Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
Location: Kanal ob Soči / Klub kanalske mladine / Slovenia
Concert date: 24.02.2018
Attendance: 35
Ticket price: €5.00
The moment for a solid alibi to visit a gig in Kanal ob Soči had finally arrived. It’s a gorgeous little Primorska town in the middle of the Soča valley. As its name suggests, the roaring Soča winds right through it, while the town itself is “sprawled out” between the Banjška Plateau and Kanalski Kolovrat. Kanal is a practically idyllic little town with remarkable architecture and an imposing history, and it’s graced by an equally imposing bridge. Weekend again and ahhh,… exactly twelve years since RockLine was founded. A hop from the Breginj Corner over to Kanal. Northern Primorska was “sown” with gigs this weekend. Raggalution in Cerkno, El Kachon and Bluesback in Tolmin, but for fans of distorted sonic perversions, a visit to Klub kanalske mladine, where Nuclear Aggressor from Gorizia in Italy, Postojna technical death metallers Licence To Hate and Tolmin thrash/death metallers Devil’s Bridge had all confirmed, seemed more than convenient, a downright sinful temptation.
Just how “popular” the Ljubljana dialect is in Kanal ob Soči was hinted at by two close encounters with the club staff and the visitors. The first question was: »Are you two from Sazas?«, and a bit later someone even addressed me in English, asking where I was from. Well, after thinking about that cold shower for a bit, it’s not even surprising. When you’re slowly meeting Abraham, you could have adopted at least 90% of everyone present at the club that night, in the role of a crusty parent. The age gap is just there. That night a mere thirty heads made it into the club, if anything fewer rather than more, and even those were mostly visitors from Italy who came to cheer on their countrymen Nuclear Aggressor. But when Boco shows up too, his presence alone carries the weight of at least a hundred extra concert-goers! Heads up, a beer costs €2.50, which is pricier than at Metelkova, so I advise against being careless. A »six-pack« in the trunk of your car can come in mighty handy in cases like this, if you’re after a more convenient way to quench your thirst.
On to the music. A nicely arranged venue. From head to toe. Klub kanalske mladine is a great place that should host more gigs like this. Around half past ten at night, Tolmin’s Devil’s Bridge climbed onto the stage. A seal-of-approval performance. The guys have mileage, and experience to match. The band’s leader, vocalist and guitarist Luuka Trpin, flintily “tormented his fellow sufferers” with a monstrous growl. The phrases were raw, elemental, tinged with old-school thrash. At times the band leans (rhythmically too) on stuff that flirts with the legacy of early American speed metal. Compact, confident and charging. Old school. The band is developing its own recognizable musical character. No makeup. Just punch. The guys on stage never run out of jerkiness and dynamics, and it’s downright fascinating to watch how well the trio meshes, sonically too. The rock-solid rhythmic engine, with which drummer Sašo Kokošar and bassist Mitja Markič shone, gave Luka extraordinary backing, so he could defend the colors of vocalist and guitarist in one person very effectively and convincingly. Same goes for the fascinating soloing. The band put together a repertoire of original material and of course played its only official studio document, the EP »He Is Crossing« released way back in 2011, saving the song Why Are We Here for the very closing stretch of its more than convincing and likable pact with the Zadlaz Lucifer. Guys, I won’t repeat myself, but it’s high time you finally released a studio debut too.
Licence to Hate have similar mileage behind them as Devil’s Bridge. The Postojna crew, now a quartet and active since 2010, are cut from different musical cloth, and you can feel in their playing that their musical vocabulary leans on the old-school, hewn-from-stone elements of Florida technical death metal. But with brutality and complexity kept within the bounds of »normal« (forget comparisons with the likes of Nile). Within the limits of followability. The band came at it with real feeling, and guitarist Bajot especially tore things up all over the place. He had some trouble with his sound and so, mid-gig, stepped off the stage to try to figure out how Licence To Hate actually sound in the club tonight when you stand among the listeners. Looks like the guys love to hang out with the life and work of Possessed, Death, Cannibal Corpse and Deicide, while the chaos of the likes of Slayer is almost a rudimentary rule. The vocal charisma of the towering Grega, into whom you could fit two “Interceptor Čulks” for a laugh, works superbly. It’s more than tailor-made for the destructive energy of unholy desecration of everything that would give off even a quantum of light. The band released the demo »Sick Of All That Bleeds« in 2016. It’s clear things are heading in the right direction for Licence To Hate, with the ground being prepared for a studio debut.
And for the finale, Nuclear Aggressor. A trio that was once a quartet, likewise formed in 2010. So that night we got all three bands with the same birth year. The band is represented by Slovenian drummer Luka Laurenti, who previously drummed for Lintver, a brand-new bassist going by Sioba, and the leader, singer and guitarist Hellvis (orig. Elvis Masut), who’s been walking around with a totally shaved head for a while now. He didn’t forget to smear some theatrical paint on his face either, giving off a zombie vibe. Nuclear Aggressor brought in some “musical fantasies” modeled on the old-school legacy of German Teutonic thrash metal bands, led by Kreator. The hysterical yet piercing and distinctive vocal of the unhinged, unbridled Hellvis occasionally recalled Petrozza too. This is a band that’s extremely well-tuned and tight, and that has a bit more experience, boasting a more substantial body of its own releases. So after a series of EPs and the studio debut »Condemned To Rot« in 2013, the band’s second full-length, »Slow Dismemberment«, came out the year before last. So no seismic jolts in terms of musical innovation, but, just like both bands before them, played with plenty of heart, strict focus and commitment! The band was egged on throughout by a small group of “somersaulting beasties,” specifically Italian metal fanatics and extreme-music sympathizers, which was very welcome, as it chased away that nagging feeling that the club had been left totally empty and forgotten that night.
The Kanal crew is a well-oiled team and pulled off the event at a truly high organizational level. The gig deserved more support from the crowd and a bigger turnout. Why people in these new times no longer show up to gigs, even on Saturday nights, remains an unsolvable riddle. Maybe things will be better on 30.3.2018, when Črnomelj’s musical oddballs Broken Lock play here, developing a peculiar lineup that could even open a show for the likes of Mastodon, with the cool psycho-math rockers Flip Flop Fatality keeping them company.
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