Author: Rok Klemše
Photos: Nina Grad
Location: Orto bar, Ljubljana
Gig date: 13.01.2017
Last year, the Skunks, Mišota, Dirty Skunks, as Črt Batagelj and Matej Ahlin are by now known almost better than by their real names, threw their anniversary bash at Orto bar on such a grand scale for the first time. Sure, let’s not forget the 10th anniversary at Kino Šiška with Vulture Industries and the unforgettable Dekada smrada, but that was one stage and fewer bands. The older they get, the crazier they get: for their 15th anniversary they crammed 15 bands onto Orto’s three stages. Well, Mental Strike bailed first, then Iamdisease at the last minute, but no biggie. Even though the winter road crews have long since forgotten the good old NNNP, and on Friday the 13th even the buses could barely fight their way through Ljubljana’s snowy streets, the fear of an empty Orto was totally unfounded, because the place was jam-packed from eight in the evening right through to the early morning hours.
The marathon night was kicked off, as it should be, by Ljubljana’s Morost, who initially had to wrestle with muddy sound, which is especially nasty with progressive metal and music as complex as theirs. Luckily the sound got fixed soon enough, and then the swampy groove, Jonas Savšek’s cutting vocals, the hypnotic repetitive guitar lines of the Peter Frol/Blaž Zupan duo and the band’s intricate compositions really came into their own. This time they played the lion’s share of songs that will most likely land on their second studio album. Tamara’s keyboards got lost in the mix this time, which slightly spoiled the dark, mystical atmosphere that normally wraps around the band’s sound, but never mind — here’s hoping the follow-up to the debut Solace and Solitude sees the light of day soon.
Since Iamdisease sadly dropped out at the last moment, the schedule in the hall got shifted a bit, and their slot went to technical death metallers Dethrone the Corrupted from Slovenska Bistrica, who are gearing up for the release of their debut Sepiroth. These guys delivered one hell of a death metal set that reminded me mostly of bands like The Black Dahlia Murder and Rivers of Nihil: staggering technical chops with the odd slam part, seasoned with top-notch vocals and just enough melody to keep the whole thing from getting boring and one-note. The band’s massive sound, along with Aleksander Brgleza’s vocals, which one moment growled like an animal and the next screamed like that very animal’s human victim, thoroughly rattled Orto’s downstairs and really got the wheels of this long night turning. We’re waiting for Sepiroth with open arms!
The most sardine-packed moment of the night was courtesy of veterans Dickless Tracy, who filled Orto’s smallest stage room to the last nook, even though they themselves could barely squeeze onto the miniature stage. So full, in fact, that you risked never making it back into the bar if you stepped out of it. It seems the band is more active than ever since the release of Halls of Sickness and its follow-up Paroxysm of Disgust (even though that’s not actually true), because the trio of the Cepanec brothers and bassist Jernej Rejc has turned into an indestructible beast, spat out by hell itself because it couldn’t stand the loud death grind and Cep’s nonstop clowning around any longer. The songs can be deadly serious at times, always inspired by good horror, blasphemy and the Antichrist, but live, death metal’s usual morbidity gets a superb upgrade from Cep’s spontaneous humor and Tegla’s mock-serious grimaces, which are etched across his face as he pounds the drums to hell and back. One of the best sets of the night, if not the best, but I had to dash upstairs for a helping of doom before Dickless Tracy even finished.
Because the club had struck »witching hour«, and Ljubljana’s doom witches Mist took the stage, now with the bearded wizard Blaž Tanšek on guitar for the past year. In a good half hour, Mist served up exactly what we’ve come to expect from them – Nina Spruk’s deceptively seductive siren vocals, heavy, slow doom rhythms in the vein of Black Sabbath and Pentagram, and an occult atmosphere. There were no special highlights this time, but it was half an hour of solid, confident doom, which in the general positive Friday vibe didn’t exactly go down the hatch smoothly. It’s also about time to air out the setlist, and maybe a studio debut…
Later in the evening, Maribor metalcore crew Splitting the Sky took Orto’s biggest stage, treating the ears mostly of fans of bands like As I Lay Dying, Killswitch Engage and Parkway Drive. The Maribor guys played a hellishly dynamic set that you can’t possibly accuse of lacking energy, since there was more than enough coming off the stage, and the band had no trouble getting the crowd going either. That’s where I personally get off the ride. I can just about put up with the fairly generic riffing and the countless breakdowns, but the soaring clean vocal lines are something I simply can’t stomach. Well, as they say, every eye has its own painter, or better yet, every ear has its own skunk.
The punk blast with Golliwog upstairs was therefore far more tempting, a band that will celebrate its twentieth anniversary next year. Led by the human firecracker that is vocalist Saša, Golliwog shook the hall with a barrage of undemanding, breezy yet extremely catchy and melodic, socially critical two-minute punk anthems in the style of bands like NOFX, Millencolin and Lagwagon. Good old Epitaph or Fat Wreck school, in other words, which in Golliwog’s hands and throats still feels as fresh and punchy as ever. Fast two- or three-chord songs, mostly from the debut More Than Meets D.I.Y, crawled into my ears in no time, but after twenty minutes I had to run back downstairs again.
Because thrash veterans Eruption were taking the big hall’s stage, and with Negligence relatively inactive, they’ve picked up the torch of Slovenian thrash metal. I haven’t seen a bad show from Eruption in years and years, and this one was no different, as we once again got a proper thrash punch straight to the jaw. Eruption still play plenty of songs from their current record Tenses Collide, but they slip in a teaser or two from the upcoming album, due out soon. It’s without a doubt one of the most anticipated Slovenian metal releases this year, since the new songs sound top-notch, especially the epic Drones. After quite a few gigs in a slightly revamped lineup, the band clicks and complements each other superbly, from the riff barrages of the Andrej Čuk/Grega Kamenšek guitar duo, to Tegla’s earthquake drumming (even though it was already his second set of the night) and Nika’s bass playing, which has never sounded as good since she joined the band, and it’ll be interesting to hear what she’s cooked up for the upcoming record. Buco pulled some excellent screams out of his vocal cords, but once again I missed my beloved Playing With Matches from the debut, which makes me a sad panda :'(
The Ljubljana crew The Canyon Observer took us into completely different waters, still (deservedly) flying high on the wings of their full-length debut FVCK. The guys again played a painfully intense hour-long set of nihilistic sludge/noise/black metal, with a massive wall of sound the size of the Great Wall of China. After about ten bands, my state of mind wasn’t exactly tuned to TCO’s frequency anymore, but it’s clear the band’s sonic perversion came out top-notch yet again. With the obligatory fog, strobes and Hopsi under the stage.
Dirty Skunks’ epic 15th anniversary was wrapped up upstairs by epic black metallers Dekadent, who are still heavily pushing their excellent record Veritas, released two years ago. In the first seconds Dekadent wrapped the hall in a thick cloud of fog and darkness and dimmed lights, which added even more patina to the atmosphere of the music itself. If Dekadent not so long ago could swing quite a bit, at least in terms of live experience, this time the band proved it’s tight, confident and coherent. The guitar riffs flowed just as they should, the crushing rhythm section too, and Artur’s screaming was once again piercing, despite a few slightly flat clean lines here and there. But thirteen bands of course weren’t enough yet, and Friday tipped over into Saturday with a great atmosphere and the sounds of the eighties in the downstairs hall.
Ok, the fact is that the scene would exist without Dirty Skunks, but without them it would be far more dry, boring and incomparably worse-smelling, and gigs would probably only happen in the most obscure dives. The two happy little skunks are and remain underground stormtroopers. But if stormtroopers are proverbially the worst army in the galaxy, the Skunks are stormtroopers with Jedi powers. All the best, and thank you!
Photo gallery
