Artist: Zabukowski
Label: Dallas Records
Released: 2011
Running time: 39.05
Rating: 5/5
Franci Zabukovec is, no beating around the bush, one of the most accomplished rock guitarists in Slovenia. Over a good many years, he has breathed in pretty much every nook and cranny of the Slovenian music scene. The man is a respected, acclaimed old fox of the business, a kind of guru, a guitar wizard, a sort of catalyst who today (in the studio too) steers the eager stream of young guitarists in the right direction. He first got serious attention as a member of Rdeči Baron, later made his name in Robert Magnifico’s backing band Pismejkers, and then turned into a proper studio fixture, shaping the sound as producer and co-producer for plenty of “clients”. His buddy-buddy history with k.u.t. Gas and Botri is well known too.
All that mileage pushed him toward the realization that the time had come for a solo project, one where he’d give his creative musical streak full authorship, no compromises. “K-Metal”, short for “Kryptonite Metal”, which keeps all the vital functions of its supersonic cousin Superman, is the studio debut of the Zabukowski project. The very name of the project, like the quips the coinage “K-Metal” sets off, hints that the whole thing was made in a spirit of lucidity, in line with the demands of a mature and tasteful rock-jargon aesthetic, neatly slotted into the set of 10 tracks Zabukowski presents here. So it’s no surprise if Franci Zabukovec picked up that lucidity from his time with Magnifico or from his current fooling around with Rock Partyzani (I just hope AC/DC didn’t happen to see the cover of their second record Vedno na pravi strani).
Despite the metallic ring of the album’s name, the music on it is hard rock. Melodic hard rock, commanded first and foremost, of course, by the witty, sharp-minded guitar vocabulary of Franci Zabukovec. The album is kitted out from head to toe with bravura guitar solos that are never pretentious, but follow an innate sense of riding the golden mean of a healthy choice and placement of notes. That gives them exceptional listenability and, for those of you who catch fire on the first listen, total clarity. Along the way, Zabukovec makes it known that he’s a multidisciplinary guitar virtuoso. With his antics, he successfully unites the two fundamental attributes of his music. Across the album, the sense of creative sparkle and the plasma of technical polish (the astonishing speed and precision of his fingers racing over the fretboard) hold a great dialogue, and that will, at the most basic level, satisfy even the most spoiled music gluttons.
A guitarist like that deserves the best players beside him in the studio, too. Alongside Franci Zabukovec, the bulk of the album’s sonic makeup comes from excellent Slovenian musicians: rock vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Sergej Škofljanec (Requiem), who, except for the song Moja dama, contributed his vocals to a total of seven tracks (two on the album are instrumentals), bassist Cveto Polak (solo, Jelen, ex-Šank Rock) and drummer Roman Ratej (Jelen).
Picking Sergej Škofljanec was a great move. This guy has a crystal- clear, authoritative voice and an exceptional, innate knack for chameleon-like shifts and adjustments of vocal color. The lyrics are sung entirely in Slovenian. Certainly harder to write than in English. But seasoned old cats know how to serve things up here too, so they fused the Slovenian lyrics with the songs’ authentic hard rock heritage with flying colors, so that they work optimally and keep all the melodic expressiveness of the lead motifs. What’s more, with his remarkable vocal range, Škofljanec is exactly the right address for adding extra melody!
In the glam-teased Dej bejbi dej (a fleeting feeling that Gary Moore broke off his chain and dashed for a moment into the AC/DC riff factory), he deliberately goes in with a slight growl, bringing the cheeky, rascally feel such a song needs. The album opens pompously with the triumphant Zdaj grem sam naprej, built on an excellent lead riff that in its melodic compactness instantly grabs the listener’s attention, as an opening section should! Once again, the supremely flexible Škofljanec shows he doesn’t sing in the Slovenian Iron Maiden “tribute” band (Iron Median) for nothing, as he rips into the Zabukowski song dedicated to Ronnie James Dio, titled Mavrica. The associations with the late rock great rain down, whether in translations (Rainbow, Rainbow in the dark) or in lyrics (“your mountain now gleams in silver”). The song has a touch of solemnity, a veil of atmospheric drama, with a lead chorus that fully justifies its purpose (the tribute). Mavrica would have been just as fine a choice to open the album “K-Metal”.
The song Moja dama, with lead vocals by Vojo Djuran (Botri), has some similarities with individual moments on the album Feniks by Mary Rose, since Djuran brings the same captured mood as the ones Žanil Tataj – Žak creates with his vocals on that Mary Rose album.
One of the favorites and most beautiful songs on “K-Metal” is the half-ballad Sanjam. It has an exceptionally graduated build of atmosphere that peaks in a polished, melodically seductive chorus. The arrangement and structure of the song are tailor-made for Škofljanec, who squeezes the maximum out of the string of emotions with his splendid vocals. Zabukovec puts the dot on the “i” with a dreamy solo that sharpens the drama theater, while the keyboard arrangements added in the background only deepen the dramatic moment. I mentioned lucidity earlier. This very song is a textbook example of the outstanding combination of drama-theater atmosphere (the instrumental part) and the lucidity of the lyrics (the vocal part), sung “deadly serious”. Every man dreams of peace in a relationship with a woman. Sadly, he never gets that peace in real life. So all he can do is dream about it. Fantastic! The melody is used to the fullest in the brilliant compactness of the song hand in hand with tastefully laid-down lyrics (in Slovenian!). A brilliant song.
The dynamics on the album never let up. The song Kryptonite is a lively instrumental led by a melos that signals that Slovenia, and with it the Slovenian mountains, which Franci has always been tied to, have long been closely connected to the Balkans. So at this point the guitar language sails off south and brings a new shift in mood to the album with its own expressive quirk. Ni vse zlato (kar se v temi sveti) is what Franci picked as the album’s lead single, since it carries one of the most flowing choruses of highly seductive melody, one that catches fire on first listen. A very fitting candidate for a second single (besides the fantastic Sanjam) is the outrageously fun Moj največji problem, where the hedonistic vibe is masterfully stoked by the inclusion of horns. It’s got no shortage of mischief!
The closing title instrumental “K-Metal” comes closest to the metal the album’s name hints at, with guitar rocketry fired from every angle over a rhythm wound up to top speed, where Franci’s new guitar outburst confirms that from all his ideas, the man once again picked only the best for the album.
How do I wrap up this essay? “K-Metal” is a great new achievement for hard rock in Slovenia. In fact, there’s very little music like this in Slovenia today. It’s a record that draws inspiration from the music of the seventies and eighties, the decades that brought hard rock its golden age. Even the way all the songs are composed follows the eighties tradition. And don’t worry. Fans of guitar aces like Eddie Van Halen, Michael Schenker, Gary Moore or Tony MacAlpine will definitely get their money’s worth. And more. “K-Metal” belongs in the must-have collection of every fan for whom the names Šank rock, Chateau, Mary Rose and Requiem are no mystery, as well as the world names of the melodic hard rock school.
The material on K-Metal is polished down to the hair! Proof of that is the rich detailing of the transitions in the songs, which Franci upgrades with sparkling guitar ornaments, the crafted solos with clearly chiseled melodic rhetoric, masterfully built into the songs’ basic motifs, and the high flow of the verse-chorus links, with the untouched element of a graduated build in mood that hits its peak in highly listenable choruses in every song.
With this album, Franci Zabukovec has bared his musician’s personality to the Slovenian public in the most direct and authentic way. The proof is the exceptional polish of the arrangements, the variety of motifs from song to song, the album’s high dynamics, dictated by the musician’s sensitive fire of perfectionism. “K-Metal” is a maturely defined album of highly refined songs that evolved into their final form over a longer stretch of time.
Clearly something is fundamentally shifting in Slovenia. The generation that put Slovenian rock of the eighties on its feet is kicking hard again. Cveto Polak released an excellent solo album, “Bass Line”, the new Requiem album is just around the corner, as are those of Mary Rose and Chateau, the rock supergroup Jelen has just formed and announced a new album. And we got “K-Metal”! Let’s hope the story called Zabukowski continues with another album, because this current team-up of a mature generation of Slovenian rock musicians is a huge guiding light for young and unestablished rock bands in Slovenia, to grit their teeth and stick to their chosen path!
Lineup
Franci Zabukovec – guitar
GUEST MUSICIANS:
Sergej Škofljanec – vocals (tracks 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 8, 9)
Vojo Djuran – vocals (track 3)
Cveto Polak – bass guitar (all tracks except track 10)
Robert Sršen – bass guitar (track 10)
Roman Ratej – drums (all tracks except track 10)
Jaka Lipar – drums (track 10)
Miha Gorše – keyboards (tracks 1, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9)
Aleš Klinar – keyboards (track 10)
BACKING VOCALS:
Franci Zabukovec
Sergej Škofljanec
Omar Naber
Samuel Lukas
Matija Oražem
Aleš Štefančič
Production
Franci Zabukovec
Track List
1. Zdaj grem sam naprej
2. Dej, bejbi, dej
3. Mavrica
4. Moja dama
5. Sanjam
6. Kryptonite
7. Ni vse zlato (kar se v temi sveti)
8. Moj največji problem
9. Fina ženska
10. K-metal
