Author: Rok Klemše
Photos: Nina Grad
Venue: Orto bar / Ljubljana
Concert date: June 1, 2017
Attendance: 200
Ticket price: €25.00
Ego in a band is a huge problem, as has been proven countless times. If I stick to metal alone, there have been quite a few cases of ex-members of this or that band squabbling lately. Off the top of my head I can name at least Entombed/Entombed A.D. and Abbath/Immortal, and, it seems, Morbid Angel/I Am Morbid. One of the biggest death metal bands of all time has, at least where singer David Vincent is concerned, a colorful history. Vincent first left the band in 1997 and came back in 2005, then in 2011 released the infamous Illud Divinum Insanus. The love between Vincent and Trey Azagthoth ended again two years ago, and the Morbid Angel wagon split in two. One half carries on under the original name with returnee Steve Tucker, while Vincent runs I Am Morbid, with which he brought the blasphemy to Ljubljana last Thursday.
First on stage, probably on a pay-to-play basis, were California folk/thrash metallers Helsott, which in Old Norwegian means deadly sickness. They didn’t exactly win over the sparse crowd, but the guys on stage did act in perfect accordance with their name. Static, monotonous, tired and bored. They convinced exactly one person down in front of the stage, while the other ten people watching Helsott were bored stiff by the generic, played-out folk metal, which sounds more like Germany than California. Every now and then a melody did sound pleasant to the ear, but to reach full-on folk sweetness the band was missing only a flute, to borrow Dihur’s description of the first opener.
The amount of energy put out by the next act, the cult American death metal pack Necrophagia, was about on par with their predecessors, but musically it was a whole different story. Necrophagia, led today by the only remaining founding member, vocalist Killjoy, are considered one of the founders of the death metal genre and definitely the founders of »horror metal«. Thanks to the cult name, a fairly sizable crowd was waiting for the band down front, complete with the Dickless Tracy trio in the first row, and Necrophagia wrapped Orto in guts, blood and offal for three quarters of an hour. Killjoy and his boys served up primitive butchery from most of their albums, and made up for the lack of energy with excellent sound and a good show. Credit for the latter goes mostly to the guitarist, who strolled across the strings as nimbly as zombies across human carcasses in Fulci’s gorefests, and the drummer, who pounded the skins without a shred of mercy. Necrophagia said goodbye to Ljubljana with the cult Cannibal Holocaust, and I hope they’ll treat our stages to another visit someday.
Regardless of all the recent turmoil, the fact is that David Vincent was, is and remains the voice of Morbid Angel. The lineup he put together in I Am Morbid isn’t bad either – the exceptional Tim Yeung sat behind the drums again, and the axes were slung over the necks of Ira Black (ex-Vicious Rumors, ex-Heathen, ex-Lizzy Borden) and Bill Hudson (Circle II Circle, Jon Oliva’s Pain, U.D.O.). Well, this time only the former, because Thursday’s gig got a bit stuck in the throat mainly because of the latter’s absence. The lack of one guitar was very much felt, and the band’s decision not to offer either the organizer or the crowd any explanation or apology wasn’t quite right. But if we overlook that, there’s not much to reproach Vincent and his morbid crew for, since the performance of classic material from the legendary quartet of Altars of Madness, Blessed are the Sick, Covenant and Domination was practically flawless. Vincent’s vocals are still superbly preserved, between songs he still treats the crowd to his trademark black humor in that deep voice, Yeung pounded the drums like an animal (though with a lot less feeling than Sandoval), and Black did his job confidently, assuredly and energetically. Still, during the solos the lack of rhythm guitar lines was sorely felt, and Vincent’s bass playing couldn’t make up for it, and judging by the announced running time, the trio also cut their set quite a bit short. This time Vincent earns a 3+ for the show, but if he comes back next time with the full lineup, the grade could be a lot higher.
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