Live Reports

Location: Ljubljana / SOHO klub / SloveniaDate: Thursday, 25.04.2019 Šinobusi are a rock band from Novi Sad who hit Slovenian club stages every year. The band formed in 2001, and in not quite two decades it has put out five albums,…

Location: Trieste / Teatro Politeama Rossetti / ItalyDate: Thursday, April 18, 2019 It's not every day that Tedeschi Trucks Band roll into Europe. This is a 12-piece outfit led by the husband-and-wife team of the Truckses: slide…

The time when Gonoba were at their peak was a time of innocence: the legendary Metal Mania nights in Komen, Jordan's "braveheart" moment, pasta in the urinals at Tribute to Miki gigs, and other shenanigans like that. It was also a time…

"Pero Defformero have played Slovenian stages a lot over the past eight years, and even though the setlists are similar, Biške's jokes make every single show a one-of-a-kind experience." Location: Kranj / Trainstation SubArt /…

"Right from the start, especially after the quirky and lucid escapades of their cheerful, always-up-for-a-good-joke leader Christian Kühn, Kuhn Fu made it clear they've got a mild, almost hidden "drawl" of parodic provocation, or, to put it…

Bullet For My Valentine won over a sold-out Kino Šiška with a tight, well-oiled show that lived up to expectations, with one exception: the whole thing was way too short.

"On the day RockLine publishes its review of the final U.D.O. concert on the Steelfactory tour, the great Udo Dirkschneider celebrates his 67th birthday. The editorial team of our online music magazine wishes the legend a jubilee full of…

Gripes aside, Septicflesh, Krisiun, Diabolical and Xaon put on a killer show at Orto bar, serving up a heaping helping of brutality, orchestration and darkness.

Location: Ljubljana / CUK Kino Šiška / SloveniaDate: Thursday, 03/21/2019 At first, it seemed like Icelandic outfit Solstafir would be just another band lost in the flood of post-metal/rock acts. They undoubtedly showed potential…

Location: Udine / Teatro Nuovo Giovanni da Udine / ItalyDate: Friday, March 22, 2019 John Mayall is the man, and one of the most important musical figures who carried American (especially Chicago) blues over to Europe. That was a…

Location: Tolmin / Kinogledališče Tolmin / SloveniaDate: Saturday, 23.03.2019 "Človek ni zver" ("Man Is No Beast"). Damn right. Compared to man, the beast is small fry. Man is of course far worse. There isn't a word that could even…

A half-empty Kino Šiška hall got a gig that will stay etched in memory. With their superb tightness, inventive setlist, stage lights and sound, Riverside made it clear they're no accident as one of the most respected prog rock bands around…

location: Cerkno / Gabrijel / Sloveniadate: Friday, March 8, 2019 At the seventh Deuje Babe festival, which, like every year, is once again taking over the middle of Cerkno, this time from March 1 to March 23, 2019, three girls stopped…

The smaller hall of Vienna's Arena hosted a show that fans of technical and progressive death metal welcomed with open arms. Obscura, together with Fallujah, Allegaeon and First Fragment, put on an unforgettable night despite the hall's…

Location: Velden Am Wörthersee / Bluesiana Rock Cafe / Austria Date: Friday, February 22, 2019 Ian Siegal is a British blues singer-songwriter. Guitar slung over his shoulder, armed with an incredible vocal chameleon act. Hugely respected…

"U.D.O., led by that one-of-a-kind vocal force, the thunderous Udo Dirkschneider, stormed the Czech city of Zlin with sheer vehemence and burning fervor, razing it to the ground in front of a sold-out Masters Of Rock Cafe."

"The one-and-only Uriah Heep delivered a stellar show in Hluk, Czech Republic, proving once again that if anything, they get younger with age!"

"The overlap of the European tours of U.D.O. and Uriah Heep brought both bands to the stages of the Czech capital, Prague, where they played as co-headliners and put on a spectacular concert event!"

"Last year we spent Valentine's Day in Vienna catching Steven Wilson, and this year we treated ourselves to the legendary Uriah Heep in Vienna on Valentine's Day again."

Location: Orto bar / LjubljanaDate: Wednesday, 13. 2. 2019 The Australian death metal scene has been showing its quirks for a while now, and it's definitely a different beast from the American and European ones. Aussies are known for…

In Vienna, Maestro Wilson reminded us once again why he's the driving force of modern progressive rock with no real competition, and why catching his show is a must for every music lover with eclectic taste and every fan of experimental…

Location: San Dona Di Piave / Revolver Club / Italy Date: Wednesday, February 13, 2019 Kiko Loureiro is considered one of the finest guitarists in the metal universe. No wonder he stepped into the big league of thrash metal titans…

Location: Cerkno / Bar Gabrijel / Slovenia Date: Thursday, 07.02.2019 Leon Matek is a Slovenian singer-songwriter who, art-wise, is a multi-talented creator, so it's lucky that among all his other pursuits Leon still finds time for music.…

Location: Roncade (Treviso) / New Age Club / Italy Date: Thursday, 01/31/2019 Uriah Heep are long-living rock 'n’ roll legends with a pioneering pedigree, and they're not stopping or letting up. They've been kicking ass since the end of…

"Powered by the phenomenal Brainstorm and the excellent Mob Rules, a power metal storm in Ljubljana's Orto bar stirred up retro-nostalgic feelings of power metal's golden days!"

"An outstanding show of experimental jazz excess from the four-piece collective Shanir Blumenkranz’ Abraxas, walking in John Zorn's footsteps in Slovenia's jazz temple, Cerkno."

"We've stepped into the new year and into a fresh run of Thursday mass-gatherings in the thoroughly smoke-filled rooms of Orto bar, which our rock-solid "little polecats" look after, boldly and conscientiously, as always.

"What could be better than closing out the concert year in one of the coziest venues around, in the company of one of Slovenia's hottest bands right now? Cerkno, bar Gabrijel and... Prismojeni profesorji bluesa, of course."

"A night with Bad Notion's brilliance that seemed to have no end. A night of fantastic retro-nostalgic reliving of the elemental feelings written into the saga of the blues, which live on so authentically in the bloodstream of these…

Clutch, together with The Picturebooks and The Inspector Cluzo, warmed the hearts of plenty of hard rock devotees on a cold Sunday night with an unforgettable show.

"Brencl Banda won over Cerkno with an incredibly convincing, deeply internalized knack for walking the invisible thin line that fuses the quartet's improvisational sensitivity on one side with a masterfully maintained, highly invasive…

"The Brno show was something special. It was the final one, the last night, so the band allowed themselves a lot more cheekiness, way more looseness and wildness than we got three days earlier at the Vienna gig."

"Speechless. Superb sound, superb production, superb performance. Not a single note worth complaining about. Perfection. At a Marillion show you can hear a pin drop. Once again they won everyone over with their atmospheric hypnosis and…

Location: Orto Bar, Ljubljana, Slovenia Date: Wednesday, December 5, 2018 It was the third fall show for fans of technical and progressive death metal. The tour rolled into Ljubljana's Orto Bar once again. Headlining were American technical…

location: Vienna / Wiener Stadthalle, Halle F / Austria date: Monday, December 10, 2018 Ask the average well-read Earthling what comes to mind at the words Jethro Tull and you'll get "flute," "rock'n'roll," and right after that, of course,…

At London's O2 Forum in Kentish Town, Corrosion of Conformity, Orange Goblin, Fireball Ministry and Black Moth served up a wide range of metal and rock styles. A tour finale done right!

A killer metal night on the last day of this November in the Northern Primorska capital of Tolmin, hosted by local power metallers Minotauro and Brazilian thrash metal revivalists Valvera!

In front of a packed Wiener Stadthalle, which holds 16,000 people, cult thrash metallers Slayer rolled in on their farewell tour with Lamb of God, Anthrax and Obituary in tow, playing their career highlights one last time.

A packed Flex club in Vienna, hosting Tesseract, Between the Buried and Me and Plini, showed there's growing interest in bands that put the unusual and the diverse front and center.

Aborted, together with Cryptopsy, Benighted and Cytotoxin, delivered a night of extreme, brutal music and proved just how alive death metal is today.

Even after their show in San Dona Di Piava (near Treviso), Italy, Lordi remain a true mix of absurdity and lucidity, with just the right dose of shock theater. It stays firmly saddled on a wheelset of fun riffs and even funnier verses, and…

With a show featuring Beyond Creation, Gorod, Entheos and Brought By Pain, fans of extreme and progressive metal got a hefty dose of musical satisfaction. The solid turnout proved that good times are ahead for bands serving up more complex,…

date: Friday, 9. 11. 2018 location: Orto Bar, Ljubljana Heavy metal lives! The proof isn't just the packed halls and sold-out stadiums of giants like Iron Maiden and Judas Priest, but also the many young bands carrying on the legacy of the…

date: Thursday, 15.11.2018 location: Novo mesto, Plac za vaje, Slovenia Dan D dropped a new album this October. In soap. A USB stick embedded in a bar of soap. Literally. Ten tracks on it. Back in mid-October they already put on two shows…

A true fan of the band got their money's worth. Only the sound spoiled the overall impression, but otherwise, no complaints whatsoever.

Germany's prog heavyweights The Ocean prove they're in top form again in 2018, and the innovative new album shows it too. Without a doubt one of the best live bands on the scene right now.

date: 31.10.2018 location: Ljubljana, CUK Kino Šiška, Slovenia performers: HammerFall, Armored Dawn October 31 - Halloween night. Yet another imported holiday pushed on us by Western consumer culture, though luckily it doesn't catch on…

With the Caligula's Horse, Circles and I Built The Sky show, Zagreb's KSET club got a taste of the promising Australian progressive scene.

In a sold-out Kino Šiška, HammerFall proved once again that they belong at the very top of power metal.

Taake, Bölzer, One Tail, One Head and Slegest made sure Orto bar got a proper black metal mass. Attendees got one more confirmation that the gig season is a rich one, with black metal fans definitely not left out in the cold.

Primal Fear and Riot V on a joint tour! Salzburg, Ljubljana, Graz! For Slovenian fans of the bands, a seriously handy setup that's well worth taking advantage of. After the Ljubljana show on October 21, 2018, came a day off, then the move…

Primal Fear and Riot V make a smart pairing of two hard-rock institutions who build their musical vocabulary on the old-school legacy of heavy metal. Primal Fear have played Slovenia three times, at the Metal Camp, Metal Mania and Rock…

It was a beautiful October day, a Friday in fact, perfect for a road trip to Italy. Somewhere out toward Treviso. That's where Sweden's Entombed A.D., or more precisely one of the two working versions of the once-whole Entombed, stopped off…

A jam-packed Dom sportova hall in Zagreb got a helping of eternal Jethro Tull classics, with a well-executed show and a nicely stitched-together setlist, but it never quite hit the peaks.

Primal Fear and Riot V on a joint tour! Salzburg, Ljubljana, Graz! For Slovenian fans of the bands, a perfectly convenient setup that was well worth taking advantage of. After the Ljubljana show on October 21, 2018, came a day off, then a…

Primal Fear and Riot V make a smart pairing of two hard-hitting institutions that build their musical vocabulary on heavy metal's old-school legacy. On this joint tour, they stopped in Slovenia too!

Judging by our past run-ins with the band, we figured Vader would blow us away once again with their one-of-a-kind death metal cult. This time the meeting paid off even more, because we got a string of tracks from the band's early era, the…

The jam-packed Dom Sportova arena in Zagreb got a helping of eternal Jethro Tull classics, with a well-executed show and a nicely stitched-together setlist, but it never really hit any peaks.

A packed Szene made it clear that after years of hard graft, The Pineapple Thief have become one of the more promising bands in progressive rock today. The same goes, of course, for French oddballs Lizzard.

Last Friday, Medvode's Jedro hosted the traditional Metal med vodami, with SkyEye, Eruption and Cowboys From Hell on the bill.

Even as we grow richer inside over the years, slowly discovering and exploring all sorts of genre spheres of music (where all that matters is whether the music is good or not), something remains undeniable. Emotions, passions that breed…

Nope, we just couldn't wait for Primal Fear and Riot V to hit Ljubljana's CUK Kino Šiška, where the two bands play on Sunday, 21.10.2018. Since the Salzburg show was on the tour schedule almost three weeks earlier, Salzburg is still close…

location: Balingen / Messegelände / Germany date: 14.07.2018 Last day! Two bands fewer on the bill than the day before. Kickoff at half past eleven. Yep. The lineup keeps shrinking. Year after year. More and more, and the organizer isn't…

Last Friday, the traditional Metal med vodami went down at Jedro in Medvode, this time with SkyEye, Eruption and Cowboys From Hell on the bill.

location: Balingen / Messegelände / Germany date: 13.07.2018 Day two of the big Bang Your Head!!! festival had arrived. This time the headliner role went to the legendary Accept, who had cooked up something exclusive for the festival's…

The packed room at Szene showed that after many years of hard work, The Pineapple Thief have become one of the more promising bands in today's progressive rock. The same goes for French oddballs Lizzard, of course.

location: Cerkno / C.M.A.K. / Slovenia date: 09/15/2018 This year's »Cmakanje« (already the twentieth edition) was once again a colorful affair. The middle weekend of September brought a gig by two seriously intriguing acts to the C.M.A.K.…

The middle weekend of this September served up a gig at the C.M.A.K. club in Cerkno featuring two seriously interesting bands, especially since clear genre dividing lines run between them. This time around, there wasn't a whiff of metal.…

performers: Agan, Lintver, Blackoutt venue: Cerkno / C.M.A.K. / Slovenia when: 08.09.2018 A new "Cmakanje" has hit the land, the 20th one already. Where else but among the hills and valleys of the Cerkno highlands, in the long-lived and…

location: Harley Davidson Biker's Weekend (Faaker See) / Faak Am See / Austria date: 07.09.2018 This year's traditional Harley Davidson Biker's Weekend brought a colorful lineup of performers to the area near Villach, Austria, or more…

So September 8, 2018 rolled around, and the first night of this year's Cmakanje had to be pulled off. Metal and alternative rock all the way.

An hour and three quarters of show flew by in a flash. Mostly thanks to Justin Hawkins and his crazy antics. He filled the entire stage. With his one-man theater, the guy takes center stage even over the performance of the material itself.

location: Balingen /Messegelände / Germany date: 12.07.2018 It was day one of the new Bang Your Head!!! festival. The jubilee edition, the twentieth in a row. Old friends in the old spot. Everything pretty much the same. Everything stays…

location: Balingen / Volksbankmesse / Germany date: 07/11/2018 Another Bang Your Head!!! festival in Balingen, Germany! A temptation you just can't resist, because it's practically impossible. Once you get down there, you're an energy…

place: Tolmin / Sotočje / Slovenia date: 18.08.2018 If day one of Motörcity festival was the more colorful one internationally, day two, with six acts in total, was all about waving Slovenian and British flags. Around midday the sky…

location: Tolmin / Sotočje / Slovenia date: 18.08.2018 A year has rolled by and the second Motörcity festival has landed in Tolmin. The second! A fresh gem for the Slovenian music scene, which keeps growing and maturing, meaning it's…

location: Bled / Jezerska promenada / Slovenia date: 02.08.2018 English guitar legend and folk rock pioneer Richard Thompson first rose to fame as a founding member of the unforgettable folk rock icons Fairport Convention, with…

Bottom line: in its second year, the festival passed yet another baptism by fire on its way to firmly establishing itself among the colorful lineup of festivals that graces the Tolmin confluence every year.

Day one of the second Motörcity Festival in Tolmin featured Sven Hammond, Stari pes, The New Roses, The Brew and Popa Chubby, who played the headliner.

Location: Tolmin / Sotočje / Slovenia Date: Saturday, July 27, 2018 Five days of non-stop metal, and the last day of the festival still showed up way too soon. Thanks to the wonderful atmosphere, top-notch organization and a really…

"The band is surely not going to call it quits anytime soon. That much is certain. But if Judas Priest ever do decide to, it'll make perfect sense and be totally in order. They've done their thing. They have nothing left to prove. The only…

location: Ljubljana / CUK Kino Šiška / Slovenia date: 01.08.2018 This time Kino Šiška played host to famed American hard rockers Mr. Big, who had their biggest commercial successes in the early nineties with a handful of hits, among…

Richard Thompson, who wowed us in Bled with regal renditions of newer and older gems from his rich musical treasure chest, is one of those guitar giants that every lover of good music should see at least once in their life.

Mr. Big delivered a very solid, professional show at Kino Šiška, with the two highlights coming in the solo spots of their two virtuosos, though plenty of the more devoted fans were hoping for at least one more song.

Location: Tolmin / Sotočje / Slovenia Date: 07/23/2018 Metaldays, which has been putting Slovenia on the map as a country with big metal festivals ever since 2004, is always a pleasure to come back to. Over the years it has become…

The fifth and final day of the festival came way too fast, and to the sounds of Demonical, Goatwhore, Municipal Waste, Cannibal Corpse, Epica, Children of Bodom and Primordial, we said goodbye to one of the best editions of the festival…

Day four was D-Day for everyone who'd been dying to see the metal gods Judas Priest back on Slovenian soil for the first time since 1991.

location: Udine / Castello di Udine / Italy when: 07/21/2018 Summer is vacation season, and the lineup of open-air gigs blossoms too. Unfortunately, this July in Italy's Friuli region has turned out pretty wet and moody. Sudden downpours,…

Day three was defined above all by the excellent death metallers Gruesome, Japanese heavy metal veterans Loudness, the "quirky" experiment that is Igorrr, and Canadian giants Kataklysm.

The second day of this year's Metaldays served up a genre-hopping cross-section of acts, crowned by two outstanding sets from German heavy metal veterans Accept and Swedish black metal giants Watain.

Metaldays has put Slovenia on the map as a country with big metal festivals since 2004, and it's always a pleasure to go back. Over the years it has become exactly what its slogan promises, turning Tolmin into a proper metal holiday for a…

The show we'd been sweating over for more than an hour, wondering whether it would be called off, finally happened. Myles Kennedy won everyone over from the opening moments with his incredible, wide-ranging stage charisma and an…

"A concert of superlatives that once again proved Iron Maiden are simply the biggest of the big."

Last Tuesday, Iron Maiden looked as youthful in the middle of Trieste as if four decades of career weren't behind them, and played one of the best gigs we've ever had the chance to witness.

With the Pretty Maids and Hexx sets, the most interesting part of the festival's third-day program was effectively over. For plenty of people, Pretty Maids played the headliner role, and that was before Powerwolf even showed up.

location: Udine / Castello Di Udine / Italy date: 10.07.2018 Simple Minds are back on tour with a new album in their pocket! Brand-new studio album, their nineteenth, poetically titled “Walk Between Worlds”. Italy is basically a second…

Festival season is in full swing, and the capital has already hit its concert dead zone, which, with a few rare exceptions, lasts all the way until autumn. One of the louder exceptions this summer was definitely last Friday's grind double…

The headliner role on this day went to the legendary Accept, who cooked up something exclusive for the festival's 20th anniversary and promised a spectacular show. A bunch of other seriously tasty treats made the bill too, including…

Day one of the jubilee twentieth Bang Your Head!!! festival mostly rang out in hard rock tones. The high point came courtesy of the day's headliners, Sweden's Europe, but before them Black Diamonds, Burning Witches, Reckless Love, Eclipse,…

After a warm-up night like the one Iced Earth, Metalsteel and Eruption put on, counting down the days until we're back in T'mina gets a whole lot easier.