Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
Venue: Dvorana Stereo / Rijeka / Croatia
Concert date: 27.12.2008
Attendance: 600
Ticket price: 40,00HKR
After a hot concert night with Iron Maiden (an Iron Maiden “tribute to” band from Hungary), Rijeka got another show, this time in homage to metal giants Metallica. About two years ago Croatia was gripped by an unstoppable “tribute to” fever that has spread far and wide across the little country, so you can now regularly catch top-notch imitations of all the bigger and more important acts there, from AC/DC to Depeche Mode or Queen, and every one of those shows is very well attended.
The Metallica imitators, called simply Metallica Real Tribute, are a quartet made up of Lale (a.k.a. James Hetfield), Filip (a.k.a. Kirk Hammet), Vihor (a.k.a. Robert Trujillo) and Milan Jejina – Jegy (a.k.a. Lars Ulrich). The latter in particular can boast an impressive pedigree, having previously shared the stage with Paul Di’Anno (ex-Iron Maiden) and Max Cavalero (Soulfly, ex-Sepultura).
As expected, the Stereo hall was fuller than the day before, when the Iron Maiden tribute played. You could put that down to several factors. Metallica is the more popular band among young people, Metallica Real Tribute are Croatian, and this was their first show in Rijeka.
Once again, things kicked off well past eleven at night. The temperature shot up the instant the taped intro started. The crowd pricked up their ears, squeezed up against the stage and exploded on the spot, along with the band, into Whiplash. That hellish march, placed right at the start as everyone expected, introduced a band that vaguely resembled the original Metallica lineup, not only in costumes and stage moves but in the actual physical look of the individual members. Right away the band showed off a hugely important element that sets Metallica’s sound a quality tier above many other bands: recognizability from a distance. The rhythm section! The drums sounded great, lively and voluminous. The snare in particular stood out with an exceptionally deep, metallic ring that worked as excellent filler, especially in the transitions, and helped build the devastating atmosphere on stage.
The vocals were decently shaped and built to chase Hetfield’s blueprint. Furious, cutting and loaded with venom! The trademark clipped endings to the verses landed effectively, along with that glare from under the brow, always grim if not outright furious and accusing!
The guys naturally filled the set with songs from Metallica’s golden era, meaning everything up to and including the “Black Album”. A few shortcomings crept into the generally well-rehearsed set, standing out especially in the acoustic parts of songs like One and Sanatarium, where the sound felt too “flat”, without that juicy, punchy dimension. It was also interesting to notice that the singer was least comfortable with Hetfield’s lowest clean lines, while the heaviest parts, the ones that demand extreme aggression, bite and power, he nailed at the required high level.
The crowd participation during the show was unbelievable. People gave themselves over to wild, fully immersed headbanging below the stage, a few times the whole thing even tipped over into a general mosh pit, and I preferred to step back and keep my distance so I could get out without a scratch. Unlike the previous day’s show, this one lasted an hour and three quarters, so almost half an hour less. The very confident and authoritative leadership of vocalist/guitarist Lale, who used his stage charisma to easily steer attention to the stage and win the crowd’s obedience, is one of the key factors that can (alongside improving quality, of course) boost this cover band’s popularity in the future. The three-part harmonies were well-crafted, nicely and correctly doubled, though at moments they sounded a little quiet in the mix. Otherwise the band handled the riffs tightly and skillfully, holding up against the thrashy rampage well past the allotted minutes. The atmosphere really jumped up a level somewhere around the cult classic One and kept that doubly feverish pitch right to the end of the show. There was certainly no shortage of the big hits from the “Black Album” (except Unforgiven), which the guys saved for the second half to keep the raging mood high. By and large, the guys stuck to dutiful copying of the original, except for the everybody’s-favorite Nothing Else Matters, where Lale hammered out full chords in the pre-choruses and allowed himself a bit more improvisation singing the chorus. The two guitarists split the work the way the original Hetfield and Hammet do, whether in the studio or on stage. The heat in the hall never let up, and it’s incredible to watch how deeply Metallica has gotten under people’s skin over all these years and how much their musical opus means to them. The wave of approval from the crowd was extraordinary.
When the guys played their second encore and “seemingly” said goodbye to the stage, the organizer made a minor blunder by immediately cranking up the background music and turning on the lights in the hall. That way the hall began to empty. And yet a few minutes later the band members come back on stage and play, as a parting shot, the devilish Seek And Destroy, in which, as if it were nothing, they win the audience back under their wing.
This band hasn’t been playing Metallica together for long, and yet the Rijeka show demonstrated extraordinary potential for further upgrading and honing their Metallica repertoire, which would lead them to a professional, perfectionist attitude and approach in the future! Good stuff, then.
photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
Setlist
1. Whiplash 2. For Whom The Bell Tolls 3. Harvester Of Sorrow 4. Fade To Black 5. Battery 6. The Thing That Should Not Be 7. Sad But True 8. Fight Fire With Fire 9. One 10. Creeping Death 11. Sanatarium 12. Master Of Puppets 13. The Four Horsemen 14. Nothing Else Matters 15. Enter Sandman —encore 1.— 16. Wherever I May Roam 17. Blackened —encore 2.— 18. Seek And Destroy
Photo gallery
