Location: Gala Hala, Metelkova, Ljubljana
Concert date: May 19, 2011
Attendance: 250
Ticket price: €20
The day before the end of the world that never came was just the right date for some sonic catharsis and another, by now almost traditional visit from the Canadian death metal hyperblast veterans Kataklysm. The tradition actually goes back to their first visit to Slovenia way back in 1998, and after the turn of the millennium, the Gala Hala show was their first club gig on our turf. With the intimate vibe of the atmospheric shelter that is the Ljubljana temple of the underground scene, it promised to be anything but a boring, faceless show. One more reason to be excited was the announcement of a colorful lineup of support acts. Besides the less interesting Pestifer and Karnak , the ones who grabbed attention were the talented Finnish purveyors of polished death metal – Dead Shape Figure, who toured years ago with Chimaira.
Fittingly for the occasion, self-proclaimed fans of chaotic death grind and the above-standard metal destruction that Kataklysm bring to the table started gathering in front of Metelkova’s guts as early as around seven. The black outfits and the all-consuming anticipation of the evening’s main course are something you get your fill of at metal gigs, along with a reserved, almost predictable stampede for the sounds of only the night’s headliners, and tonight’s crowd did nothing to contradict that. With their visits to Kranj, Maribor, the hellish slice of paradise that is Metalcamp in Tolmin and Ljubljana venues, Kataklysm have built a solid base of fans, next to which every opening band is in the position of a demoted and subjugated servant. Despite all the effort to stay focused and excited about unexpected surprises, it was hard to call this an evening of supernatural highs. Part of the blame goes to the support acts, which didn’t have sharp enough fangs to successfully sow the destructive venom of excitement among the lukewarm Slovenian dark souls. The first to flunk this exam were the Belgian death metal generics Pestifer. The quintet from the little town of Liege likes to brag that their main goal from day one was to make music that smells like death metal while reflecting even darker musical contours. The rhythm duo of the Gustin twins bores with cliché structures, onto which hangs a rather uninspired guitar racket from guitarists Antoine Paterek and Emerson Devress, and Jerome Bernard’s vapid vocals sound no more original. The tracks from the album Age Of Disgrace earn that title, because the whole thing, with its monotonous sonic masturbation, felt like a black mass of clowns on laxatives. The crowd greeted this catastrophic helping of boredom with lukewarm applause and hesitant beer sipping.
It could only get better from there, and the stage takeover by the energy-packed Finnish front-liners Dead Shape Figure announced a course correction for the stale taste in our mouths. You can never get enough of those Scandinavian-flavored salvos of thrashy death metal melody! Well, I can’t, anyway, if I may be a little biased. The second act of the night delivered a really good dose of metal sharpness and surfing between the debut Grand Karoshi and the excellent new record The Disease Of St. Vitus. The ominous combination of superb rhythms, hell-solid links in the relentless drum barrages from the hands and feet of Mohkis, the low-frequency ballistic missiles of bassist Neissus, and the depilating tectonics of guitarists Kride Lahti and Juhani Ilari Flinck built the backdrop for the stage recital of the exceptional vocalist Galzi Kalli. I’m not exaggerating if I put the bloodthirsty dedication of this guttural orator right next to my beloved Peter Dolving, and conclude that they are evenly matched and can only push each other further. Amberstar spewed energy and proof of talent. Everything’s in its place! There’s no shortage of drive that plugs into the loom of melody and flowing rhythm, but despite all that, the show by my beloved Finns was like a brilliantly performed play in front of a completely numb and dead audience. When Galzi came down off the stage during Seraphim to stir up a bit more passion, the temperature of the crowd stayed at the level of a chilled, impotent corpse, and a walk through standards like Face Of Nails or a truly superb rendition of Fight Against, Lie Behalf from the devastating debut didn’t excite anyone any more. Visibly in a bad mood and not fed by the energy of the congregation in the slightest, the quintet left the stage, and the Ljubljana crowd, at least in my eyes, earned one big black mark that goes into the pile of penalties and karmic debts for the future. Just like with the Lazarus A.D. shows, where only a few knew how to appreciate greatness, or with the truly outstanding gig by The Haunted in front of the resurrected Cradle Of Filth, which only a handful greeted with enthusiasm, I get the feeling that most of the fashion-conscious brats can barely tell the wheat from the chaff, and feel good music so clearly that they can’t tell hemorrhoids from a hard cock up the ass.
The proof for this thesis is that they found it easier to orgasm in front of the stage during the set of the truly mediocre Italian band Karnak – the last act before the much-anticipated Kataklysm. Posing death metal from the land of garlic, tomato sauce, the mafia and macaroni was like a thoroughly cooled-down and overcooked serving of slop. The band, which has quite a few years on its shoulders and has been operating since 1993, serves up shapeless, soulless wankery that stinks of Deicide, a cannonade of soul-stripped insinuations from the album Dismemberment or the perversely pointless record Perverted right at the start of a long and painful listening experience, and it’s hard to recover from. The quartet of guitar-wise and vocally trained mannequin Francesco Pong and, believe it or not, still-living Marco Polo, bassist Lorenzo Orsini and founder Stefano Rumich behind the drums is, despite all their effort and strain, safer to watch from a safe distance at the bar with two beers too many on your conscience than sober in the front lines, since the combination of chaotic pointless riffs and a thumping chase after dumb speedy drum transitions resembles Vogon poetry more than the musical experience of the year. And we supposedly know what effect Vogon poetry has on listeners (if not, I warmly recommend picking up a book by Douglas Adams and hitchhiking your own way to intergalactic enlightenment).
In a bad mood and bored to death, I made my way to the front to check out the quality of the evening’s main course. The Canadian equivalent of the American hyperblasters Fear Factory is North-inspired, airy and hits to the core! Just like we’re used to the genius of the now-defunct SYL, Despised Icon, Cryptopsy or any other juicy bulwark of metal from the land of maple syrup, Kataklysm confirmed their primacy of excellence in the very first moment of occupying all the senses of the congregation. The opening assault of A Soulless God from the latest record Heaven’s Venom flavorfully morphs into a mix of old and new. Serenity In Fire moves the hands on the metal clocks back to 2004. Maurizio Iacono sounds possessed and exceptional behind the mic, both in presence and in his demonically thundering voice. The rest of the phalanx of executioners, made up of guitarist Jean-Francois Dagenais, bassist Stephane Barbe and drummer Max Duhamel, doesn’t lag an inch behind, and the crowd, as expected, obediently eats out of their hands and gasps for air and the wild continuation. They get it in the atmospheric racket of Ambassador Of Pain, while Push The Venom calms the passions a little with a carefully executed plunge into newer fangs, so far unused on our crowd. Manipulator Of Souls brings back the vibe of the godless year 2001. Kataklysm have plenty of sharp iron in their bag of surprises, and ten albums offer a rich choice of songs that reach into your soul and heart, rip out your ventricular valves and lure your softened brains out through the nasal cavity, so you’d willingly sacrifice them on the altars of admiration below the stage. Tracks like As I Slither, At The Edge Of The World or the cataclysmically brutal set of arguments that is The Road To Devastation suggest the same. With their flawless, mercilessly bloodsucking performance, Kataklysm successfully bred a fresh brood of convinced followers of eternal heresy. The sky darkens, and nobody would have cared if the end of our days had actually come the next day. The long set of pleasures was carefully put together to subjugate the mind and consciousness of the audience, and the cherry on top was the intense and truly intimate atmosphere, which made the show feel closer to two-way communication than a cold exhibition. And that can only lead to a decent satisfaction of expectations and another rise above the gray mediocrity of dull grayness.
The return to the scene of the crime was a success, and the mood, at least by the end of the gig, was repaired where the local crowd is concerned too. Kataklysm only came to confirm their primacy of first-class excellence, which gave the evening a slightly nicer and fierier glow, but it definitely could have been better. Dead Shape Figure more than satisfied the appetite, but the night could have been lifted into something cataclysmically gorgeous at least two more notches – if the choice of the other performers had been luckier and less pointless. They could, for example, have stayed in Canada and Kataklysm could have brought the whole alliance of homegrown stars along, but expecting something like that would be unbelievable. Still, the organizers’ promise of an exceptional concert with a dose of “death & destruction” was more than fulfilled, and Dirty Skunks deserve full credit on this occasion for enriching the local gig scene with excellent taste and a feel for metal subversion, in a way that has no equal, at least in this part of Europe!
photos: Martin Prezelj
Setlist
KATAKLYSM:
1. A Soulless God
2. Serenity in Fire
3. The Ambassador of Pain
4. Push the Venom
5. Manipulator of Souls
6. Determined (Vows of Vengeance)
7. Prevail
8. Years of Enlightment/Decades in Darkness
9. In Shadows & Dust
10. As I Slither
11. At the Edge of the World
12. The Road to Devastation
13. Crippled & Broken
14. To Reign Again
15. Like Angels Weeping (The Dark)
DEAD SHAPE FIGURE:
1. Suicide Continental
2. Face On The Nails
3. Amberstar
4. Cities Of The plain
5. Fight Against
6. Seraphim
Photo Gallery
