Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Location: Orto bar / Ljubljana / Slovenia
Concert date: 18.02.2016
Attendance: 80
Ticket price: €6.00
February’s “smoking room of Death” slotted into a proper spot in a quieter week for gigs. Okay, in Šiška, Let 3 were making fools of themselves that same day, over at Biljardna hiša San Di Ego were spreading their vanilla scents, and some 80 defiant metal hearts still gathered at Orto bar, where the Austrian soft melodic emo/HC/metalcore outfit Rant played (no, not the backing band of Ian Hunter) along with the local crew Cowboys from Hell, who play the classics of Pantera, Machine Head, Alice In Chains, Sepultura, Metallica, Rage Against the Machine and now? Motörhead too!
The clock ticked past half nine (in the evening, of course), and the up-and-coming Austrian »musical goofballs« Rant took the stage at Orto bar. Considering that only four people were hanging out in the upper room of Orto bar during their set, it happened to me again that Anja and I basically walked into the venue as the very first listeners. Even though this time too I was »trying my hardest to be late« for the gig. Well, over the next few minutes people slowly started trickling in, and the quintet finally got a weight off their chests at the sight of that, so they carried on with the set a lot more relaxed. The enthusiastic singer and drummer repeatedly tossed out a few clichéd slogans between songs to try to lure people closer, but the crowd mostly watched the whole thing from a cautious distance. In short, these guys aren’t bringing a new storm of artistic innovation, or a revolution. They make a sort of soft version of metalcore, where the vocals mix clean melodic singing with screaming. The songs are built on four to five chords, with zero solos and extremely few guitar fills in between, and they lean on a »down tuned« groove. I liked the metallic snare sound, which really stood out in the sonic picture. The metalcore is so softened that the band edges toward HC elements. Everything is subordinated to the melody of nicely groomed little boys. A credible and confident performance, though it has to be pointed out that the singer drifted off the ideal vocal line several times, and by a not-so-modest half a tone at that. So no standout moments and no original innovation. The sound was crunchy, though. The mix was muddy. Hence the remark that the metallic snare sounded the best of anything during the set.
Cowboys From Hell is a lineup welded together from a crew that knows exactly what it wants. The core is made up of seasoned musicians Igor Žonta (vocals), Miha Oman Buco (rhythm guitar) and Edi Ejaq Udovič (bass), who have plenty of mileage behind them in bands like Revolver, Lady’s First, Mit, Almost Rage and The Fifth Season – where back in 2006 we still »lovingly« called Ejaq simply Edi,… On drums is the incredibly talented youngster David Bordon (Morana), while the regular guitarist Vasilij Sušanj (ex-Su-Shine) was replaced (for this gig only) due to illness by the excellent Andrej Rot (Tide). As expected, the band played and delivered a great show. At the start Igor needed a bit of time to warm his vocal cords up to proper working temperature (I’m Broken), and then things rolled like clockwork. The sound was very good too. The guitars grabbed you nicely, the bass line tore through the ether with a detonating force and could be heard clearly in the mix, and drummer David proved he’s one of the most talented drummers of the young generation in Slovenia, developing and polishing his skills at a rapid pace. There’s really not much to add. Just that Igor’s vocals were set too low in the mix, so at times they were harder to hear. The incredible Rot chewed through the material in just a few days and handled all the solos with great dignity on top of that. Buco once again showed he’s one of the best rhythm guitarists in Slovenian metal. The band reads each other superbly, and swapping Vasilij for Andrej didn’t affect the show in the slightest. Quality maintained. The crowd was going wild over a killer pick of songs. The high point was without a doubt Ace of Spades, the big, unforgettable rock’n’roll punk anthem by Motörhead. But really, the setlist had something for everyone. It covers a superb range of artists, whose songs the band picks from for their covers.
Great party, great energy. These seasoned musicians finally got around to doing exactly what all seasoned musicians in Slovenia end up doing these days. You go through a few bands over your career, you struggle with original music, and in the end you land on playing covers. Because that’s what finally draws the crowds to your gigs. That’s how it goes. In 2016. Sad, but that’s just the way it is. In Slovenia. It’d be nice if the band eventually came up with some original material too. Can you imagine it being an eclectic mix of all the bands whose covers they play?
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