If there’s one good thing about the end of summer, it’s knowing that autumn means the club gig season kicks off. And it’s shaping up to be a packed one, with a small sea of shows already announced. Last Friday, the traditional Metal med vodami went down at Jedro in Medvode, warming things up with three local bands.
First on stage, with the standard fifteen-minute “academic delay”, were SkyEye, the big hope of local heavy metal, and with every gig they play they live up to that hype a bit more. By the first song the space in front of the stage was already packed. In a relatively short time the band has won over a bunch of die-hard supporters, and they were cheering the guys on like mad again. SkyEye have been racking up gig mileage over the last few months and it shows. The band is much tighter now, especially in the Stalowsky/Kavčnik guitar duo, where little slip-ups hardly happen anymore, and Kavčnik delivered a string of stunning, masterfully played “Adrian Smith-style” solos. SkyEye debuted two brand-new songs, and it was great to hear that they’re a clear step away from the sometimes (too) obvious Iron Maiden influences. On top of the excellent instrumental performance, the show was once again stolen by the devilish frontman, Jan, whose vocals are even more hellish, and who proved with the cover of the Maiden classic Flight of Icarus that he sings Dickinson like it’s a walk in the park. SkyEye said goodbye to the Medvode crowd with the anthemic In the Name of Sky Eye and invited everyone to the release of their studio debut Digital God, which they’ll celebrate on 9.11.2018 at Orto bar.
Compared to the bands before and after them, Eruption are real veterans, since next year they’ll mark a full fifteen years of existence, yet this was their very first show at Jedro. Although vocalist Buco is the only one left from the original lineup, the band works as one, and on stage they’re without a doubt some of the best the Slovenian metal scene has to offer. The woman and the guys proved that again, spinning Medvode around in a toxic waltz of somewhat more complex thrash metal, and since it was their first show in Medvode, they seemed even more “fired up” to show why they’re right now (and, truth be told, have been for a few years) probably the crown jewel of homegrown thrash. In the storm of songs, mostly wrecking balls from the current Cloaks of Oblivion that are already pretty firmly lodged in the crowd’s mind, a mosh pit broke out in front of the stage, which pushed the band to deliver one of their better performances in a while.
After a rather lengthy stage setup, the headliners of the night, Cowboys From Hell, took the stage. The band is made up of seasoned veterans: vocalist Igor Zonta (ex-Revolver), bassist Edi “Ejaq” Udovič (ex-Almost Rage), guitarists Miha “Buco” Oman (ex-Lady’s First, Mit) and Vasilij Sušanj (Su-Shine), and drummer Marko “Soki” Soršak (Elvis Jackson). The band took its name from the cult song and album by the legendary Pantera, but its cover repertoire is far broader and takes in plenty of other stuff. That was more distracting than not this time, and all the more obvious after the great performances by SkyEye and Eruption, who build their story on strong original material. Cowboys From Hell, on the other hand, served up a pretty schizophrenic mix of covers, ranging from David Bowie through Pantera, Metallica, Machine Head and Slipknot, all the way to Alice in Chains. There’s nothing to fault in the playing itself, since the guys know their instruments. What stood out were the faithfully played solos from under Sušanj’s fingers and Zonta’s chameleon-like vocal performance, but sadly, this time leaning on the safe option of playing covers came off a little cheap.
