Author: Primož Novak
Location: Pri Rdeći Ostrigi / Škofja Loka / Slovenia
Concert date: 19.04.2014
Attendance: 100
Ticket price: €5
The club Pri Rdeči Ostrigi in Škofja Loka surprises us with great metal shows every year, and a good number of bands, both established and not-yet-established, have played there so far. This time the stage was reserved for bands dipping into death metal. The club’s summer stage hosted the Slovenian acts Armaroth, Paragoria and Incarnated.
First up were the young hopefuls from the Primorska region, Incarnated, who are billed as a thrash/death metal outfit. The band undoubtedly reached into both metal subgenres, but it’s worth mentioning that some of the songs, with their groovier sections, had a pretty modern flavor, which made them all the more interesting. Still, you could tell the band doesn’t have enough miles on the clock yet for the members to be really locked in together. The same goes for talking to the crowd. Incarnated also spiced up their set with a guest vocalist from the now-defunct Almost Rage. The band does have interesting ideas, and the soloing from both guitarists is inventive, at the level of some of the more technical bands, though the rhythm section could use more dynamics. To their credit, the band played its own material and didn’t burden the crowd with pointless, chewed-over covers.
Incarnated warmed up the crowd nicely, so everyone was ready for the death metallers from the Savinja region, Paragoria. Naturally, the band played songs from last year’s debut, Decomposition of Mind, which went down more than well. Paragoria showed off their crushing power, and after a few songs the crowd got seriously into it, windmilling their hair. Besides the goodies from the debut, like From Carcass to Soil, Moribound Inborn, Mass Massacre and others, the band also served up Through the Shadows, a song from the days when they were called The Scourge and played thrash metal. But judging by the rest of the songs, it was clear that thrash alone wasn’t enough for them, so they worked death and groove metal into their music too. The guys know full well that quality and innovation exist after the year 2000 as well. What’s worth stressing is that Paragoria weave in plenty of technical, groovy sections in the style of France’s Gojira. The band’s performance was more than solidly rehearsed, and the double vocal attack from guitarist Matjaž and bassist Jernej gave the whole sound some real variety. Okay, a bit more movement on stage wouldn’t hurt, but that will probably come sooner or later. Paragoria clearly had more miles behind them, the tightness was satisfying this time too, and only a few songs were played a bit too fast. But in the end, it has to be said that you can’t just get sick of Paragoria.
Paragoria left devastation in their wake, but the show wasn’t over yet. Closing the night were Armaroth from Kranj, presenting last year’s release, the EP False Vision. Their sound was a bit different from the previous two bands, which was mostly a plus, given that the event was focused on death metal. Incarnated served up thrash/death metal, Paragoria a groovier death metal, and Armaroth old-school death metal. You could say Armaroth were pretty uncompromising with their songs, which recalled death metal giants like Cannibal Corpse, Obituary, Suffocation and a bit of Morbid Angel too. In other words, music that doesn’t overcomplicate things and works on punch and authenticity. Armaroth impressed. To a degree. The guitar riffs and vocals in particular were polished, and the band’s performance was energetic too, but the rhythm section had no interesting twists and there was generally too little dynamics. Armaroth show promise, though the debate is whether a recipe that’s 20 or more years old still works for today. But if nothing else, from what we saw, the guys approach this stuff with a lot of passion.
The event itself lived up to every expectation. There was plenty to get excited about from some of the more extreme metal acts in Slovenia, there was even free food (a hot dog, to be precise), and the booze flowed like water. We definitely hope for more shows like this in the future, in the cozy atmosphere of Pri Rdeči Ostrigi.
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