Author: Rok Klemše
Photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
Venue: Rollbar / Ljubljana / Slovenia
Concert date: January 30, 2009
Attendance: 70
Ticket price: €0.00
Chaosstar were formed in 2004 by four music enthusiasts who wanted to play metal blended with influences from all sorts of genres and landing in progressive metal of the Dream Theater and Symphony X variety, with touches of thrash metal (Metallica) and heavy metal (Judas Priest, Iron Maiden). After the band got going, there were a few very well-received gigs around Slovenia and a demo recording, and then the band dropped off the radar for quite a while. They started working on their debut Lifetime, and it really did take almost a lifetime before we got our hands on this long-awaited record. But probably nobody was as impatient as the band themselves. After all the hassle, the guys finally got their big moment, the release of their first album, and a proper release party followed at Ljubljana’s Roll bar.
At ten o’clock, the band’s first vocalist Gregor Budal stepped onto the Roll bar “stage”, sketched out the band’s history in a few sentences and rounded up all the trouble that dogged the debut’s release, then introduced the band members, who quickly struck their carefully rehearsed pose while the intro played. Standing with their backs to the crowd, they only cranked up the tension, and after a fittingly epic intro they hurled us into the album’s hellish tempo with the opener Devil’s Whisper. The amazement at the band’s instrumental perfectionism, virtuosity and tightness just kept on going, all the way to the last track of the debut, which was played from A to Z, so it felt like there was no end in sight. Take the wild guitar lines of the duo Vasja “Beast” and Jure “JJ”, who keep wowing us with colorful riffing, dueling showdowns and phenomenal passages, yet never slide into over-the-top showing off of their technical skills (which are anything but negligible). The rhythm section is just as devastating: Primož behind the kit fires off volley after volley of fills and truly dynamic drumming, while Dare on bass pulls off real, at times jazzy tricks of slapping, tapping and killer-good lines. Chaosstar took us through Lifetime with the incendiary Hurricanes of Madness, the epic Lifetime, the “Maiden-esque” Dreams of Reality and the closer On My Way, with guest Dani, the ambassador of syphilis. After a short break came another hour of covers, kicked off with the Amon Amarth classic Death in Fire, again with Dani on vocals, then on through the rock classics Sultans of Swing and You Shook Me All Night Long, followed by the ballads I Believe in a Thing Called Love and Cryin’ (so JJ could melt the hearts of the female half of the crowd). The finale brought a brilliantly played hellish Symphony X track, Inferno, the heavy metal crusher Painkiller, a Children of Bodom song, and right at the very end a charge through The Trooper.
Chaosstar’s launch of their first album was a total success, they’re getting tighter and tighter live, and Lifetime is a record where you can hear the simple but utterly devoted love of music of four individuals. And Lifetime goes on…
Photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
Setlist
1. Intro + Devil’s Whisper 2. Hurricanes of Madness 3. Rebirth 4. Lifetime 5. Dreams Of Reality 6. On My Way —break— 7. Death in Fire (Amon Amarth) 8. Sultans Of Swing (Dire Straits) 9. You Shook Me All Night Long (AC/DC) 10. I Believe In A Thing Called Love (The Darkness) 11. Cryin’ (Aerosmith) 12. Inferno (Symphony X) 13. Painkiller (Judas Priest) 14. Children of Bodom 15. The Trooper (Iron Maiden)
Photo Gallery
