Author: Rok Klemše
Location: Ljubljana, KUD France Prešeren
Concert date: 22.04.2008
Attendance: 100
Ticket price: 16€
Barely three weeks after the last headbanging session at KUD, the venue was calling again for a metal-flavored night. If at Headbanging KUD we were enjoying the sounds of death and thrash metal, this time the tireless Dirty Skunks wrapped KUD in the blackness, fog and misanthropy of black metal. A proper mini black metal fest was on the cards with four bands – young Naberius, coastal champions Somrak, Magus Noctum risen again as Nibiru, and the giants of Serbian black metal, The Stone.
First to desecrate the stage were Ljubljana’s Naberius. The band keeps piling up gig miles and it really shows on stage. The four-piece is tight and icy black metal, and even if they’re a little static up there, the excellent black metal makes up for the minor minuses. What makes it especially varied and dynamic are the melodic passages from the Occultus/Seb duo, spiced up with interesting apocalyptic riffs, while the vocally furious Occultus unleashes agony over everything holy. Khor’s drums create a great atmosphere too, made up not just of the usual black metal blast beats but also some colorful transitions with plenty of crash cymbal, and the bass guitar, though mostly buzzing in classic black metal fashion, fills the space nicely, with bassist Vraan being the most dynamic member of the band at the same time. Naberius are currently recording their debut at Negligence studios, and judging by what they played, we can expect a truly quality release from the local black metal scene.
After Naberius’s surprisingly long set, a bigger crowd gathered in front of the stage. It’s really nice to see that a black metal band here gets the kind of audience support enjoyed by the coastal black metal supergroup Somrak. Less than two weeks after their show at Channel Zero, they desecrated the stage of the capital again. Uncompromising, raw, blasphemous and everything else that comes with black metal – that’s Somrak. And to the power of ten! Their debut The Abhorred Blessings comes alive even more darkly live, and just as the atmosphere started building, Somrak were tearing off the shackles of religion and the crowd was heating up, the guys had to cut their set short because of the long delay. A shame, because they proved they’re not one of the biggest names on the local black metal scene for nothing, but because of that, the wait for their next gig will be even harder. “Sound the Trumpets of Malevolance”! Ave Somrak!
Third up were Nibiru, the only band without corpse paint. Luckily, they more than make up for the lack of an evil image with fantastic blackened thrash metal with a strong Middle Eastern flavor. Nibiru rose from the ashes of the legendary Magus Noctum, who will always be written into Slovenian metal history with two excellent albums – Guardian of the Desert (2003) and The Fall of Shin’ar (2004). After a big response from audiences and the media, the band sadly broke up too early, but came back last winter under the name Nibiru. They took the stage with the opening legendary wrecking ball The Fall of Sumeria, and sadly it was clear from the start that Nibiru would have the biggest trouble with the sound. Maret’s guitar was completely muddy and smeared, the most annoying factor was the awful trigger on Oybl’s drums, and at first the keyboards weren’t audible enough either. Despite the pretty bad sound and the occasional looseness, Nibiru proved why they’re one of the best bands right now, even when playing old Magus Noctum material. Since the last gig, last year at K4, David has become a real beast of a frontman, with excellent venomous vocals, better flow between songs, nonstop headbanging and phenomenal solos. Diana fits into Nibiru brilliantly, and it’s great to again hear the keyboard backing on almost every song, creating an unforgettable Mesopotamian/Sumerian atmosphere. Despite a few slip-ups, it was really great to hear unforgettable tracks like After Many Aeons, Kings of the Desert Dawn and Battle For Superior Race again. Nibiru still need some new gig miles, but they’re on a good path to even surpass the legacy of Magus Noctum.
The night was closed by the Serbian black metal legends The Stone. About half a year ago they blew people away at Metal Mania, and a return to Slovenia was only a matter of time. Frontman Glad only had to say “Mi smo The Stone iz Srbije, zdravo Ljubljana” and the crowd lost it. The Stone aren’t Serbian giants for nothing, and they proved it in Ljubljana too. This time they treated us to some pyrotechnics as well: during the first song, a fire-breather dressed in evil corpse paint stepped on stage with a flaming scythe. Kvlt! With his rehearsed moves, Glad showed he’s a frontman cut from the right cloth, while Demonetras and the legendary Kozeljnik fired off excellent, venomously cold black metal riffs. The Stone especially warm the hearts of Slovenian metalheads with lyrics in Serbo-Croatian, which sound great and are tailor-made for black metal, with themes of Slavic paganism. Judging by what we saw, The Stone are more than welcome in Slovenia again. Čujete li, smeju nam se mrtvi… Hahahahahahahahaha!!!
Photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
Text: Rok Klemše
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