Author: Rok Klemše
Photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
Location: Ljubljana / Orto bar / Slovenia
Concert date: 03/15/2018
Attendance: 120
Ticket price: €6.00
The year 2018 has slowly settled into its groove, and so has this year’s season of Kadilnica of Death at Orto bar. This year’s metal nights have already served up a colorful lineup of local bands, and it’s especially commendable that young groups who are still racking up their gig miles got their chance. This time, Kadilnica also hosted the first release party of the year. Last Thursday, grannies and Little Red Riding Hoods gave Orto bar a wide berth, because a hungry Big Bad Wolf came stomping out of the woods and into Ljubljana with his debut, Outrage of Modesty.
The honor of warming up the crowd went to the young Ljubljana band SkyEye, and what a warm-up it was! SkyEye made a big splash with their debut EP Run For Your Life, which hides heavy metal of exceptional quality. Expectations were therefore very, very high, and SkyEye lived up to them, to the great delight of an almost packed Orto. Despite a few minor guitar slip-ups during the opening Fire, they made it clear that you can definitely count on them in the future. The guys took only the best from their idols, Iron Maiden, Dio and Judas Priest, and packaged those influences into an extremely likable whole. What sets them apart is a knack for writing incredibly strong songs with mighty, sing-along choruses, plus instrumental mastery. Unlike most new-school heavy metal, SkyEye aren’t strong only on the guitar front (the duo did dish out plenty of lively riffs and well-thought-out solos), because under those six strings there’s also a gorgeous, fluid rhythm section. And watching over it all is Jan’s top-notch, commanding vocal, one that even a name like Bruce Dickinson wouldn’t be ashamed of. On top of that, even though this was only SkyEye’s fourth gig, the guy already comes across like a seasoned frontman who knows where and how to stand on stage and how to blow the crowd away. Besides the excellent material from the EP, the band surprised with a faithful rendition of Aces High, and even more so with a new track, Tsunami, which, with its length, its calm intro that feels like the water pulling back before the tsunami hits, and its crushing continuation with plenty of twists and turns, comes very close to Iron Maiden’s epics. SkyEye are releasing their studio debut sometime in September, and it’s without a doubt one of this year’s most anticipated records, and not just on the home turf.
The only foreign guests of the night, Hungary’s MindWalk, had a really tough job following the astonishing SkyEye. It wouldn’t be fair to say they failed completely, but the almost empty hall spoke for itself. Sadly, the music was just as empty. The groove/thrash mix sounded awfully generic and at least twenty years too late. MindWalk wear their influences far too obviously: southern-sounding, down-tuned riffs a la Pantera and Metallica of the Load/Reload era. Here and there MindWalk drift into modern metal waters close to bands like Disturbed and Godsmack, but it all still sounds pretty monotonous, and that final touch they badly needed wasn’t delivered even by the vocals, which were neither fish nor fowl, when you’d expect something more than that from a macho frontman. Judging by what we saw this time, MindWalk quickly sank into oblivion, but their camaraderie with the headliners is commendable, and I hope Big Bad Wolf make the trip to our eastern neighbors soon too.
Before the evening’s main stars took the stage, the hall filled up nicely again, and it was obvious that Big Bad Wolf have a loyal fan base. That’s actually no surprise, since after some shy beginnings and lineup changes, the guys have tightened their ranks, racked up quite a few gig miles, and crowned their journey so far with the studio debut Outrage of Modesty. The bloodthirsty wolf finally broke free of his chains, or rather, chained up a girl with enviable curves in them (see the cover), and roared in Orto bar like he hasn’t in a long time. We’ve seen Big Bad Wolf plenty of times, but we’d never seen such a confident performance from them, which can surely be put down to the pride of birthing a hairy little brat with sharp fangs and hungry eyes. The band doesn’t overcomplicate things, since their sound is built on a pretty primitive base of thrash, heavy and speed metal with a strong groove component. The guys know their music is made for partying and they’re not ashamed of it. Instead, they serve the crowd a hefty portion of varied riffage and a Motörhead-style simple but effective, rattling rhythm section. With a vocal that growls and gargles along one flat line ninety percent of the time, things could have gotten stuck in monotony, but in the Big Bad Wolf setting that drunkenly filthy vocal actually works. The Ljubljana five presented Outrage of Modesty in a very good light, and what stuck in memory most were the aggressive crusher Punisher and the dynamic Rattlesnake, which was richly spiced up by a guest violinist. “The wolf is on the loose”!
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