Author: Rok Klemše, Aleš Podbrežnik
Photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
Concert date: 29.08.2008
Attendance: 158
Ticket price: 1200
Paradise on Earth? What the hell on Earth is this?… Uh, oh, ah… a new morning… Well, that’s how reason came staggering and stumbling out of the first day of Metal Mania Open Air in Komen. This is that awesome festival Metal Camp can only dream about, the festival where the metal crowd in Slovenia turns into one big family for three days and everyone there is a true brother or sister. The question is what would be left of all this metal holiday idyll, once the battle axes are buried and the wounds have healed, if you took away just one piece of the puzzle. Booze, that is. Okay, joking aside, because it was damn hard to get hold of bread, yogurt and a piece of cheese in the Tuš in the middle of Komen. Metal invasion everywhere. A police patrol blocks our way, even menacing the pedestrians who’d gone off to the village for fresh supplies of noble alcoholic brews. While the self-sacrificing comrades wait for cash-and-carry pizza in Komen, I dash down in front of the stage, because up next are…
RAGESPECT:
…Ragespect. These guys can be filed under a flavor of hardcore, leaning on the Sepultura/Slayer legacy riffs, and they build their stage charisma on a big, voluminous groove made of devilish guitar riffs: massive, tuned down low, with slightly smeared distortion but an incinerating punch, lying on the beat of a well-oiled machine of a rhythm section. Feel My Fist was the perfect answer to everything Ragespect are. Trendy and very appealing, because they’re simple, direct, highly accessible shots straight into the vein that kick in right off the bat. No solos, the music is stripped down to a handful of notes, and even those are probably a distraction. Ragespect are lucky to have Peter on vocals, whose voice is just right for forming an extra instrument that locks effectively into the core of the riffs and the band’s atmospheric “groove feel”. He’s authoritative and charismatic, rebellious, furious and of course backed by screaming, at odds with any melody that would only hurt the band’s expression. Ideal for Ragespect. The energy the singer radiates on stage is, I can say, outstanding. It was a coherent, tight set, even though you could feel that Ragespect can squeeze out much, much more venom, anger and electricity. The clock had barely struck half past ten, there were barely 10 people in front of the stage and so little energy coming back from the crowd that the band could hardly tear loose completely. Still, Ragespect added a great twist to Metal Mania. They’re unique for the Slovenian scene and at the same time utterly convincing hardcore guys who keep Slovenia in step with the world and bring a fresh musical breeze of excellent quality to the sunny side of the Alps.
Ragespect setlist:
1. Feel My Fist
2. War
3. Vaš sistem
4. T.R.O.S.
5. Vojska
6. No C ontrol
7. Politika
8. Upor
9. World Of Lies
10. Face It
DEFIANT:
Melodic death metallers from Požega took over the stage. Croatian bands always enchant with their great sense of rhythm, and Defiant confirmed it again. The four guys, Beretz (vocals, guitar), Kris (guitar), File (drums) and Bole (bass), served up a mix of death metal full of melodic passages that, especially in the calmer parts with their triad harmonies, pull toward the Gothenburg school of death metal enthroned by In Flames and Dark Tranquillity. The complex songs alternate between slowed-down death thunder, led by Beretz’s very versatile vocals, which can growl higher, In Flames-style, or much, much lower (Grave, Gates Of Ishtar, Ebony Tears), where any spark of melody is lost. Another really interesting band that deserves all your attention. They sail with the wind in their sails of the by now almost legendary school of Swedish melodic death metal, so they don’t bring anything especially fresh to the horizon, but the guys really pulled the trigger at Metal Mania too, and shortly before noon there was proper thunder. Of course, you could tell that most of the crowd were still “recovering” in their tents or over invigorating morning coffees, so we didn’t get any particularly breakneck gig highlights on stage. Even so, Defiant pulled off a solid set that included songs like I Demand, Bloody Roses and Reality.
VULVATHRONE:
The grindcore metallers from Murska Sobota, devoted to pornographic poetry, sadly didn’t have their day this year. Soon after the gig started, one of the monitors began farting suspiciously. The farting wouldn’t stop, and the guys, who of course didn’t forget to put on their puppet slippers again, as is their trademark (this time without the inflatable erotic doll on stage), had to leave the stage after 15 minutes, saying their logistics had gone “belly up”. Before leaving, they flung around a dozen Manner wafers into the crowd, at least partly consoling the “starving” metal pilgrims in front of the stage, who had been hoping for a lewd, sweetly obscene romp, for the good of erotica and the more successful procreation of Slovenes. Even before that there was way too much talking to the crowd and too little playing, which hinted that something on stage was really off. Bitch! Suck my tich? No? Maybe some other time.
CYCLONE:
We saw this band last year too, just like Vulvathrone. And, just like then, they played back to back. In fact, the festival mood that Defiant and Ragespect had prepared so nicely pretty much died down. Vulvathrone had problems and stormed off the stage early, which resulted in a circus-style wafer-feeding performance, while Cyclone just somehow never got to the boiling point. The band has been around for a good two years and has already been through lineup changes: the former singer was replaced by a new one (Anže), and the guys also brought in keyboardist Anja, who is also in charge of most of the backing vocals. It’s not about technique. The guys and the girl prove they know how to handle their instruments. It’s about a kind of lukewarm atmosphere, a hot-and-cold vibe that didn’t convince. The vocals especially felt cramped and tense. Damn me and the band along with me, but that’s how it felt. I wish the band a full bloom, definitely. It’s really hard to deliver the maximum amount of melodicity that the style they cultivate (glam hard rock) demands. First, you need a really good stage mix so you can hear guitars and keyboards on equal footing, along with the multi-part vocal harmonies. A lot of money and a lot of practice. The first shortfall at Cyclone’s stage shows is thus felt in the vocals and vocal harmonies. Cyclone need a stronger, more explosive vocalist who’ll add to the fullness of the live sound and know how to get the crowd on their feet with stage presence and spark a real live fire with communication. So more decisiveness and full balls. The seams really burst in Bon Jovi’s extremely demanding classic Livin’ On A Prayer, where even the tiniest slip is audible in detail. Still, the band was damn brave just for taking on that cover in the first place.
KARNAK:
The Italian grind core death metallers from Monfalcone (Tržič), which still belongs to the Slovenian borderlands, were simply forced to play to an empty front of the stage. Most of the folks who had gathered on the grounds by then had vehemently marched off to more important business of the day. The horsemen of the apocalypse from the neighboring country were obviously not too bothered by it, so they got down to business confidently and properly. The lineup of Francesco Ponga (vocals, rhythm guitar), Gabriele Pala (guitar, keyboards), Ivan Rassu (bass) and Stefano Rumich (drums) brought a dull rumble and infamous ruckus, and thanks to their pronounced lack of melody and chopped-off transitional breaks, which were often almost musically impossible connections, they were an extremely tough bone to gnaw on. You don’t find that kind of musical disjointedness every day. I wondered how the hell the guys keep all those fragmented pieces in their heads and still stay tight. The guys hammered out 10 songs, among them Scavenger’s Daughter, Dismemberment , 1584 URSS, The Kiss Of The Virgin Mary, The Black Hole, The Torture Of The Boats, The Bronze Bull and In Silence. Sadly, some passages and their incompatibility come out so disconnected that they almost seem funny. But not under Karnak’s own baton. For them, their original repertoire is deadly serious holy scripture, and the guys put in a decent effort on stage. Sadly, extremely unimpressive and without a proper accent. The most ominously dressed metalheads of the day. Especially Gabriele Pala, who looked like the deserted Bosnian football coach Ivica Osim after Železničar’s heavy defeat to Varteks.
OBDUCTION:
Only the Kranj crew Obduction really brought the festival back to life with their energetic, tight and heartfelt set. Very trendy, commercially appealing and generic, but with a cocky “groove”. An excellent rhythm section creating a massive undercarriage onto which the “blown-out”, smeared guitar riffs are bolted! The band’s sound becomes highly appealing to ears looking for a destructive, furious, still rebellious and caustic female vocal that carries most of the melody. We’re talking about Mojca again and her excellent, self-assured and confident approach when it comes to stage presence! The band swung the crowd in front of the stage in a unified “pre-sway”, whether it was slower, ballad or half-ballad numbers like Tool, or the blazing, sped-up ones like Dilemma, one of the best alternative rock/metal creations we have. Mojca’s fantastic vocals are matched without any trouble by an outstanding instrumental foursome, shining in the superb playing of Gašper’s funky, dynamic bass with a whole arsenal of Goran’s drumming techniques, and on the other side in the sparkle of old guitar tomcats Dado and Miško, who use both sharp riffs and gentle melodic harmonies, and on the other hand metal-furious solos. Finally, a band again that knows how to excite! And they’re recording an album, too!
INTERCEPTOR:
Obduction warmed up the stage excellently for the legends of the Slovenian metal scene and creators of graveyard metal! Interceptor! It’s actually a shame that I only had the honor of watching Interceptor for the second time in my life. The first time I lost my innocence was at the Forbidden show in Maribor on 24.06.2008, where Interceptor played as the support act. The guys wasted no time and immediately put the fear of God into everyone present with the classic Fade from their self-titled debut, then swung straight into the fresh single Homo Stupidus, whose provocative video keeps and keeps testing the courage of the Slovenian media, which has so far shown very little of it when it comes to promoting the video for this song. Let’s leave the litanies aside and throw ourselves right in front of the stage, face to face with the legends. Interceptor can’t be imagined without their unmatched charisma. Without the valiant Gregor Čulk – Čule, who once again, with zero restraint, showed what a real frontman’s performance has to look like. Yes. With Čule on their wings, Interceptor are an unbelievable magnet for the eyes. Their devilish rattling, “grooved-up”, voluminous, obscure thrash version of coding basic riffs, simple, stripped bare, without any ornament, but with a hellish drive that doesn’t let up for a moment and gives Čule a huge amount of room to catch fire on stage through his own understanding of the musical principle, in a true-to-life biblical sermon. The quintet is tight, with furiously sharp edges, unrelenting and very “sweetly” in sync. As for “stoshing”, Čule is always a real riddle who never stops making you laugh with his spontaneity and proverbial wit.
In one of the little breaks, the guy bragged, among other things, that his pants were falling off his waist because he’d supposedly lost a whole two sizes. So why did we get to see Čule during the show, bent over in a furious growl, tugging his pants up with his right hand? Because a buddy supposedly advised him to wear those pants so everyone would see and convince themselves with their own eyes that Čule had finally lost some excess reserves of his proud physique. The setlist this time was focused on the band’s third album “Mora”. The songs from the set will also be featured on the upcoming “best of”, which the band plans to release in the coming days (autumn/winter 2008). Čule made a special effort and supposedly stepped onto the stage for the first time in his life without a molecule of alcohol in his blood. It didn’t show at all in his performance, which was the same as usual. A complete “čuleš” without beginning or end.
Interceptor undoubtedly delivered one of the best performances of the festival’s second day. You can simply feel that the band is clearly focused, united in their goals, charged with energy, hungry for fresh blood and new victories, and Čule is a real energy generator, selflessly unleashing it with his performance and sharing it with the people. The guy got everyone in front of the stage on their feet, and for the first time that day they went wild in true switched-off style. And the energy at the festival finally started flowing both ways. Čule is a real stage “animal”, exactly what Interceptor could wish for. An unmatched magnet. In short, Interceptor’s show was once again a lesson for all the bands present, who got to see firsthand what a real show should look like, dressed in an uncompromising, full-throttle stage performance, without any calculating. With Čule at the helm. Without shame and with a left hook straight to the forehead of the foolish. How successful the band’s show was is also proven by the fact that Interceptor’s souvenirs at the official merch stand literally ran out after the set.
Interceptor setlist:
1. Fade
2. Homo Stupidus
3. Inner Self
4. Revive
5. Got The Time
6. Pedofil
7. Puške namesto kruha
8. Blato
9. Paparazzo
10. Zadnja žrtev
SWEET SORROW:
Melodic death metallers from Ljubljana who really couldn’t have wished for a better slot on the festival lineup. With Obduction the festival started to get wings, Interceptor fanned the embers properly after them, and by the time Sweet Sorrow arrived, the crowd was already nicely fired up and warmed to just the right temperature to start spinning under the furious tones of Sweet Sorrow! The guys recently beefed up with a new guitarist. The precisely schooled and technically highly skilled Blaž Lončar now makes sure the iron-clad Pero isn’t alone with his guitar in the band. This is a band that confidently and noticeably makes progress with long strides from month to month. This was confirmed by Marko Košmrlj himself, the young vocalist who isn’t even 20 and joined the band in October 2007, as his confidence, ease and stage agility have grown another step since his debut gig at Izbruh’s pool (Kranj) in October last year. The kid killed it with excellent growling, while Us (bass), Pero (guitar) and Rope (drums), the old seasoned tomcats and thus the core of the band, with their prudence and careful watchfulness over the course of the show, made sure the band delivered yet another bravura gig, with excellent sound, clearly audible triad harmonies, clear contrasts between the rhythm section and the guitars and hellishly prominent vocals (credit the praised fingers of the tireless Yowda (Lady’s First) at the mixing desk). A song like I Am Pain was incredibly fiery, since it’s an extremely fast number that was played very precisely and stood out on the setlist especially in the convincing eruption of the Sweet Sorrow essence. These guys have dressed their musical character excellently in Norse mythology, whose verses tie in atmospherically, very successfully, with the very structure of the compositions and leave an extra atmospheric stamp on the listener at live performances. Sweet Sorrow are excellent creators of doomy atmosphere. A band that at this moment definitely belongs in the highest quality bracket as far as the Slovenian metal scene goes. Bombastic and wicked to the core. Melodically catchy, yet at the same time extremely caustic and incinerating. From the first beat to the last.
Sweet Sorrow setlist:
1. Another Life
2. Gloria Transit
3. I Am Pain
4. 1000th Millenium
5. Twilight Of The Gods
6. Betrayals Of Humanity
7. Scarlet Whore
8. God Of War
9. Skol
DICKLESS TRACY:
The Vikings of Sweet Sorrow handed the baton over to the grinders from Brežice, Dickless Tracy. Dickless Tracy, who in their latest incarnation have three members, with Sine on bass joining the immortal Cepanec brothers, have been spreading the plague on Slovenian stages for a good ten years, which is highly commendable, since there aren’t many bands here that last that long. So the set had no shortage of classics like Incubator of Death and Halls of Sickness, as well as newer creations like To Enter Martyrdom. Cepo rules the stage, gargling whatever it is he gargles, and the Dicklesses are famous for their dry humor anyway, which Ivan’s generous abuse of the double kick pedal and Sine’s string-wanking only add a pinch of charm to. Ten years of grinding certainly shows on Dickless Tracy. Brutal as fuck! And it couldn’t have been more fitting that the sky opened up right during Dickless Tracy’s set. Grindstorm!
Dickless Tracy setlist:
1. Conflicts of a Time to Come
2. Incubator of Death
3. To Enter Martyrdom
4. Grindstorm
5. Halls of Sickness
6. Promised for Eternity
7. Conclusive Inscription
METALSTEEL:
Fate had it, as is the tradition every year when the traditional Metal Mania Open Air festival takes place, that it rains this year too. Obviously Sweet Sorrow had properly angered Odin and his subjects, and as MetalSteel’s set began, the sky turned dark. It poured buckets. Right at the start of the show. One of the biggest metal phenomena on the Slovenian scene, the youngest Slovenian metal band, from Medvode, wasn’t scared by it in the slightest. What’s more, MetalSteel made excellent use of this extra backdrop, which Mother Nature herself provided for free this time. Despite their youth, with members who on average haven’t hit 20 yet, this is an extremely tight band that has gathered a good amount of live experience, and with it stage routine, through numerous gigs over roughly four years. MetalSteel are very well known in Slovenia. That’s not all. They’re one of the most popular bands. Simply because they’re good-looking, young, strapping stallions with a mildly naughty look. So even in the worst downpour the front rows filled up with girls who were soaked to the bone and couldn’t give a damn what came falling from the sky. Hell yes! MetalSteel are on stage! Beni Kic has grown into a charismatic leader who has no trouble leading the singing of the verses and delivers a bravura command of the guitar. The young Slovenian Kai Hansen (Gamma Ray) successfully defied every difficult segment, and the vocals sounded fresh, with convincing punch. He and Rok traded some duels for fun, standing shoulder to shoulder like the pioneers Judas Priest or Thin Lizzy did in the late seventies, while Matej on bass, with his rich knowledge and soft playing, once again brought a big extra fistful of melodic dynamite to the band’s sound. Daša’s drumming machinery didn’t let up in its work either, and so equipped, MetalSteel blazed away at full throttle through the hellish storm that tousled their hair and knocked the ground out from under their feet. MetalSteel also left a triumphant impression and, after Interceptor and Sweet Sorrow, kept the energy flux between band and crowd at a high level. Rain or no rain. The people and the band were visibly enjoying themselves! And that’s the whole point. Through the kind of atmosphere every metalhead wants on stage, and which was…
…this time almost fatal for Metal Mania Open Air. Because the canvas of the tent roof above the stage was poorly tensioned, a gigantic amount of water collected on it during the downpour, bending the canvas completely downward. The construction was swaying dangerously under the unbearable weight of fresh rainwater, and the organizer, with his crew led by the Lady’s First twins Buco and Yowda, selflessly saved the situation at the last moment and successfully fixed the problem. Because of the storm, the festival was interrupted for a while, and when the sky calmed down, it was time for…
TRAIL OF TEARS:
At a romantic sunset (which, thanks to the rain clouds, simply didn’t happen), a little something for softer souls hits the spot, and that’s where the Norwegian lineup Trail of Tears comes on. With their debut album Disclosure in Red, released in 1998, the Norwegians surprised with excellent gothic metal that mixed influences of melodic death metal, black metal, dynamic structures, ingenious touches, raw male growls and angelic female vocals. Ten years after forming, quite a few members have come and gone, and the result is last year’s record Existentia, which doesn’t stand out from the sea of gothic metal bands with “beauty and the beast” concepts in any way. That’s exactly what awaited us at Metal Mania, where the band showed up in a rather dim light. The instrumental part and the male growl did their job well, while soprano Cathrine Paulsen was hopelessly off. Trail of Tears’ set at this year’s Metal Mania will therefore quickly fade into oblivion.
IMPALED NAZARENE:
Now that was a whole different story: the Finnish lunatics, black metal psychopaths Impaled Nazarene. The band has stirred up controversy since its very beginning, whether it’s criticism over allegedly Nazi lyrics, the feud with the Norwegian black metal scene or the alleged suicide of former guitarist Teemu Raimoranta (who supposedly fell off a bridge onto the ice drunk in 2003; “what a black metal way to go, he he”). Whatever, what matters is the music, not the rumors, as the legendary Chuck Schuldiner always pointed out, and what matters is that Impaled Nazarene pump out excellent black ‘n roll. And you couldn’t expect anything other than an incredibly energetic and heartfelt performance powered by hectoliters of vodka from the Finns. “Worship the Goat!”
AVULSED:
The last foreign band of Friday evening to step on stage was probably Spain’s biggest death metal export product, Avulsed. Even though we’ve been waiting for a new record from the Spanish death metal machine since Gorespattered Suicide, released in 2005, the guys delivered an excellent cross-section of a seventeen-year career, covering more or less all of their albums. The Mediterranean temperament certainly shows on stage, as Avulsed are uncompromising, whether it’s the animalistic growls of rotten Dave or Ricky’s brutal drumming, who suffered a mild stroke as recently as April this year, which doesn’t show on the drumming lunatic at all. As brutal as they are on stage, Avulsed are just as brutal when it comes to drinking off it. “Hail Infernal Haemorrhoids!” Friday was wrapped up in black metal fashion by the coastal supergroup Grimoir.
Setlist
10:30 – Ragespect 11:20 – Defiant 12:10 – Vulvathrone 13:00 – Cyclöne 13:50 – Karnak 14:45 – Obduction 15:40 – Interceptor 16:35 – Sweet Sorrow 17:30 – Dickless Tracy 18:25 – Metalsteel 19:40 – TRAIL OF TEARS 21:10 – IMPALED NAZARENE 22:50 – AVULSED 00:20 – Grimoir
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