Metal Mania, Villach-Style

It was a real surprise when word reached our crew that regular metal fests go down right on our doorstep, in Villach, Austria. This time the Carinthian metal maniacs promised a hellish night with no fewer than seven bands under the Metal Mania banner, the biggest names being Sweden’s Morgana Lefay and Germany’s Disbelief. Time to hit the road, then! After a few minor hiccups thanks to a clumsily drawn map the organizer put up on their site, we did find the Volkhaus Landskrone hall in the end. The parking lot alone, with plenty of cars plastered in metal band stickers, was a sign that the place was going to burn tonight. The hall itself obviously isn’t meant primarily for concerts, more for village events and the like, but it’s nice that the toilets and the bar are in a separate lobby, so the dreaded crush is spared. A quick taste of the local Villach beer (which can’t hold a candle to ours, green or red), at a fairly friendly price, especially compared to the usurious drink prices at Italian gigs, and the first band was already taking the stage.

Sole Method 18:30 – 18:55
The thankless opening slot went to Austria’s Sole Method, who played their 25 minutes in front of an almost completely empty hall. In one sentence: solid modern thrash metal with nothing out of the ordinary. Sadly, the biggest flaw of Volkhaus Landskrone showed up right at the start of the night – terrible acoustics. If the sound was very good in the very first row, even though, say, one of the guitars occasionally vanished like camphor, from the rows behind it the sound dissolved completely. I sincerely hope this can be put down to relatively unknown names and a mostly empty hall. The hall has a tough job ahead… in 10 days, at the Circle II Circle and Savage Circus show, the sound has to be dialed in perfectly.

Serenity 19:10 – 19:35
What I really liked about the hall is that between sound checks for the next band you can wander out to the lobby with no trouble and get to the nectar of the gods, as German thrashers Tankard would call beer, in a minute flat. Forget the shoving and elbowing you get at, say, VPK. Anyway, enough of my rambling, because the local hopefuls Serenity were already sawing out their first chords in the hall. The band recently signed with Austria’s biggest metal label, Napalm Records, and their third album is just about to drop. I can say they’ve totally earned the big-label deal. On stage they were incredibly energetic, the vocalist jumped around the whole time and played air guitar in the style of the lead guitarist, from whose fingers some seriously enviable solos came pouring out. The dynamic interplay between frontman Georg’s clean melodic vocals and keyboardist Mario’s growls only added to the good score. If this mix of dynamic melodic power, speed and progressive metal proves itself on the new album Words Untold & Dreams Unlived too, it’ll be one of the more interesting debuts of the year. Sadly, I didn’t understand the banter in mangled “Austrian” all that well, but the handful of people in front of the stage, headbanging away on Serenity’s music, were clearly having a blast.

Mastic Scum 19:50 – 20:15
I can claim the complete opposite for the next act, yet more Austrians, Mastic Scum. These guys play totally generic, hackneyed grindcore or deathcore. Honestly, it would all have been bearable if the vocalist didn’t lack charisma so badly. Absolutely zero contact with the already tiny crowd in front of the stage, and a “tr00” evil posture that really suits a small, skinny frontman. I hope your sarcasm detector is on. The guitarist, with his reggae look, sawing out simple metalcore chords and badly short on interesting riffs, wasn’t far behind his boss either. Not to mention the bassist, who looks like he belongs in some ballless hardcore band. I really don’t know what else to add. But Mastic Scum definitely take all the trophies for worst band of the night.

Sacred Steel 20:45 – 21:15
The Germans served up power metal you could simply call Manowar on steroids. Sacred Steel sing about very similar themes to the macho Americans, but they do it rawer and sharper. The funny frontman Gerrit took us through the band’s ten-year history and presented their better-known songs. So there was no shortage of the title track from the still-current album Hammer of Destruction, the anthemic classic Sacred Bloody Steel, the obligatory ode to metal culture Heavy Metal to the End, and a punchy finish with Wargods. Although Sacred Steel were visibly having fun on stage, you could tell they didn’t plan to burn all their energy in front of such a small crowd.

 

SACRED STEEL:
1.Maniacs of Speed
2. Battle Angel
3. Hammer of Destruction
4. Sacred Bloody Steel
5. Lust for Blood
6. Open Wide the Gate
7. Heavy Metal to the End
8. Slaughter Prophecy
9. Wargods

Lionhead 21:30 – 22:00
It was a bit odd that an unknown Austrian band played after the much better-known Sacred Steel. Lionhead don’t even have a debut out yet, but judging by what I heard, I wouldn’t mind one. The lionheads play excellent thrash metal, where the standout is above all the great chemistry between the two guitarists. Plenty of dueling solos and fantastic old-school Bay Area thrash riffing were definitely the surprise of the night. Personally, I’d rather have seen them swap the Children of Bodom-style Finnish growl for clean thrash vocals like Heathen’s, but these youngsters are still wet behind the ears and surely have a long career ahead of them. A solid, confident half hour, and Lionhead handed the stage over to what was, for me at least, the biggest name of the night.

Morgana Lefay 22: 30 – 23:25
By the look of it, the hall was waiting hardest for the Swedish heavyweights of the night. Not many bands play power metal with thrash influences, and Morgana Lefay do it very well, which they proved. A little over a week ago, Morgana Lefay added a new kid to their already sizable family of records. We got to hear a few cuts from the new album Aberrations of the Mind. Over their long career Morgana Lefay have had plenty of trouble with constant lineup changes, and consequently a name change, several label changes… but the crew that showed up in front of us seemed very tight and was enjoying itself on stage. Though they were visibly holding back a bit, saving their strength for upcoming shows. They aren’t that young anymore, after all. Still, frontman Charles made a genuine connection with the Austrian crowd, who were eating out of his hand. When he noticed at one point that the back of the hall was more or less napping, he jumped off the stage and sang especially for the more laid-back folks. Charles is a fun frontman and there were loads of moments like that; at the end of the main set he bid the crowd farewell with an “E.T. go home” gesture, and the whole front row joined in. The hard-hitting five-piece delivered a good cross-section of their career, with the band’s classics like I Roam, Face of Fear, Hollow and Crimson King getting the biggest cheers. Morgana Lefay were without a doubt the highlight of the night! Charles impressed with a voice that strongly leans toward Jon Oliva, and the Erikkson/Grehn guitar duo with excellent thrashy flourishes. In the obligatory encore the crowd demanded, they also played the excellent title track of Maleficium, plus the punchy opening track of the new album, Delusions.

 

MORGANA LEFAY:
1. Intro
2. I Roam
3. Angels Deceit
4. Face of Fear
5. End of Living
6. Another Dawn
7. Hollow
8. The Source of Pain
9. In the Court of the Crimson King
10. Maleficium
Encore:
11. Delusions

Disbelief 00:00 – 1:45
Last up on stage were Germany’s death/grind metallers Disbelief. Like their predecessors Morgana Lefay, they were presenting a brand-new record too, the album Navigator, released two weeks earlier. A routine set with nothing out of the ordinary, you could say. Just as the energy-saving could be pinned on all the acts, the same goes for Disbelief. Navigator is a very solid record and the punchy crossover doesn’t sound bad live either. With their epic-sounding sound, they actually remind you at times of Canadian death metal champions Kataklysm. After a good hour and a quarter, Disbelief wrapped up the metal party in Villach.

What can I say in closing? I definitely hope the sound quality is drastically improved at future shows! If you’re missing bigger metal names during the current drought back home, Villach is the place for you. It’s only about an hour from Ljubljana, you won’t miss for the hospitality of the Carinthian metalheads, and some events with seriously heavy names are coming up soon. Already in ten days, Circle II Cirle and Savage Circus play in the same hall, and at the end of May a metal weekend is on the cards with Mnemic, Nightrage and the legendary Immolation, Krisiun and Grave. The Carinthian metal maniacs are calling!

 

DISBELIEF:
1. For God
2. The Thought Product
3. When Silence is Broken
4. Sick
5. Navigator
6. Rewind it All
7. Misery
8. Ethic Instinct
9. To The Sky
10. It’s Simply There
11. The One
Encore:
12. Falling Down
13. Between Red Lines