Author: Rok Klemše
Photos: Nina Grad
Venue: Channel Zero, Ljubljana
Concert date: 10.06.2016
For months before that fateful Friday, flies had been buzzing around Channel Zero, nasty smells of rotting meat had been drifting out from inside, and moaning and groaning had been echoing down the corridors. No, Metelkova doesn’t need pest control. It’s just that Slovenia’s first death metal »all-star« lineup, Demutilated, picked Channel Zero as the place to do their creating. The band is made up of members of Sweet Sorrow, Scaffold, Negligence and Dickless Tracy. For a good while the guys only teased us on Facebook, but last Friday they finally rose from their graves and shuffled onto concert stages for the first time. By evening a nice crowd had gathered around Channel Zero, all those of us who couldn’t wait to have our ears stroked by some demutilation, but first Sweet Sorrow warmed up the stage.
Since the two bands share four fifths of their members, that wasn’t exactly a stretch, but it was great to see and hear Sweet Sorrow on stage again after several months. They came back to the live scene with a revamped lineup after years of lifelessness only the day before the end of last year, when they played at Trg francoske revolucije. That was their first outing with the new lineup, rounded out by vocalist Robert »Šero« Šercer, but the mix of Sweet Sorrow’s vikings and Šero’s more modern approach wasn’t exactly promising back then. This time it was different right from the start, because the band as a whole sounded much, much better and, above all, far more convincing. The power of melodic-tinged death metal hit with everything it had, and tracks from the album 1000th Millennium, which is still genre-wise the closest thing to Amon Amarth, were once again up front. The superbly tight band was topped off by a confident and brutal vocal performance. Šero, with his dynamic growl, occasionally spiced with screams, was at home about as much as a Viking in a young maiden. There’s no need to waste many words on the instrumental side, since everybody knows these guys are masters of their instruments, but this time Maček especially blew us away with the really punchy, fat sound of his bass lines.
After a short break the guys swapped instruments and singers and took the stage for the first time as Demutilated. Jan »Jey« Švigelj (Negligence) traded his guitar for a bass, Šero handed his spot over to Cepo (Dickless Tracy), and Peter Carič (Sweet Sorrow; guitar), Peter »Rope« Gale (Sweet Sorrow; drums) and Gorazd Mače (Scaffold; guitar) pulled on the surgical gloves. Time for some demutilation! From the very first moments the guys showed exactly where this corpse sticks its paw – into simple, punchy, brutal »old-school« death metal, where the point isn’t overcomplicating things but a good riff, thundering drums, animal vocals and lyrics modeled partly on Cannibal Corpse and partly on Carcass. Here too the instrumental side was no big question mark; Peter and Maček shook out effective, massive death metal riffage, while Rope and Jey provided just the right shockwave. The bigger unknown was Cepo, whom we know as a death metal nightingale and rarely, if ever, get to see without a guitar around his neck. Whatever doubts there were, Cepo squashed them like Jason Voorhees squashing young students, spewing out the first verses like Megan in The Exorcist. Green, disgusting and stinking. The great vocal and instrumental performance was topped off by Cepo’s showmanship. Not just his bared, gorgeous little body, but above all the manic moves, the »air« grave-digging and the psychotic facial expressions. After just under an hour Demutilated said their goodbyes and went back to their operating rooms. The premiere turned out superb, and with open severed arms we await the studio debut!
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