Performing: Nails, Exodus, Carcass, Kreator
Date: Wednesday, 8 April 2026, from 6:20 PM to 11:00 PM
Venue: Ljubljana / Media Center / Slovenia
That day came around again. The bells of hell are ringing, calling the faithful to another metal communion. An obligation. Back at Media Center. Finally. That proper, larger concert venue in Ljubljana — covered and, unlike Križanke, actually keeps you dry even when it rains! Made for those package shows where four or five bands pool together to pull in the wider metal crowd. This time: Kreator, Carcass, Exodus and Nails. Four bands each with their own distinct identity, yet bound by a solid kinship — both in energy and style. Which is why, by half past six when Nails came blasting onto the stage, the place was already pretty nicely packed.
Nails are by now genuine hardcore punk legends. The trio consists of: Todd Jones (vocals, guitar) — the boss and driving force of the band, plus bassist Andrew Solis (Despise You, Apparition) and drummer Carlos Cruz (Warbringer). This was the band’s debut performance in Slovenia! It went off. Supremely. The trio delivered extraordinary fire. Their HC is concretely, viscerally brutal. The thrash metal influences are strong, and even though the band had very little room on stage, their music took care of the rest. A ferocious sonic assault right from the opening shot, landing like a hard slap to the face, while also properly heating up a venue that was already well attended by that point. Interestingly, the band dropped the entire catalogue of their latest album “Every Bridge Burning” and focused solely on material from the first three studio albums. The trio is venom to the bone. And in half an hour they threw down seven crushing hooks that had to satisfy most of the crowd — especially the hardcore devotees, of whom there were surely many — and in particular the Slovenian fans who had never seen Nails on Slovenian stages before. A ferocious opening, then. Nails showed up with a revamped lineup. Todd keeps things under command. Although they usually play with an additional live guitarist, even without one the band landed exactly where Nails belongs. Hardcore punk brutalization!
Exodus are those Bay Area Thrash Metal veterans who somehow always find their way back to Slovenia (the other such veterans would be Testament). Whether they swing through Tolmin or some club venue. Last year they delivered a phenomenal standalone show at CUK Kino Šiška; this year Kreator took them along on the tour. Kreator and Exodus? The two bands share an old love going back to the days of the package show: Kreator, Death Angel and Exodus (plus the then-green-around-the-gills Suicidal Angels). That was at the end of 2010 at Ljubljana’s Cvetličarna, and it remains an unforgettable grand experience. And here’s Exodus again. The new album “Goliath” had just dropped. Yes, and naturally, it was on the agenda too. Right from the top, with the sharply wound single 3111. With Exodus you know exactly what you’re going to get. A full shot to the head. Old-school thrash from five ‘insanely tight old boys’ who keep driving the wagon without ever running dry. Slayer is no more, Gary Holt is back fully committed to his old ways and habits with his home band. And there’s the returning bestial screamer Rob Dukes — back and completely fired up! That’s how it has to be with Exodus. Then there’s the legendary Lee Altus (Holt’s guitar ‘blood brother’), a fighter among fighters (co-founder of the band alongside Kirk Hammett), the indestructible drummer Tom Hunting, and of course the no-less-important cornerstone of Exodus’s raw essence, bassist Jack Gibson.
The band did steal a few opening minutes with a taped intro, but once the opening Goliath single 3111 kicked in, they were all over the stage. As much as the available space allowed, anyway. With Exodus there’s nothing to worry about. Their classic albums speak for themselves, and the band knows which songs light the fuse and keeps them dutifully in the setlist! Thankfully they skipped the fairly weak new single Promise You This and instead opted for the title (mildly ‘sludgy’) single from the new album, which is one of its more appealing moments. Deathamphetamine nicely bridged the band’s newer era with Dukes’s early days in Exodus, while the “Bonded By Blood” classic (the title track), and in the closing stretch A Lesson In Violence and the killer closer Strike Of The Beast, all blew past the required excitement threshold. Add to that the non-negotiable, strictly demanded Toxic Waltz (complete with its mandatory intro of Slayer classic Raining Blood)! The mid-set Blacklist (the only “Tempo of the Damned” entry — Zetro is missed by many and will remain missed) and after it Goliath, slowed the pace in the middle of the band’s short set and then some. Signaling that the quintet was using that space to conserve energy. The guys are getting on in years, and even in a three-quarter-hour show you have to distribute your energy expenditure wisely. The quintet remains perfectly sharp and bristling! But you can tell the band also leans on some routine tricks to carry the show to the finish while burning as little fuel as possible. They send Dukes into the fire, and that’s that.
Hand on heart, Carcass were the ones I was most impatiently waiting for this time. Last year at the Czech festival Basinfirefest (near Pilsen) they literally killed it and served notice that their live shows remain an absolute bomb even now! Raw, old-school mastery of the best possible riffing, with a brilliantly tuned-down picture of an impenetrable, massive wall of sound built by both guitars. A sound where it’s not hard to picture razors, knives and scalpels flying through the air! Center stage stands the always phenomenally charismatic frontman, the sardonic Jeff Walker with his bass guitar and devastating growl. A rejuvenated Jeff — since he cropped his hair and made peace with the grey of wisdom — once again confirmed his top-tier form with his performance. With both guitarists largely static, the vocalist kept the cathartic atmosphere alive in the hall with his signature move of raising the bass guitar skyward — while standing with his left foot permanently on the monitor — plus a few walks to the front of the stage.
Surgical customs and habits could almost be a secondary band name — in fact the band’s very name alone is the ultimate launching pad for the entire dissecting arsenal of death metal dismemberment that Carcass have developed over the years, anchoring their discography in a very special place in the extreme spheres of metal. And we didn’t escape that this time either. The band focused on material from their fourth studio album “Heartwork” (1993), opening the show with it (Unfit for Human Consumption) and closing with the title track, while weaving in two classics in the middle — No Love Lost and Death Certificate. No question: “Heartwork” remains a foundational work of extreme metal to have emerged from the British Isles, and in that regard one of the most revered albums of all time. The eruption of the bizarreness the band’s early era is valued for was filled out by several more tracks: the delightfully named Genital Grinder from the debut “Reek Of Putrefaction”, Exhume to Consume from “Symphonies Of Sickness”, and two “Necroticism – Descanting the Insalubrious” dismemberers — Corporal Jigsore Quandary and, toward the end, Incarnated Solvent Abuse.
Carcass don’t let you breathe. They establish their own distinct world, impressing with their elemental force, sardonic rawness and brilliant tightness. As the third act on the bill, Carcass too delivered their set backed by excellent sound.
And one important little detail that isn’t little at all. The Carcass show was the first on the current tour with the drums handled by overnight-recruited Finn Waltteri Väyrynen. The man is the current Opeth drummer — we also caught him with Paradise Lost back in the day. Full-time Carcass drummer Daniel Wilding had to rush home to England at short notice due to unavoidable family commitments. Waltteri is Waltteri. A master of his craft. Despite this substitution — which can quickly prove to be a double-edged sword — Carcass thundered through Ljubljana with undiminished power.
Kreator — the ultimate stars of the evening — took the stage at half past nine. The wait was rather long. The hall plunged into darkness, and two more taped tracks had to be sat through before Media Center erupted into a hellish abyss with the new Seven Serpents, taken from the current album “Krushers Of The World,” which also lends its name to the band’s current European tour.
The status Kreator enjoy today — after years of grinding through clubs — has come at a cost. The sight of hordes of young devotees packed tight in the front rows looks more than promising. It confirms that the band has passed their name, image and legacy on to new generations of harder metal fans. And yet. In that context they have softened over the years, something the material on the latest album also confirms — it only occasionally recalls the days of the pioneering aggression that shaped Teutonic thrash metal. Hand on heart, Kreator were the softest act on the bill that evening.
They also came loaded with a lavish stage production. In recent years all of this only confirms that Kreator have grown into a big name. Two giant Satanic sculptures positioned at the far left and right of the stage, fire salvos and smoke curtains throughout the full hour-and-a-half concert, interspersed breaks with taped intros — including the arrival of two Satanic monks carrying flaming torches (during the instrumental intro Sergio Corbucci Is Dead) before the performance of Hate Über Alles — plus a drum riser built in the shape of Satan’s skull from the latest album. Then there are the salvos of red confetti and streamers at the intro to Enemy Of God, Petrozza dressed as a winged Antichrist during Phantom Antichrist… An unsuspecting passerby who happened to find themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time might have thought they’d stumbled into a Kiss concert.
Kitsch that younger fans and the older guard of devotees perceive very differently. The latter contingent would be perfectly satisfied without all that paraphernalia. And also with a setlist more focused on the band’s classic era. They finally got that fix with the sixth track — People of the Lie (“Coma of Souls”), followed by Betrayer (“Extreme Aggression”), after which came a solid stretch of waiting for the self-titled classic from the debut “Endless Pain” — and by then the show was almost over. Anyone waiting for that famous line (in a pitch-perfect German accent) from Petrozza — “It’s time to raise the flag of hate!!!” — didn’t get it this time around. That said, the decidedly more melodic and occasionally quite power-metal content of the newer Kreator albums — and the latest is no exception, represented across the show by no fewer than five tracks — proved that it’s the younger fans in particular who have embraced the new era of Kreator creativity, and who knew those songs well. The crowd was packed so tight that the cores of the circle pits were seriously cramped, but the lane for crowdsurfing was wide open. Throughout the entire show. Petrozza called on the crowd several times to form a wall of death. But as noted, it was the crowdsurfers who had the best of it.
The sound? No question. Exactly as it should be. The band remains a supremely tight and well-oiled machine. Mille Petrozza still carries genuine venom in his vocal charisma. Ventor remains devastating on the drums, Sami Yli-Sirniö brilliant on solos, and former Dragonforce bassist Frédéric Leclercq’s untamed stage energy made it unmistakably clear who the youngest member of the crew is. The performance of the new Tränenpalast was also spiced up by a duet between Petrozza and Hiraes vocalist Britto Görtz (just as the original version of the track demands)! And in the finale, the (expected) classic Pleasure to Kill followed by Violent Revolution. Everything draped in blood red, fire salvos blazing into the finish, Petrozza screaming and demanding another wall of death — and the show is over! Absolutely fucking incredible! And as the sign-off from this concert review, those are the words to put the final dot on the ‘i’ of this truly superbly executed concert spectacular!
Text: Edita Klemen & Aleš Podbrežnik
Photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
Nails – setlist:
1. Conform
2. Suum Cuique
3. Violence Is Forever
4. Cry Wolf
5. You Will Never Be One of Us
6. I Will Not Follow
7. Unsilent Death
Exodus – setlist:
1. We Will Rock You (orig. Queen) – taped intro
2. 3111
3. Bonded by Blood
4. Deathamphetamine
5. Blacklist
6. Goliath
7. A Lesson in Violence
8. The Toxic Waltz (with intro Raining Blood – orig. Slayer)
9. Strike of the Beast
Carcass – setlist:
1. 1985 (taped intro)
2. Unfit for Human Consumption
3. Buried Dreams
4. Incarnated Solvent Abuse
5. No Love Lost
6. Death Certificate
7. Dance of Ixtab (Psychopomp & Circumstance March No. 1 in B)
8. Genital Grinder
9. Exhume to Consume
10. Corporal Jigsore Quandary
11. Heartwork
Kreator – setlist:
1. Run to the Hills (orig. Iron Maiden) – taped intro
2. Eve of Destruction (orig. Barry McGuire) – taped intro
3. Seven Serpents
4. Hail to the Hordes
5. Enemy of God (plus Coma of Souls intro)
6. Satanic Anarchy
7. Sergio Corbucci Is Dead (taped intro)
8. Hate Über Alles
9. People of the Lie
10. Betrayer
11. Krushers of the World
12. Hordes of Chaos (A Necrologue for the Elite)
13. Satan Is Real
14. Loyal to the Grave
15. Mars Mantra (taped intro)
16. Phantom Antichrist
17. Tränenpalast
18. Endless Pain
19. 666 – World Divided
20. The Patriarch (taped intro)
21. Violent Revolution
22. Pleasure to Kill
23. Apocalypticon (taped outro)
