Author: Rok Klemše
Photos: Nina Grad
Venue: Kino Šiška, Ljubljana
Concert date: November 30, 2012
Attendance: 500
While all of Slovenia is protesting against the corruption of the ruling elites, who live only to grab as many material and other perks as they can for themselves and their cronies, and society seems to be on the verge of final collapse, some of us look for a way out of the gray everyday grind in music, even if it’s only an illusion. And it’s even easier to find an escape, at least a temporary one, a way to forget the shit that keeps getting bigger and smellier, at a gig. And it gets easier still when Devin Townsend Project and Fear Factory, two metal acts, come to Slovenia for the first time. On The Epic Industrialist tour, the pair occupied Kino Šiška last Friday the same way most of the peaceful protesters occupied Kongresni trg and Trg Republike.
Since the originally announced opener, England’s Sylosis, pulled out of the Epic Industrialist tour in favor of a US run with Lamb of God, a local band got the chance to show what it’s got. Kudos to the promoter, all the more because the support act played a similar brand of off-the-wall stuff as the headliners, and because we finally got to see something new and fresh. First up were the Slovenj Gradec tribe ZircuS, who spent a good half hour presenting their musical vision of a genre conglomerate. The Carinthian band, who’ve already put out two records under their label’s wing, Epic Tribe (2010) and this year’s Away From the Safety Zone, tell you right there where the musical dog is buried. And that’s total unpredictability, bold experimentation, and a mix of genres and avant-garde approaches. In short, really far away from the safe haven of predictability. ZircuS attacked our ears with a thick wall of sound made of heavy electronics, dubstep elements and metal sawing. The hypnotically stoned vocals occasionally reminded me of Johnny Rotten in Public Image Ltd., the sound waves hit us just right and peaked in an excellent blend of blues, dub and metal, Satanic Blues. Interesting and different, but to my taste propped up with a bit too many robotic, computer-y touches, which took away the organic feel you can sense mostly on their current record.
After a short break, a collage of the most idiotic sound and video clips you could possibly find finally rolled on the screen behind the stage, and the whole thing was spiced up by Ziltoid the Omniscient in person with his »poopy« jokes about poop, flushing it, and wee. Such off-the-wall humor naturally signaled that only a few moments remained until Canadian genius Devin Townsend’s first show in our country. This inexhaustible wellspring of ideas started down a new path in 2008 with Devin Townsend Project, and today, just four years later, he already has five studio albums under his belt (even six, if you count the bonus disc Epicloud with completely new material). The latest, Epicloud, Devin released two months ago, wading into the waters of pop metal and cheesy eighties hard rock with it. Devin Townsend strutted onstage in his by-now typical outfit, accompanied by a plush Ljubljana dragon, which he set down on his bulky »pedal board.« The first sharp riffs announced Supercrush! from the ultra-catchy Addicted, and the excellent sound, just loud enough and clear enough, promised that the rest would be even better. Townsend proved once again that a more unique musician is hard to find on the metal scene. The combination of phenomenal vocalist, fantastic guitarist and even better composer is rarer than Ziltoid’s intellectual poetry, but Devin is all that and more. Townsend and the band walked us through the schizophrenic nature of his music, which is at times totally simple and poppy (More!), at others chillingly epic (Kingdom) and at others chaotic and perversely complex – the twelve-minute Planet of the Apes from the album Deconstruction, whose chaos recalls Devin’s demon Strapping Young Lad. The whole time Devin had the crowd in the palm of his hand, and they ate out of it until the last second. It can’t be any other way, since Townsend owns every inch of the stage, shines vocally like a trained opera singer, and in between pulls such rubbery grimaces that they crack you up (hehe, there’s your poop joke). »The Dev« sealed his unique sense of humor by announcing that the next song was about women and then sawed through the wacked-out Vampira, joined on screen by an even more off-the-wall video. With Lucky Animals we stayed in similarly silly waters, and we felt even sillier swinging our arms around during the chorus, which Devin demanded even of »the guy in the Manowar shirt in the back.« The crazy train Juular dragged us back into »SYL-style« chaos, and the epic finale was the duo of Grace and the fantastic Deep Peace, with Devin’s breathtaking soloing and the ethereal atmosphere that pervades the unforgettable album Terria. An hour and a quarter with Devin Townsend Project was way (way, way, way, way, ….) too short, but Devin knows how to deliver, in even so little time, what only a rare few of the greatest manage. That’s a feeling of contentment, fullness and warmth that stays with you long after the show. I hope Devin and company keep their promise and come back, preferably with a longer setlist. Those of us packed into Kino Šiška let them know they were more than welcome, and the band’s satisfaction could be read even in a few smiles from the otherwise always stone-cold Dave Young. Fear Factory had a tough time justifying their headliner billing…
Veterans, pioneers and innovators Fear Factory had been at least as eagerly awaited as Devin Townsend ever since the show was announced, all the more because they too were playing our stages for the first time. The fathers of industrial metal have been around since 1989, made their name mainly with Soul of a New Machine (1992) and Demanufacture (1995), were the first to bring clean vocals into death metal, swapped out a bunch of members along the way (probably eaten by guitarist Dino Cazares), and, very Slovenian of them, sued each other over the rights to the name, with the Bell/Cazares and Herrera/Olde Wolbers duos on opposite sides. Things in the Fear Factory camp are calm right now, and the permanent boss duo, vocalist Burton C. Bell and guitarist Dino Cazares, have been joined by bassist Matt DeVries (ex-Chimaira, ex-Six Feet Under) and drummer Mike Heller (Malignancy, System Divide), beefing up the rhythm section. The band recently released the concept album The Industrialist, and with the title track Fear Factory greeted the 500-strong Ljubljana crowd. You could tell the band was happy to be playing on a new stage for the first time, most visible in Cazares’ wide grin, which was there more or less all night. The charismatic guitarist made sure apocalyptically deep, hundred-ton riffs flew out of his seven-string, while the industrial drumming was backed up by DeVries, who fit into the crew perfectly, and Heller, who admittedly isn’t Gene Hoglan but did his job very solidly. Well, the bone of contention was once again vocalist Burton C. Bell, who joined the band way back in 1989 after Cazares heard him singing U2 in a hotel room… “How gay is that, hehe?”. This time his weakness as a vocalist and frontman probably showed all the more because poor Burton had the thankless job of following the phenomenal Townsend. Bell, one of the first to bring clean vocals into death metal, totally burned out this time (or else he’s sick of touring and sends his twin brother instead, hehe). The growled parts weren’t a big problem for him, but he hopelessly botched the clean vocal parts that are Fear Factory’s trademark, and several times his voice cracked completely (he’s toast, hehe). He flopped so badly vocally that it was painful to stay in the hall, so quite a few people went for beer instead, and as a frontman worth his salt, Bell didn’t deliver this time either. Fear Factory added some nice surprises to the setlist, especially the pairing of Martyr and Scapegoat from the debut Soul of a New Machine and the closing run of Demanufacture classics. It was really nice to finally see Fear Factory here, but from a band that has so effectively mixed and fused thrash and death metal, industrial and alternative over its career, I expected a lot more than an average show.
Setlist
DEVIN TOWNSEND PROJECT:
1. Supercrush!
2. More!
3. Kingdom
4. Truth
5. Planet of the Apes
6. Where We Belong
7. War
8. Vampira
9. Lucky Animals
10. Juular
11. Grace
12. Deep Peace
FEAR FACTORY:
1. The Industrialist
2. Shock
3. Smasher/Devourer
4. Powershifter
5. Acres of Skin
6. Linchpin
7. Resurrection
8. Recharger
9. Martyr
10. Scapegoat
11. Demanufacture
12. Self Bias Resistor
13. Zero Signal
14. Replica
Photo Gallery
