Author: Rok Klemše
Photos: Nina Grad
Venue: Klub Jedro, Medvode
Concert date: 27.11.2015
Fuck the little lights and all the Christmas kitsch they’ve been raping us with since mid-November! On the day/evening Ljubljana and Maribor marched into the December shopping frenzy, a hundred or so heads chose to head to Jedro in Medvode instead, where the menage-a-trois of Skrun, Morost and Dekadent successfully defiled the start of the blessed December season.
Medvode got defiled first, half an hour late, by a trio from the upper Soča Valley called, how else, Skrun. Relative newcomers to the local scene, they’ve been diligently racking up gig mileage ever since they formed, and it’s already showing on stage. Skrun play a pretty singular mix of sludge, groove and death metal in which it’s not hard to pick out a range of influences, from NOLA scene bands and Pantera all the way to Morbid Angel. The trio’s trademark is a massive, heavy sound and NOISE, which three instruments and vocals churn out the way American Texan hillbillies churn out their homemade hooch. Toward the end Skrun got maybe a touch samey, but that was probably just them still warming up for a Friday night. Either way, Skrun won us over with an energetic show and a pretty unique take on blending genres. And a bonus point for that distinctive bass tone, which reminds me most of Blacky’s (Voivod) »blower bass«. We’re waiting to get defiled by the debut album, which is already in the works!
We caught the Ljubljana Morost crew not long ago at Orto in Ljubljana, but this time the band debuted with a new bassist. Andrej Škof (ex-Eruption) replaced Žan, and in Medvode Morost played their debut Solace In Solitude in full, from A to Z, and it’s already settled nicely into the ears of the local crowd. In a bit under an hour, the girl and the guys once again skillfully walked us through the mists of the Ljubljana Marshes, weaving the eerie atmosphere of that stroll, as always, out of excellent tightness and a massive sound of black/death/groove metal. It’s clear as day that the old members know their stuff, so the bigger magnifying glass was on Škof, who showed that he’s settled into the band more than well. The bass lines now sound more convincing than before (in places they’re even slightly reworked), and Škof brought some badly needed dynamics and stage energy to the image of a rather static band. Human Debris, Thorp Afield and Mitos won us over like every time before, but I followed the closing novelty (played without Škof) with even greater interest. It suggests Morost are steering into slightly more proggy waters, and it’ll be really interesting to hear what the second album, slowly taking shape, brings.
A solid four years since the release of Venera: Trial & Tribulation have gone by in the blink of an eye, and Dekadent haven’t exactly been a fixture on stages since then either. That they’d been sorely missed was clear from the first notes of opening anthem Dissident Dream, which proved the guys led by Artur Felicijan hadn’t been in such good form in a long time. Dekadent furiously threw themselves into an hour-long set in which they shook Medvode with tracks from the debut The Deliverance of the Fall, Venera and the new album Veritas, which is really the reason for their return to the stage. We got a generous helping of the new stuff: Dead Mountain, Pasijon and the most standout epic treat, Valburga, which thrills with convincing lyrics in Slovenian. Artur won us over this time with an excellent vocal performance, first and foremost top-notch screams and deep growls (a bit less so with the slightly painful clean vocals), and the band overall came across as an extremely tight unit under the baton of Tine Horvat’s phenomenal drumming. I last caught Dekadent live four years ago in Kranj, and that wasn’t exactly their finest moment. But the guys made up for it and proved this time that they belong at the very top of the Slovenian metal scene, and their unique approach to black metal, in which life and death, darkness and light, love and hatred are inescapably intertwined, shone at full force once again.
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