrator, No Place For Disgrace and Doomsday For the Deceiver. Flots ’til Death!
If you’re still stuck in post-festival depression a few days after it ends, you know you were at the right festival! Winter Days of Metal was definitely that kind of festival, and even though it was the first edition, you can tell there’s a well-oiled team behind it, because the organization ran flawlessly. Although attendance was, to put it mildly, dismal, the festival has huge potential to become one of the bigger “small” ones, and above all it will make the wait for the summer festival season easier. See you between January 31 and February 4, 2018, in Bohinjska Bistrica!
Photo Gallery
