Author: Rok Klemše
Venue: Orto bar, Ljubljana
Concert date: 19.02.2007
Attendance: 50
Ticket price: /
For Shrove Tuesday, three Croatian bands flew into Orto Bar to present the compilations New Underground and Strašni Riječani. The two compilations, released last year on Dallas, capture the Croatian underground rock and metal scene. In a solid hour and a half, we got a deeper look at their music from Rijeka’s Invert, Zagreb’s Mental Harakiri, and Downfall, who hail from the same city as the openers.
Invert were first on stage, playing easygoing punk rock/hardcore that’s closest to the likes of Nofx or No Fun At All and similar Swedish and American bands, which, to put it mildly, have been played to death by now. Sadly, Invert also swim in the waters of three chords and simple song structures. Still, they played their half hour at a solid level and showed up with an energetic performance.
Invert were followed by Zagreb’s Mental Harakiri, who are musically closest to some kind of nu-metal. Honestly, at least to me personally, the music is totally average, but the energetic frontman and guitarist, who sawed away uncompromisingly on his seven-string Ibanez, more than made up for that flaw. Light rhythms that almost leaned toward ska, mixed with hard metal riffing, quickly got the small crowd swaying along. Sadly, Tuesday night at Orto stayed poorly attended, which is mostly down to the busy lineup of things going on for Shrove Tuesday and the Eagles of Death Metal show at Cvetličarna. After a good half hour, Mental Harakiri also left the (tiny) stage at Orto and handed it over to the last act of the night, Rijeka’s Downfall.
Downfall are from the same city as the biggest metal band of our neighbors, Father, and they’re definitely a band that learned a lot from Father while still keeping their own originality and recognizability. For me personally, they were the most anticipated band of the night, and they confirmed and fulfilled those expectations. Excellent melodic death metal in the Gothenburg style was a real treat to close out the evening. The five-piece is technically very well equipped, and the bassist on a 6(!)-string bass really stands out, and he put it to good use too. The guitarist, whose sizable presence reminded me a bit of Jon Oliva, also shined with excellent solos and dynamic playing. The vocalist was a real find too, wowing us with a varied range of growling, from deep, animalistic grunts to high, screeching parts. In my opinion, Downfall have a lot of promise.
After the night at Orto wrapped up, the Rockline crew moved on to another spot and carried on the drinking… ahem… conversations 🙂 Full props to all the guys from neighboring Croatia, who played totally for free and still had a blast on stage. Which is the most important thing, right?
Photo Gallery
