Author: Rok Klemše
Location: Trainstation Subart / Kranj / Slovenia
Concert date: 03.12.2016
It’s been a busy year for the Slovenian metal scene. A good number of albums came out; records were released by at least Morywa, Cordura, Incubation, Lintver, Within Destruction, Silent Pray, Morbid Creation, Hellcrawler, and I’ve probably forgotten a few more. The first successful crowdfunding campaign for a metal album happened (Tomcat raised the money for their second studio album), the first documentary about the beginnings of the Slovenian heavy metal scene was announced, and plenty of bands played abroad (Cvinger, Negligence, Dekadent, Eruption, Vigilance, …). And in the final days of 2016, Kranj’s Armaroth gave birth to their full-length studio debut Zenith, and its release shook them out of a few months of live hibernation.
The Zenith release came with great organization, a packed Trainstation Subart, a welcome drink to warm up the throats, and three more bands sharing the stage with the stars of the night. Young Mutism were the first to warm up the stage for their older Kranj colleagues. With an instrumental intro, the band gave off the vibe of a technical thrash outfit, but looks were deceiving at first listen, because the four-piece were soon joined by a female vocalist and sailed off with the guys into some kind of progressive blend of thrash, death and heavy metal, with the occasional dash of rock ‘n’ roll, swing and pure psychedelia. It may read like chaos, but live this mix works surprisingly well. Where it really got stuck was the vocals. The singer is reportedly the newest, freshest addition to the band, and it showed. The vocal lines kept giving her trouble and were sung way off, and her voice often ran out of steam too, so there’s a ton of work to do on stamina. Still, this is a young band that more than once surprised with an unexpected twist (like blast beats in the middle of a chorus in one of the tracks), and from what I heard, they show a lot of promise.
Up next, Morywa, are proof that metal in the Celje area is finally waking up too. The guys surprised this year with their debut album Vamana Ira, they keep conquering stages, and they’re becoming one of the strongest forces on the local metal scene. Morywa flattened Trainstation in Kranj with their vision of death metal, leaning heavily on massive, djenty eight-string guitars, low tuning and a fat groove. The guys are close to bands like Gojira in terms of genre, but they skillfully avoid getting boxed into the djent mold. At their core, Morywa stay in death metal, just nicely carried over into modern waters of low tuning and roaring eight-strings. Despite technical problems, Morywa once again proved to be a real rhythm monster, one that the brutal vocals and entertaining frontman only take up another notch.
Local heroes Armaroth first made a name for themselves with the False Vision EP and numerous confident live outings, but then, about a year ago, their activity dried up, and only occasionally did word trickle out of their camp that a studio album was in the works. Zenith is finally here, and with it Armaroth have truly reached their (current) zenith. Despite numerous technical problems, the band proved they’re in top form and an absolute animal on stage. Armaroth played Zenith in full from A to Z, nicely linking the tracks together with ambient interludes, and instrumentally the band tore the meat off the bone, especially with the crunchy guitars of the Goverka/Martin duo, while Filip turned into the very definition of vocal brutality. The two guests meshed excellently with the band, Giani Poposki (Noctiferia) on Don’t Sratch and Petra Ambrož on Wolves Ignore, and despite the poor sound, which kept the rhythm section from really coming through, the raw power of the ultra-massive songs still burst out without any major trouble. From what I heard, Zenith is one of the best releases of the Slovenian metal scene this year, and for this excellent achievement Armaroth deserve all the praise.
After three bands the crowd was already pretty worn out, and it thinned out dramatically during the Masovno grobišče set. Masovno grobišče is a Kranj-Ljubljana all-star lineup made up of Matija »IggyPoppers« Maurer (Jezus osebno), Gianni Poposki (Noctiferia) and Bojan Vukić (Zwook, Nebulatovich, Elektricka), supposedly playing a mix of electronics, metal and psychedelia. Well, there wasn’t much electronics to be heard, but the band’s set was one big »wtf«, mostly thanks to the bizarre frontman, who clearly wants to be the embodiment of rock excess, rolling around on the floor with a bottle of whiskey and all. The band, or rather Gianni and Bojan, came across as improvised and experimental, and only a handful of people stuck around to see the end of their set.
photos: Klemen Udovč
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