Author: Rok Klemše
Photos: Nina Grad
Venue: Channel Zero, Ljubljana
Concert date: 24.09.2013
September doesn’t just mean the start of school and the autumn doldrums in Ljubljana, when the tourists vanish, the students aren’t back yet, and you keep waking up to foggy mornings. It also means the start, and revival, of club shows. So September is also the time to shake your bones in front of a stage again, this time Channel Zero’s, where America’s Speedwolf made their first appearance for a Slovenian crowd, backed by the local duo Teleport and Hellsword, who play together so often that it’s barely possible to picture one without the other.
First up this time was an unidentified flying object, though in the shape of the already familiar Ljubljana thrash metal outfit Teleport, who in a relatively short existence have racked up an enviable amount of live mileage. Presenting their first demo, Galactic Usurper, the guys have worked their way through the local stages, and it shows. A convincingly decorated stage with the obligatory gas masks with evilly glowing eyes has become a Teleport staple, successfully and effectively building on a sci-fi-flavored, progressively tinged thrash. Comparisons to giants like Voivod, Coroner and newer acts like Vektor are fair, but Teleport take only the mold from their idols, and it doesn’t sound like a cheap knockoff. The trademark of the Ljubljana four-piece remains, at its core, European-flavored thrash, but with a dose of intricately structured songs full of unexpected twists, broken rhythms, weird riffs and otherworldly tricks. Teleport also played a nice handful of new tracks, proof of how fast they’re developing musically, and it’ll be really interesting to hear how far into space the future carries the band.
From distant constellations and foreign planets, the next band dragged us far below the earth, into dark infernal labyrinths, and the stench of sulfur spread through the hall like the plague. Up came the Ljubljana trio Hellsword, treading the hellish path of speed/black metal pioneers Bathory, Celtic Frost, Venom, Sodom and Destruction, which isn’t necessarily the most original thing, but it’s damn nice to have a band here that doesn’t overcomplicate things and probably sacrifices a virgin or two before every show. The Teleport–Hellsword tag team has been stomping across our stages for a good while, and this time the camaraderie between the two bands really shone through, since Ironfist’s guitar succumbed to evil in the first moments and Jan Medved’s guitar from Teleport came to the rescue. Even so, Hellsword had no major trouble during the set. The trio is tight and oiled like Cthulhu’s tentacles, and standing on stage they give the impression of having stepped straight out of a time machine, from somewhere around 1982, when people like Schmier, Tom Warrior, Cronos and Lemmy were only just sprouting their first facial hair. Except Lemmy. Lemmy was born with a mustache. Despite a thoroughly »old-school« blend of black and speed metal that stopped being original long ago, Hellsword manage to sound sincere and fresh. The songs from the debut demo Blasphemy Unchained have lodged in the ears like the hooks from Hellraiser, while the new songs unfortunately don’t have that kind of power (yet?). The band came across as convincing on stage, but that’s a bit harder to say about the new material, which quickly got a little monotonous and predictable and, as said, doesn’t (yet) match the glory of its predecessors.
Last to sink their teeth into the stage were the speed wolves from Denver, USA, Speedwolf, making their premiere for a Slovenian crowd. The Americans are still promoting their 2011 debut Ride With Death and really took us on a hellish thrash/speed metal ride full of death, blasphemy, Satan and women, the main themes Reed Bruemmer sings about. This time he planted himself behind the mic stand and didn’t budge a single centimeter, and with that static performance he somewhat spoiled the energetic, gasoline-soaked wild ride of his bandmates. Sadly, Speedwolf’s musical identity isn’t very original either, as they roll through their songs like Motörhead on steroids and speed. Everything is generic and heard elsewhere – the Lemmy-style growling vocals, the rock ‘n’ roll riffs, the rattling bass and the fast solos. Speedwolf are a band you listen to at best for a party. They do leave an impression with their sped-up, metalized Motörhead-style sound, but we’ve heard it countless times. Songwriting-wise, the Americans don’t come across as a beastly fast wolf howling at the night, but as a lazy scavenger, a pack leader who decks himself out in other people’s work.
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