Helstar Summon the King of Hell at Bazen, With a Little Help From Rager and Dawn Patrol! (2009)
Performing: Rage, Dawn Patrol, Helstar
Location: Kranj / Izbruhov bazen / Slovenia
Date: May 30, 2009
The string of great gigs we’ve had here over the past year got another addition a few months ago, when it was announced that the cult, legendary Texan power/speed metallers Helstar would be shaking the foundations of Kranj’s Izbruhov kulturni bazen. Over their career the Texans have put out a handful of albums that will always be remembered as some of the best the genre has to offer, from the debut Burning Star right up to the fresh The King of Hell. Helstar put their hometown of Houston on the metal map, but sadly split up too early, soon after the release of the poorly received Multiples of Black. During the hiatus the Helstar name lived on mainly thanks to vocalist James Rivera, who sang in countless bands and kept trying to put together Helstar reunions in various lineups. The 20th anniversary of the cult record Remnants of War was the perfect occasion for a proper reunion, this time with the full lineup. The guys recorded a fantastic comeback record and hit the road on a tour that brought them to Kranj too. Loch Vostok were supposed to tour with them, but their bus, which was also Helstar’s transport, broke down in Sweden. And Helstar once again proved a lesson in perseverance – they rented a van to cover half of Europe. Loch Vostok were replaced by Rager.
As we walked into Bazen, speed/thrash metal outfit Rager were just bleeding for the gods in a great rendition of the Agent Steel cover Bleed for the Godz. Before a creative break, the guys got the chance to play as Helstar’s opening act, and a solid, confident set like this will surely give them the strength to keep creating. A mandatory part of any Rager set is of course the entire EP Eat Metal, which the crowd has already embraced and won over, and which helps Buco out big time on the choruses of wreckers like Spoils of War and Ritual of Death. Besides their diverse, dynamic original material, Rager can also boast some carefully picked covers – we heard the anthem Heavy Metal Breakdown by Germany’s Grave Digger and, to close, an Iron Maiden classic, Iron Maiden, naturally. With every gig Rager show huge progress, the band is getting tighter and tighter and quickly getting used to bigger stages like Bazen’s. The rhythm section is bombastic and just “simple” enough in that old-school metal style. Gilian masterfully fills up the space with his guitar, so you barely notice the missing second guitar, except on Iron Maiden. And Buco remains, in the style of someone like Sean Killian (Vio-lence) or Paul Bucoff (Exodus; R.I.P.), thrasher-style lovably hopeless on vocals. And he could really learn the lyrics by heart already, without cheat sheets, heh. So grab the biggest spoon from mom’s silver cutlery set and scoop up a heaping spoonful of Rager metal, packed with iron! Yum, yum.
Another great choice of opener for the Texan legends was the one and only Dawn Patrol. Both the girl and guys on stage and the crowd that faithfully followed one of the best frontmen we’ve got, Aleš, got Bazen, chilled by a nasty spring rain, more than properly warmed up for Helstar. Aleš’s energy on stage remains unmatched, and the talkative guy from the Primorska region tops his confident command of the stage and his banter between songs with a fantastic vocal performance. Dawn Patrol kept shaking original songs out of their sleeves one after another (um… as far as that’s possible with T-shirts, heh), songs that have quickly become real classics of Slovenian heavy metal. Dark Side of Society, Fortress and Rockstar Ate My Hamster, even though we’ve heard them countless times, stay fresh and devastating, and there’s no way your head stays in place when the instrumental foursome tear into the newer tracks Ghost and Alcoholic. Iztok and Jan, with their varied riffs and infectious solos, are surely one of the better guitar duos around here (Helstar more than praised them too!), and the rhythm section is firing thanks to Ana on bass and the excellent Strigot, who has already fully slotted into the band and picked up the drumming like it’s nothing. Dawn Patrol are and remain one of the best live experiences on the home scene, and I can only wrap up one way. We want an album!
And then we finally got a serious dose of Texas fuckin’ metal with the legendary Helstar. The Texans have the recently released record The King of Hell in their pocket, which was received extremely well by critics and fans alike. Of course Helstar proudly presented the fresh product on this tour, and so they fittingly kicked off their set with the album’s title track, The King of Hell. The crowd lost it already when Larry Barragnan (guitar), Rob Trevino (guitar), Jerry Abarca (bass) and Russell DeLeon (drums) marched onto the stage one by one and started summoning the devil with an instrumental intro. He didn’t keep us waiting long, and down the stairs onto the stage came the great vocalist, “the king of hell” in person, James Rivera, with a demon mask pulled over his face, and the madness began. “Bow down to the King of Hell!” Helstar sounded reborn, as if time had stopped for them after the release of Remnants of War (whose 20th anniversary the current Helstar lineup is celebrating, together with drummer DeLeon, who played with the band on Multiples of Black). The guitar duo of Barragnan/Trevino staged speed races up and down their fretboards like it was nothing, killer riffs and supersonic solos dropped like they were on a bet, the rhythm section flattened everything in its path like a hurricane wind, and bassist Abarca, despite minor technical problems, bounced around the stage like a twenty-year-old brat rather than a gentleman in his forties. And commanding it all was the unforgettable James Rivera, who has been one of metal’s most recognizable faces for a good quarter of a century. Besides Helstar, Rivera has lent his voice to a small sea of bands, from Destiny’s End, Seven Witches and Distant Thunder to Flotsam and Jetsam, and he’s probably the one most responsible for the full Helstar reunion. Oh, and before I forget, Rivera is just as murderous vocally as he was at the start of his career. Whether it’s the super-high Pain Will Be Thy Name, the occasional growls, or the melodic mid-range epic register, Rivera proves he’s one of the best-preserved frontmen around right now. Not to mention his charisma is out of this world and proves that the stage is his home. Helstar really opened the gates of hell in Bazen, as the crowd was mixing and moshing non-stop, and Helstar couldn’t stop praising our audience, even writing in their “tour report” that the Kranj gig was by far ahead of all the other shows on the tour. The Texan giants of heavy/power/speed metal took us through their discography in a good hour and three quarters, putting the most attention on the current album of course, but not forgetting the fiery, eternal classics like Burning Star, the anthems Run With the Pack, Suicidal Nightmare, Nosferatu sharpened his teeth and sank them into our necks with the epic Harker’s Tale and Baptized in Blood, and the big surprise was the magical Winds of War from the overlooked record A Distant Thunder. Sadly they totally skipped the band’s weakest record, though still an excellent release, Multiples of Black, but they proved they’re one of the few bands that give a ton to their fans. And they came back on stage, and back, and back again, and to finish it all off they played the spectacular Angel of Death, especially for the Kranj show, since they hadn’t played that classic in quite a while.
There’s no need to stress that Helstar are masters of their craft. Bazen came alive again with them in that old-school 80s vibe, and Helstar played, without a doubt, one of the best gigs on our soil in recent memory. Gigs like this are all we can wish for, and given all the highs Helstar delivered for Slovenia, we can probably hope and count on a star burning here again in the future!
Author: Rok Klemše
Photos: Robert Lipej Samarin
HELSTAR setlist:
1. The King of Hell
2. The Plague Called Man
3. The King is Dead
4. Evil Reign
5. Burning Star
6. Pain Will Be Thy Name
7. Harker’s Tale
8. Dracula’s Castle
9. Suicidal Nightmare
10. Winds of War
11. Wicked Disposition
12. Garden of Temptation
—encore I.—
13. Run With the Pack
14. Baptized in Blood
—encore II.—
15. Angel of Death
