Author: Primož Novak
Venue: Orto bar / Ljubljana / Slovenia
Concert date: December 11, 2013
Attendance: 80
Ticket price: 18/22 €
December had a pretty solid lineup for thrash metal fans. Right at the start, on December 1st, you could get hyped for Death Angel and Dew-Scented, who definitely didn’t disappoint. Then two days ago, Orto Bar hosted yet another thrash metal show. On the Unnatural Selection tour, Havok, Angelus Apatrida and Savage Messiah rolled through. The first two bands have already visited our little country and of course didn’t let us down. For Savage Messiah, though, the situation was different: when you’re introducing yourself to an audience for the first time, you’ve got to put your best foot forward.
Savage Messiah started playing to a half-empty hall, which is pretty typical for bands opening a show. Despite the cold, plenty of people preferred to hang outside with a beer and a cigarette. In their short half-hour set, Savage Messiah played songs from all three albums, plus a new one from the upcoming album The Fateful Dark, due out in March 2014. Considering how overchewed the genre is, the band proved themselves to a certain extent. Besides the thrash riffs we’ve heard a thousand times, there were heavy/power metal passages, melodic alternating solos and a pretty interesting vocal that recalled plenty of heavy metal bands. Still, it’s hard to say the band offers anything that would draw bigger crowds. The quartet sticks to tried-and-true guidelines, which leads to generic results, so they’re destined not to conquer any major stages.
With the Spanish quartet Angelus Apatrida, it quickly became clear that Savage Messiah were definitely the more interesting and inventive act. Angelus Apatrida just kept repeating themselves. A couple of songs were digestible, but after that it turned out the band does nothing but serve up recycled thrash metal that even old-school thrashers are already steering clear of. The generic sound and repetitive patterns just wouldn’t end. Most songs were built from typical thrasher »buzzy bee« riffs, an annoying screaming vocal, predictability and a faster tempo. Still, Angelus Apatrida did manage to get some of the crowd moving, so it wasn’t a totally hopeless situation. On the other hand, it would have been nicer to see some Slovenian thrash band with more imagination than AA.
With the American band Havok, who put out the album Unnatural Selection this year, the bad impression left by the Spaniards faded. Sure, Havok also reach for tried-and-true recipes, but luckily they have quite a few standout songs. Particularly strong were Covering Fire, Point of No Return, From Cradle to the Grave, D.O.A. and Time Is Up. Havok admittedly don’t bring anything new, but with a good rhythm section things can improve a lot. Despite fairly generic riffs and an annoying vocal, the songs work thanks to an excellent drummer and interesting soloing. The crowd was eating out of the band’s hands. During certain songs, half the hall was in the mosh pit. The band was full of energy on stage, matching all that aggression and speed. Of course Havok served up new material too, which unfortunately didn’t land as well as the older songs. The reason is simple: the newer songs sound like they were written in a hurry and are too similar to each other. What’s to blame? Maybe bad production, label pressure or simply a lack of imagination. It’s not fair to say Havok have no potential, but with generic products packed with recycled ideas they won’t get far. They’ll probably play as support for some established band, and probably won’t achieve much more than that.
The so-called thrash revival has become a bit of a shot in the dark. The bands initially showed promise, restoring faith in thrash metal, but after two albums the real picture emerged. Labels want to dump them, and fewer and fewer people show up to the gigs. Either everything has already been said in thrash metal, or the scene simply doesn’t have enough capable bands to make the genre interesting again. If nothing else, you have to admit the bands on stage are at least eco-minded. You don’t just stumble on this many recycled ideas in one place.
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