Author: Primož Novak, Aleš Podbrežnik
Venue: Gala Hala / Ljubljana / Slovenia
Concert date: 15.12.2014
Attendance: 300
Old school death metal veterans from Florida, Deicide, are a band that really needs no special introduction. Florida’s thunderous musical villains and sinister antichrists spawned a new studio album last year, »In the Minds of Evil«, their eleventh overall and a fresh alibi for another visit to our capital. I still can’t get their second show in Ljubljana out of my head, when they headlined at K4 on 22.02.1999 on a bill that also included Rotting Christ, Ancient Rites, Behemoth, Aeternus and the up-and-coming Slovenes Noctiferia. That was mostly thanks to the provocative statements of frontman and bassist Glen Benton, who announced he’d kill himself at 33, the age of Christ, which for someone born in ’67 meant doing it in 2000, so we all figured we were watching him in K4 in 1999 for the last time. But Benton later “happily” survived the suicide, saying that only weaklings and cowards commit suicide. The boss of the band, who once carved an upside-down cross into his forehead, came to Ljubljana in the company of his old pal and drummer Steve Asheim and the newer post-millennium reinforcements, the two seasoned guitarists Kevin Quirion and Jack Owen, to stage yet another solemn ritual of god-murder. To go back to the two guitarists for a moment: after a bunch of sporadic appearances with Deicide, Kevin Quirion finally became a full member in 2008, while Jack Owen played for Cannibal Corpse for many years before joining Deicide.
Opening the night were Italy’s SawThis and France’s Svart Crown. The first to start shaking the walls of our beloved Metelkova were Sawthis. A quick glance at the stage mistakenly conjured up Death Angel’s Rob Cavestany, thanks to the flapping dreadlocks of singer Alessandro Fala-e, but that’s where the resemblance ended. The quintet presented their third album »Youniverse« If we Slovenes have Inmate, you could say the Italians have Sawthis. The riffs are definitely »retro« but sonically »modernized«, and harmonized with a whole load of decorative melodies in thirds. The band has been around for 14 years, so you can’t pin any naivety on them. Even though the Gala hala was yawning empty at that point and the metal crowd was still working its way through the ring road on the way there, Sawthis carried on unburdened and with plenty of confidence, delivering a thoroughly solid performance. »Party animals and a half«. Compared to what we were expecting at the peak of the night, proper »little babies«, the guitar noise and ultra-catchy »Soilwork« melodic passages only innocently tickled first one ear, then the other. Cute, but far from pinning you to the chopping block with truly extreme-sounding metal brutality.
Svart Crown from France, though, were a completely different story. The French are a special musical caste. Whatever they take on comes out strange, often provocatively avant-garde, and most of the time unique and eclectic. That’s a very good thing, and Svart Crown have that dimension. Svart Crown, who played last year’s edition of the Metaldays festival, with a lineup of JB Lebail (vocals, guitar), Clemente Flandrois (guitar), L. Veyssiere (bass) and N. Muller (drums), brought to the Gala hala exactly what spoiled ears come for and what the opening slot is basically there for. They played the role of the unexpected surprise in grand style. Atonality and broken rhythms in a kind of hammered-out, provocative hybrid of the black and death metal universes, evoking the deeds of kindred acts like Gorguts, Deathspell Omega and Ulcerate, with the arrangement frameworks of old-school Morbid Angel or Behemoth as influences. A smeared, raspy, darkly vampiric sound, often wandering atonally on the bosom of the ceaselessly exploring drums, whose work was in itself a total fascination of the band, mercilessly swallowed the Gala hala scene through the gnawing of fiery tongues. The band visibly enjoyed presenting their new album »Profane«, which was also more heavily represented in the set. Svart Crown are definitely a band worth watching for all lovers of technical complexity, complemented by a well-honed craft and a feel for adventure in a fascinating and distinctly their own fusion of black and death metal elements. A phenomenal overture before Deicide!
Last to take the stage were Deicide, who, alongside Death, Obituary and Morbid Angel, we rank among the most important death metal acts coming out of Florida. The band initially emphasized more recent material from their latest, well-received album, In The Minds of Evil. But after a few songs, fans of the older albums, like Once Upon the Cross, Serpents of the Light and Legion, got their due. There’s really not much to fault in the Deicide show itself. The famous Glen Benton still has an incredibly strong and distinctive growl at 47. The other members definitely didn’t slack either: drummer Steve Asheim, Benton’s longtime companion, can still play fast. And the guitar duo of Jack Owen (ex-Cannibal Corpse) and Kevin Quiron served up a nice amount of powerful death metal riffs and fairly original solos in an hour. The main problem was that the band came across as too static, and the sound itself was pretty muddy. As for communication with the audience, Benton is not exactly a shining example. Sure, plenty of classics got played, but from legends like Deicide you’d expect another 15 minutes or so of set, rather than just a good hour. Still, the band more than made up for that dismal show at Metalcamp 2011, where they played as a trio.
With the Deicide show, it’s safe to say this year’s death metal season was a really varied one.
Setlist
SVART CROWN:
1. Intro
2. Apocalyptic Triumph
3. Into a Demential Sea
4. Profane
5. In Utero: A Place of Hatred and Threat
6. Nahash the Temptator
7. An Eternal Descent
8. Ascetic Purification
9. Revelation: Down Here Stillborn
DEICIDE:
1. In the Minds of Evil
2. Thou Begone
3. Godkill
4. When Satan Rules His World
5. Serpents of the Light
6. Children of the Underworld
7. Conviction
8. Dead but Dreaming
9. Trifixion
10. Scars of the Crucifix
11. Once Upon the Cross
12. Beyond Salvation
13. End the Wrath of God
14. Sacrificial Suicide
15. Dead by Dawn
16. Homage for Satan
Photo gallery
