Author: Rok Klemše
Photos: Nina Grad
Venue: Orto bar, Ljubljana
Date of the gig: 16.05.2013
Once you’ve seen a ton of gigs and ticked most of the bands off your »must see« list, there aren’t that many shows left that you can look forward to like a little kid with a toy in a Kinder egg. It’s been ages since I’ve waited for a gig as impatiently as I did for the debut performance of Black Diamond, who last Thursday finally and officially established themselves as a live band. The road to the stage was a long one for the band’s masterminds, Igor Manasijevič and Nejc Vidmar. It took them almost a decade from the start of their journey. Their fruitful collaboration began back in 2005, and this March they finally dug up their dazzling black diamond with the release of the studio debut Last Man Standing.
After almost ten years of perseverance and defiance, Igor and Nejc finally got to see the release of their debut with Black Diamond, and the local metal scene welcomed it with open arms. World-class heavy metal quickly lodged itself in people’s ears, so a solid turnout at Thursday’s gig was only to be expected. The guys took the stage at Orto at half past ten in front of a crowd of about a hundred and kicked off the debut showcase with an anti-war anthem about the plague on the Balkan peninsula, Opus 91-96. You could tell from a mile away that the first notes came with a good dose of nerves and stage fright, especially from the band’s masterminds, but the guitar duo quickly went with the flow and, despite a few minor slips, lived up to the name of a top-notch guitar duet. It was only natural to expect a little blunder or two to sneak in, since Black Diamond’s road to the stage had been so long, but the charismatic presence and years of stage experience of Žanil Tataj – Žak (Mary Rose, Turbo, Divlje Jagode, Jersey) had a reassuring effect up there. He didn’t just deliver a phenomenal vocal performance that was practically identical to the fantastically sung record, he also entertained the crowd with his jokey banter and held them in the palm of his hand like a frontman of the highest caliber.
The trio who’ve been in the band for a while were joined on stage for the first time by two “session” members, who laid down a solid, reliable, quality rhythm section. It was a real pleasure to watch and listen to the effortless hits of drum master Klemen Markelj (Obidil, The Drinkers), who easily handled the many nuances of the countless transitions and tempo changes that Black Diamond’s more complex musical picture is full of. Next to Klemen, Urban Medič (Prospect) proved himself an old hand, providing reliable low-end support for the guitar riffs, and thanks to the well-set sound, the bass lines got the space they deserved, coming through best in the intro of Power of Mind. Overall, apart from a few negligible flubs, the band already worked like a well-oiled machine, which is all the more astonishing considering that Klemen and Urban haven’t been in the band for long and that Black Diamond are not a band of simple verse-chorus structures. As the guys proved live, this is a technically incredibly well-versed band that handled the many rhythm and tempo changes, the stops and accelerations and the long instrumental passages enviably well.
Despite the band’s lack of stage experience as a whole, the guys knew exactly how to line up all the tracks from the record, since they weren’t played in the order they appear on the album, but were skillfully shuffled around. The tension built up superbly as we neared the end, which Black Diamond wrapped up spectacularly with the masterful Black Diamond and Dreams of Tomorrow (thanks to its unforgettable chorus, Žak easily got help from the crowd during it), while before them they effectively mixed in slower, epic and ballad-leaning songs. It was especially interesting to hear Mastermind (on the record sung by Simon Jovanovič) and the heart-wrenching ballad Tears In Eyes (on the record sung by Samo Urbančič), to which Žak’s vocals gave a whole new face.
Black Diamond came out of their debut gig as big winners, and I have no doubt it was a payoff for Igor and Nejc’s years of work and effort. The local metal scene hasn’t just gotten an excellent studio band, but also a top-notch live act that gave Slovenian heavy metal a proper blowout. The black diamond has finally shone on stage too, and may there be many more such flashes!
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