Authors: Rok Klemše, Aleš Podbrežnik
Photos: Nina Grad
Location: Tolmin, Slovenia
Concert date: July 26, 2017
Attendance: 11,000
Ticket price: €160.00 (weekly pass) / €140.00 (three-day pass) / €60.00 (one-day pass)
We kicked off Wednesday’s concert action early in the afternoon with the Slovenian trio of Srd, Shotdown and Morywa, with the Italian sci-fi thrash outfit Vexovoid wedged in between. Srd shook up the Slovenian music scene with their outstanding debut Smrti sel, word of which spread well beyond our borders. That’s probably why the band was greeted by a somewhat bigger crowd, and the guys led by Goran Slekovec showed their take on black metal in an excellent light. It’s occasionally spiced up with black ‘n’ roll bits, and marked by well-thought-out guitar lines and Goran’s even rawer yet clearly articulated vocals. Those shone brightest again in the songs with Slovenian lyrics, and of course, not least because of the location, the ten-minute hymn Soči couldn’t be missing, and it came out phenomenal.
Much, much lighter was the approach picked by the heavy metallers from the Slovenian Littoral, Shotdown, risen from the ashes of Shutdown. So it was actually fair to expect that most of the set would be songs from the album Heavy as Metal & Hot as Hell, but the guys surprised us. In a good half hour they played exclusively Shotdown material, which is a sort of logical continuation of the Shutdown heavy metal story, though the new band allows itself considerably more genre detours. So Shotdown at times drifted all the way to ska, dub and reggae, which was fun and appealing for a moment but quickly became superfluous. Otherwise the guys have stage posing down to the bone, led by frontman Egzi, with the other members not lagging behind, while Marty Favent’s guitar escapades were a real feast for eyes and ears. An energetic, fun show, and Shotdown definitely made it clear they’re worth keeping an eye on.
Right around the middle of Shotdown’s set, it was time to rush over to the New Forces stage. Well, at least for fans of bands like Voivod, Vektor and Obliveon, because Italian progressive thrashers Vexovoid had just landed in Tolmin from outer space. If Italian (metal) bands, with rare exceptions, are proverbially on the outs with quality, it was a joy to hear that Vexovoid are among those exceptions. The trio draws heavily on the legacy of the eternal Voivod, and even more on technical thrash in the style of Vektor, but that’s by no means a knock against them. The guys know exactly who they took as role models and touch those roots respectfully, but they also bring enough of their own to keep it from being a pure copy. Vexovoid won us over with light-speed thrash full of »weird« riffs that even Piggy wouldn’t turn down, space themes, good vocals and varied, dynamic songs. During the guitar solos a void opened up that the bass alone couldn’t fill, but Vexovoid put the EP Heralds of the Stars in a nice light, along with new songs that I hope they’ll soon send into interstellar space in the form of a studio full-length.
Soon after, the last home act of the day took the main stage, the Celje heavy hitters Morywa, who managed to lure quite a few listeners in front of the stage. The guys roared and rumbled with their eight-string guitars in the early afternoon and trampled all over Metaldays with groove-heavy muscle that still surprises with the clarity of its riffing and the poignancy of the performance, not far from the tech/death perfection of the likes of Decapitated. The choice of the new drummer, Nikita Herman, also proved excellent, bringing some new and interesting touches to the already familiar drum thunder. Morywa clearly realized what a challenge the big stage is, passed the test without trouble and no doubt won themselves some new fans.
An even wilder frenzy, one of the biggest at this year’s festival, was whipped up in the meantime by the hot Barcelona thrashers Crisix. They’re less known here than their Spanish colleagues Angelus Apatrida, but that will surely change after their Metaldays show. Crisix aren’t marked by some crazy originality, which you can’t invent in thrash metal anyway, but their big advantage is truly insane energy, spewing out in every direction. The crowd recognized it right away and moshed and sang along loudly from the very start of the Crisix set, and Crisix put the cherry on top when every single band member (except the drummer, of course, though that would have been even crazier to see, hehe) stepped off the stage and played a song with their instruments right in a circle pit. Crazy!
Even more running between stages followed during the next four acts. Romania’s Dordeduh wrapped the Boško Bursać stage in darkness with their atmospheric folk/black metal, but this time they didn’t quite click, unlike the Norwegian progressive power metallers Triosphere. Those won people over mainly with their excellent execution and the strong, piercing vocals of bassist Ida Haukland. If time had allowed, I’d surely have given them a bit more attention, but curiosity was nagging me about what the Italian gothic/doom metallers The Foreshadowing would have to offer. Thanks to the afternoon fatigue, the Romans with their doom metal tinged with gothic elements weren’t exactly the most convincing, but they made it known they’re worth checking out. Their doom, modeled on bands like Paradise Lost, My Dying Bride, November’s Doom and Katatonia, didn’t sound bad at all.
Meanwhile, madness perfumed with the scent of Czech feces already reigned under the Lemmy stage, courtesy of the goregrinders Gutalax. Hordes of visitors had already given a hint of what was coming, streaming toward the big stage armed with toilet brushes, toilet seats, toilet paper and other necessities. The Czechs marched onto the stage in white coveralls to the sounds of the Ghostbusters theme, then reeled off a heap of little songs dedicated to portable toilets, rectal openings, farts, butts and feces in one form or another. With the obligatory pig vocals of singer Matty, of course. Fun for a song or two, and even that mostly thanks to the crowd dressed up in a thousand and one things you’d hardly run into even on Halloween or at carnival.
Ears accustomed to more serious music therefore quickly fled to the Boban stage, where a new thrash metal chaos was already waiting with American heavyweights Warbringer. A few months ago they nearly demolished Orto bar with mega energy, so expectations were huge this time too. Warbringer lived up to them, even though they went for an interesting but bold move. After the first song, Silhouettes, which truly incinerated the crowd like the shockwave of a nuclear blast, vocalist John Kevill announced that they would play the current album Woe to the Vanquished in its entirety, from A to Z. So no surprises, but Warbringer, with their raw power and explosive energy, stunned us once again. We hadn’t experienced such a thrash shot in a long time, and that’s thanks mainly to Kevill, who goes from an incredibly pleasant and well-read conversation partner to a rabid psychopath on stage. Warbringer’s tank treads thus ran over the crowd with Remain Violent, Shellfire, Spectral Asylum and Divinity of Flesh. The hardest thing to predict was how the ten-minute epic about World War I, When the Guns Fell Silent, would hold up live. This slowly unfolding, escalating massacre, drawing on the atmosphere of Iron Maiden and Bathory epics, worked much better live than on record, and given the setting it was played in, it felt even more authentic. Warbringer have once again proven that they’re without a doubt one of the best, if not the best, new-generation thrash metal bands!
Warbringer were so good that it was hard to tear ourselves away from the second stage, and we caught uncle Abbath toward the end of his set. Nothing new in the land of the north, but that doesn’t mean anything bad, because Abbath once again served up »pure holocaust« of Norwegian black metal about cold and winter. Naturally, the classic Abbath poses were all there. The only slight niggle was the setlist, which was once again entirely classic and, toward the end, (too) full of Immortal songs. A shame, since the Abbath debut is excellent. Abbath of course also delivered some witty, humor-filled banter, and at the end a new metal meme, which went viral just minutes after the incident. At the end of the show, Abbath jumped off the stage and ran up to the top of the slope, where he took photos with fans. Abbath wouldn’t be Abbath, of course, if he hadn’t tried his move in reverse too, running down the slope with a guitar in his hand and face-planting spectacularly. After the fall, as befits a »mighty ravendark«, he naturally got up and kept on posing as if nothing had happened. Priceless.
One of the nicest and most unexpected surprises among this year’s announcements was definitely the British death metal veterans Cancer, who started their career back in 1987 and released at least two cult albums (To the Gory End and Death Shall Rise), yet stayed in the shadow of fellow countrymen like Benediction, Bolt Thrower and Carcass. At Metaldays, Cancer played as a trio of John Walker (vocals, guitar), Ian Buchanan (bass) and Carl Stokes (drums), the lineup that recorded those two albums, and it was a privilege to see the elder statesmen of British death metal in very good form. Sadly, there wasn’t exactly an abundance of energy coming off the stage, and the sound wasn’t the best either, which can probably be put down to the fact that the trio played on borrowed instruments (Walker even with the guitar of David Vodopivec from Sober Assault!). Still, it was lovely to hear cult classics of blood and disgust like Tasteless Incest, Death Shall Rise and Hung, Drawn and Quartered.
Right after that, another solid dose of death metal followed on the Lemmy stage, also tinted a little British. Vocalist Nick Holmes (Paradise Lost) has been active for three years now with the Swedish death metal supergroup Bloodbath, having deep down found his urge for growling and death metal again. The album Grand Morbid Funeral, which he recorded with Bloodbath, isn’t exactly a masterpiece, so expectations weren’t really high either, but Bloodbath won us over already with the first killer, Let the Stillborn Come to Me. Even more than the band, I doubted Holmes’s performance, but with his very first brutal screams he shut up every doubter. Dressed in a monk’s cowl and, like his colleagues, covered in blood, he roared almost like in the days of Lost Paradise, and he also surprised us with his good spirits and good old English black humor. Right at the start, for instance, he joked at his own expense about wearing sunglasses at night, and about the fact that Bloodbath come from Sweden even though he himself speaks excellent English. Bloodbath delighted with a guitar meat-grinder dressed up in the sound of Swedish death metal, the band finally sounded a bit louder on the big stage, and the song selection, crushed and spat out from all four studio albums, was finger-licking good. The best death metal show of this year’s Metaldays, had a band a day later not taken that »title« away.
Grave Digger, the long-lived Bochum representatives of the old school of Teutonic heavy metal, indestructible gravedigging lumberjacks led by the unmistakable trademark growl (in today’s lineup) of the only founding and original member and band boss Chris Boltendahl, came thundering onto the festival’s second stage with their new record in their pocket, called »Healed By Metal«. The sturdy quartet opened the show with that record’s title track. Grave Digger essentially built a set list to the taste of die-hard fans, as most of it was made up of classics from the so-called trilogy, led by Excalibur, The Roundtable (both from the album »Excalibur«, 1999), then the Tunes of War (1996) classic In the Dark Of the Sun, the obligatory Rebellion (The Clans Are Marching), the surprise and ballad Mary the Queen of Scots, and the »Knights of the Cross« (1998) classics Lionheart and Knights of the Cross. Only at the tail end of the repertoire did Grave Digger round off the hour of revelry with the expected Heavy Metal Breakdown. Nothing from the albums »The Reaper« (1993) and »Heart of Darkness« (1995). So the story of the band’s worn-out setlists repeats itself. A shame. The show was done at a high level, especially as far as Chris Boltendahl’s vocal charisma goes, with his growling serving him well this time even in the more demanding higher registers (the chorus of Knight s of th Cross). The only one who disappointed a bit was guitarist Axel Ritt, thanks to some almost inexcusable sloppiness in his guitar playing, like the thoroughly botched solo in Knights of the Cross and the badly sloppy intro to Lionheart. He also allowed himself a few more inaccuracies during the rest of the material. The Arnold/Becker rhythm tandem was in full gallop again, and Stefan once again made it clear that he remains one of the main rulers of the double bass drum pedals on the modern European power and heavy metal scene. No question. All in all, a lovely new get-together with legends.
On the third day, the main stage was closed out by the famous queen of metal Doro Pesch with her band Doro. The esteemed lady remains flawless at what she does. She keeps up an extraordinary emotiveness and intensity. Whatever she takes on, she takes on with unexpected passion and drive. As if she weren’t almost sixty. Doro have kept the same lineup for years, and that of course shows in the excellent, precise, tight playing, with the distinctive vocal of the blonde singer standing out, retaining all its stamp and potency even in the mature years of her long career. Of course the set list was led by classics created back when Doro was in Warlock, and the dynamic show meant the minutes flew by. So: I Rule the Ruins, Burning the Witches, Fight for Rock, East Meets West, Für Immer, and in the encore Metal Racer, Without You (dedicated to all the departed icons of rock music, led by Lemmy) and the closing Earthsaker Rock. Warlock, of course. All We Are was by no means missing either. The crowd was made of somewhat different dough than the day before, when the whole festival »thundered« during Amon Amarth. The response was a bit calmer, with far less of a crush in front of the stage. Perhaps the third day was slowly showing signs of fatigue in the wide metal hordes, who surrender themselves to full debauchery at this festival.
For the grand finale of the festival’s third day, Norwegian musical »nutcases«, first-rate and special musical fusionists Shining. shook the »Boško Bursać« stage. The avant-garde metal quintet from Oslo delivered one of the most intense concert experiences of the entire festival program. »Black jazz« is definitely an incredibly apt label when we talk about this band’s music. With their incredible fusion of manifold genre premises, backed by a mighty groove of hard, solid rhythmic kinetics, a noisily packed sound picture driven by heavy, greasy guitar riffs, saxophone escapades, the integration of sub-rhythmic patterns and old-school synth makeup straight out of the authentic look of eighties commercial music, Shining kept surprising us nonstop. Expect the unexpected. Spontaneous, too. And a full bag of first-rate wit, spiced up the »Scandinavian« way. Yes. Along with all their stage escapades, one of whose main driving engines is the nimble tongue-doctor and eccentric vocalist Jørgen Munkeby, Shining also have a heaping measure of sarcasm and lucid cheekiness. So they simply stunned and enchanted us once again! A band you can’t get enough of.
Nina Grad (photos): Srd, Shotdown, Crisix, Triosphere, Dordeduh, The Foreshadowing, Cancer, Abbath, Bloodbath, Grave Digger, Doro, Shining
Rok Klemše: Srd, Shotdown, Vexovoid, Morywa, Crisix, Dordeduh, Triosphere, The Foreshadowing, Gutalax, Warbringer, Abbath, Cancer, Bloodbath
Klemen Udovč (photos): Vexovoid, Gutalax, Warbringer
Aleš Podbrežnik: Grave Digger, Doro, Shining
Setlists
GUTALAX:
1. Intro/Anus Nanuk (Anus Ice Cream)
2. Toi Toi Story
3. Shit of It All
4. Fart Fart Away
5. Assmeralda
6. Asshole Ghost – Wishmaster
7. Total Rectal
8. Fart and Furious
9. Sucking a Cock of a Vietnam Veteran
10. 20 litru vyvaru z vyzlukleho bedaru
11. Robocock
12. Brown Bukkake
13. Swallowing the Seeds of An Elderly Deer
14. Strycek Donald farmu mel (Old MacDonald Had a Farm)
WARBRINGER:
1. Silhouettes
2. Woe to the Vanquished
3. Remain Violent
4. Shellfire
5. Descending Blade
6. Spectral Asylum
7. Divinity of Flesh
8. When the Guns Fell Silent
BLOODBATH:
1. Let the Stillborn Come to Me
2. Mental Abortion
3. So You Die
4. Breeding Death
5. Anne
6. Ways to the Grave
7. Cancer of the Soul
8. Weak Aside
9. Church of Vastitas
10. Soul Evisceration
11. Like Fire
12. Outnumbering the Day
13. Mock the Cross
14. Eaten
Photo Gallery
