Performing: Šus, Interceptor
Location: Velenje / MC Velenje (open-air venue) / Slovenia
Date: Saturday, 29.08.2010
Ever climbed into a car in the middle of the biggest downpour imaginable, a little after eight in the evening, and headed off to a metal gig in Velenje? If it were the last one before the apocalypse, somebody might even believe you. That’s what happens when the elders of Interceptor hit the stage once a year. Yep. The only Interceptor show this year. But not without meaning. They called it a “farewell/christening” gig! Right up to this day, the band had been carefully teasing fans of heavy sounds that a change on guitar was coming. What that would mean, of course, they weren’t willing to say. Why start eating with dessert? So Simon Cukjati had announced his goodbye. It’s only fair that this new turning point for Slovenia’s inventors of graveyard metal gets marked the way it should.
Velenje was completely dead at 10 p.m. The relentless rain had done its job. The exception was the youth center by the “Rdeča dvorana” (the “Red Hall”). That’s where the kids had gathered. Entry was free, the local cinemas’ offerings had been exhausted, the parents were home hogging the TV or the internet, crocheting by the stove went out of fashion ages ago (like other industrious habits), so you head out into the fresh Velenje air. Rain or no rain. Warming up the crowd before Interceptor were Šus, lineup: guitarist/vocalist, guitarist and drummer. The bass-less trio raged for a good half hour and showed off their take on music, which isn’t all that far from the evening’s headliners. You can tell the band lacks gigs. Hesitant communication with the crowd and an unused stage, with everyone glued to their own square meter, instantly showed that the band needs more seasoning on stage. Not exactly a lived-in performance, it served up nothing interesting. Neither musically nor character-wise. Of course, the dose of noisy (mostly semitone-shaped) riff-mayhem was enough to wake up a few heads below the stage and get them involved, which is a good send-off for the future.
Epidemic Zone, who were billed before Interceptor, didn’t play. I don’t know the reason, but the longer break gave Interceptor time to get thoroughly set up on stage for their show. Just the theme tune of the partisan TV series “Vrnitev odpisanih” and the quintet is ready. The band split the show into two parts. The first they played with “Cuki” in the lineup, and they let it blow up into pieces at the end, after the guitarist takes over lead vocals too on the Anthrax cover Got The Time. Then comes a five-minute break while the band get everything ready to introduce the new guitarist. The stage comes alive, the band kicks off with the newer Homo Stupidus, and with them is Eliminator guitarist Tim Draksler! And so we got the answer to the most agonizing question! This is the renewed Interceptor, who’ll head into the studio as such to record and release the new album they’ve been promising for so long. Master Čulk reassured the crowd they’d get it next year!
The band is excellent on stage. The rhythm section is thrilling, Marc Pader is as reliable as ever and can’t fake it on a riff. And our valiant Master? The longer break clearly did him good, because he came across fresh and rested. He stayed on both feet for the whole hour, and sang and growled all the material superbly, including the established Sepultura cover Inner Self. Čulk is as charismatic as ever, confident, and has tons of experience, so he knows exactly when to pull the levers that keep the audience from getting oversaturated with “graveyard metalization”! Material mixed from all three studio albums, occasionally visibly inspired by early Sepultura, in the hands of a seasoned band was honed under the umbrella of excellent sound, which earned extra bonus points for the only live get-together with Interceptor this year.
In the closing stretch, Pader stepped up to the “front” and introduced a new song that the band will put on the new album. The track, which for now exists as a pure instrumental, confirmed that if the band keeps following a new riff like the one Marc presented (and like the excellent Homo Stupidus already confirmed), we won’t have to tremble that the creators of “graveyard metal” might not be able to justify and confirm their musical presence and status in the Slovenian metal universe with their new studio release! For the big finale, Interceptor, as expected, tackle the Epidemic Zone cover Zadnja žrtev. Simon Cukjati returns to the stage one last time, so now we have three guitarists up there. The opening part goes to guitarist Pader, as Interceptor “wreck the song into a rolling riff,” and then the stage gets “concretely” “filled” one last time with the Master’s ominous presence!
Interceptor really got the crowd on its feet. A good 300 heads got a first-class helping of napalm cluster bombs on the spot, courtesy of the thrash metal foldout of Slovenia’s legendary interceptor, and we wish it returns next time armed with fresh ammo, embodied by the promised new studio album. On the last Saturday night of this August, Interceptor also successfully killed the rain, which spared us throughout the gig, so both the band and the crowd squeezed the maximum out of this event. And Tim? Welcome aboard!
author: Aleš Podbrežnik
photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
INTERCEPTOR setlist:
1. Fade
2. Blato
3. Blame
4. Revive
5. Pedofil
6. Paparazzo
7. Got The Time
8. Homo Stupidus
9. Religija
10. Mors Victrix
11. Inner Self
12. Puške namesto kruha
13. Nova skladba (instrumental)
14. Zadnja žrtev
