Location: Tolmin, Sotočje, Slovenia
Date: 26.07.2013
The Croatians of Rising Dream from Zadar properly shook up the scene back in 2008 with their debut studio album “Failed Apocalypse”. They even opened for Iron Maiden in Split back then! Time flies, and in the five years leading up to their Tolmin gig, Rising Dream changed quite a bit stylistically. They now have a new singer, Ines. And Ines can be a real beast, because besides clean melodic vocals, she also brings proper death metal growls, which Rising Dream have solidly woven into their original power metal melodicity. The new Rising Dream are much sharper and sound far more extreme! The band also likes complex figures, so there’s plenty of riffing and rhythmic patterns drawn from thrash metal. Of course, the touch of melodic death metal can’t be trimmed away anymore. But the front of the stage was totally empty. Ten to fifteen people, and probably friends who came over from Croatia at that. The band promises a new studio album this year called “System Corrupt”. A Croatian Arch Enemy? Don’t worry. Not even close!
Slovenia’s Last Day Here, who gave birth to their second studio album “A New Begining” in the days right before MetalDays, are among the more interesting bands to have appeared on our turf in recent years. That hot Friday afternoon, Last Day Here proved once again that, true to their slogan, they live every day (and every gig) like it’s their last. The half-past-two slot was, to put it mildly, brutal – blazing sun, temperatures over thirty degrees Celsius and only tiny patches of shade around the main stage meant that just a handful of people watched their set. But despite all the discomfort, the guys gave it everything. An incredibly energetic show with a mix of songs from both albums left us anything but indifferent. If about fifty of us were enjoying the show at the start, the crowd had doubled by the end, and it’s also worth mentioning that Stu Block (Iced Earth) was in the audience, visibly enjoying the musical energy pouring off the stage. The only question that comes to mind is whether it would be better for a band of this caliber to play a smaller stage in the evening, or even better, to slot them in as the local representative among the bigger names on the evening bills.
British death metallers Bloodshot Dawn unleashed their massacre with a great rhythm section, lively and technically tight. The closing Godless offered a real genre mix in its outro, from Celtic harmonies backed by modern breakdowns, which alarmingly smelled of the modern tracks of some of their countrymen like Bullet For My Valentine. In short, Bloodshot Dawn are a superbly tight quartet who showed up without any pomp, chopped through their material and thoroughly heated up the otherwise small crowd at the front, who still didn’t forget to demand an encore when it was over.
And then came Gravewrom. The sun was hammering us on the forehead. Mercilessly and relentlessly. Graveworm were raising hell too. The South Tyroleans delivered their take on symphonic black metal, which likes to slip into death metal “melodizing”. The band, from Bruneck, ran into a rather messy sound again: the guitars buzzed like little bees and the vocals buried them completely. The show opened with the highly dynamic The World Will Die In Flames, and then, through I – The Machine and Legions Unleashed, Graveworm drove their nails in harder and harder. The keyboards “fell short” in the mix, naturally. But never mind. The band held up fine with a professional attitude, and although a good bunch of curious onlookers was glued to the front, they definitely made happy the handful of hot-blooded fans cheering them on during the set. Sadly, a lot of cheerful droning. The fact is that Graveworm never stray from their very recognizable sound in their own material.
One of the most anticipated shows was definitely the one by American old-school heavy metallers Metal Church. A real little “treat” for all gourmets of primal heavy metal tradition. No kitsch, no frills, no stage sets. With Metal Church, only the guitar riff has ever counted. The power of its expression! And it always had charisma and a predatory edge. The lineup of Kurdt Vanderhoof (guitar), Ronnie Munroe (vocals), Steve Unger (bass), Rick Van Zandt (guitar) and Jeff Plate (drums, ex-Savatage) took the stage in the worst of the daytime heat. They hit us straight in the teeth with the biting wrecker Ton Of Bricks. Ronnie Munroe proved himself an exceptional vocalist who easily recreates the atmosphere of classic Metal Church shows from when the late Dave Wayne was still singing for them. Excellent stage execution. From the first second to the last. Unfortunately, the heat did affect the band’s mood. They even brought heaters onto the stage during their set. The one who suffered visibly the most was band boss Kurdt Vanderhoof, who grimaced miserably the whole time as sweat poured down his face. Despite an excellent set that included Gods Of Wrath, Watch the Children Pray, A Light In The Dark, Start the Fire, Fake Healer and Beloynd the Black, the band wrapped up somewhat earlier than expected. So they didn’t play the song Metal Church, which in principle has to be at every one of their shows. Still, we got a proper fistful of dynamite straight in the face from this legendary band, who chopped out some unforgettable riffs that shaped the early history of metal across the pond. Truly one of the most interesting gigs of the festival. Especially for those of us who love rarity shows. Those of you who own the 1986 “Live!” bootleg, released through SPV Records in 1998, must have experienced a proper little rerun of that show as Metal Church rolled out classic after classic in the middle of Tolmin. Until recently, Metal Church’s future looked sealed. The band officially retired in 2009, then reunited last year and officially announced they’re recording a new album. Let’s hope the promotion for it might bring them to a club show in Ljubljana!
Irish oddballs Primordial could quite rightly be the band of the festival’s fifth day for many, the one they waited longest to see on stage. They delivered one of the best performances not just of the last day, but of the entire festival. Excellent veterans and extreme metallers who’ve been kicking since 1987, they present a unique musical blend that on one side stems from black metal foundations, to which they add traditional elements of Irish folk music. But they don’t do it with tin whistles, accordions and violins; rather, through their own unique prism of tempering an ominous, metal-sharpened sound that leaves neither the living nor, let alone, prisoners behind. The band opened the show around five in the afternoon. And with the first track from their current studio album “Redemption at the Puritan’s Hand” (2011), called No Grave Deep Enough. After an opening like that, nobody expected a show full of joy and good cheer. Darkness fell over MetalDays for an hour. Primordial stole the day and turned the heavens into a solar eclipse. All that was missing was a cloudburst and the picture would’ve been complete. Vocalist Alan Averill (aka A.A. Nemtheanga) is an exceptional leader. One of the best frontmen in metal, period. He has pushed his stage scenario and acting to the max. His stage presence and charisma recall another vocal character, David Bower from the NWOBHM band Hell. Alan never runs out of ammunition for creating the drama of the moment. Passionate, immersed and uncompromising. Incredible adaptation of his vocal style to the message of the verses! The band was superb! In every respect! At top gear, they delivered one of the best shows of the festival. A set that’s over before it even started, and one that leaves you saying afterwards that you need to see them on stage again as soon as possible!
It’s unbelievable how far (once true kitschy short-pants) Powerwolf have climbed. These are power metallers who draw ideas for their stage-show theater and dress-up from the legend of the Transylvanian count Vlad II, affectionately known as Dracula. A completely generic musical statement, but backed up and packaged in a vampire fairy tale. And that’s enough. There are heaps of bands like that, and it’s the only way to steer the crowd away from digging too deep into your music, so they don’t find out how generic you actually are. Let the people busy themselves with the spectacle of your shows instead. American logic is thus increasingly eating its way into the pores of the old European continent, warping the healthy European mindset and the healthy nurturing, care and feeling for art. Sadly. The band put out their new studio album “Preachers Of The Night” barely a week before coming to Tolmin. The main figure on stage is of course singer Attila Dorn, who in the last few years has gained tremendous stage confidence and so came across as highly convincing during the set. The crowd simply had a blast. Bread and circuses! Fair enough. I remember Powerwolf at the Bang Your Head!! festival in 2009. It was ten in the morning, and the band had 40 minutes. They were green. Very green. Next to the names playing that day, such as Laaz Rockit, Cloven Hoof, Driver and Sacred Right, they were instantly expendable. But the guys deserve congratulations for steering their ship so far, and so high, out of sheer defiance.
Wintersun were the most anticipated band of the day. For most of those who came to the festival this year, anyway. The whole of MetalDays crammed in front of the main stage. All good, and the canned intro kicks in. The first minute goes by. All good. All normal. But then comes a “bang”! The PA dies! The lights die, everything dies. The crowd whistles its disapproval, and the festival falls silent. A good chunk of time passed, some 15 minutes, until they sorted things out and the band could finally start the show. But it didn’t last long. Maybe twenty minutes, when the story repeated itself. And again there was waiting and waiting, and the crowd was sad and grumpy. Wintersun are really hot and crunchy. Like fresh bread rolls. Metallers who by their own account are basically melodic death metal, but mix in every possible metal subgenre, from power metal to folk metal, and some even slap the label of progressive metal on them. In short, Wintersun delivered six songs to the crowd at MetalDays and showed all their heart, great will and respect for their fans, whom they absolutely refused to leave in the lurch. It happens to the “best” too. Let’s hope Wintersun soon make it up with a new tour to all the fans who left the main stage starved for their music!
And for the finale, the great returnee, the great debtor and, in this respect, one of the sweetest surprises of this year. The lost and found sinister son of metal and weaver of the most chilling tales. King Diamond. King Diamond hasn’t changed an inch. Everything stays the same. From the stage set to the famous face paint. Before the show began, there was real, genuine tension in the air. It felt like people couldn’t care less what the King would pull off on stage; only one thing mattered. That he plays. That he shows up on stage. In whatever form. We really missed him! For quite a few years, the belief was that the man had retired and had no intention of performing or releasing albums anymore. Especially after November 2010 came around. Right in the days when his bassist Hal Patino was helping his Danish countrymen and colleagues Pretty Maids on tour, as they presented the album “Pandemonium!” around Europe, it almost looked like we’d be left without King Diamond. He suffered several heart attacks in a row, and a successful operation gave him a triple “bypass” and saved his life! And so King Diamond luckily brought himself and horror with him. But not the curses. Or did he?
King Diamond remains King Diamond. Vocally he’s superior. Just like on the records! His instantly recognizable falsetto hit with full force during the set. On his left, the ever-faithful servant Andy La Roque, on his right first bassist Hal Patino and then Mike Wead, and behind the drum fortress Mad Thompson!
There’s no point wasting words on the show. An improvised house porch with a fence, set right at the edge of the stage – so you had to watch the whole King theater through the bars. From time to time, the King’s head with its flailing tongue poked out between the bars. As always with the microphone mounted on two crossed bones. The venue came alive with the opening classic The Candle (“Fatal Portrait”, 1985), and before long a tough grandma in a wheelchair rolled onto the stage too (Saxon would shout in unison: “She’s got Wheeels, Wheels of Steel!!!”) as the band struck up Welcome Home (“Them”, 1987). The theater went by fast. The show was a kind of walk through King Diamond’s discography! In fact, because of the constant changes of scenery, shots and so on, things moved quickly and the minutes flew by. In principle, King Diamond made use of the improvised staircases on the left and right and the balcony, while the others climbed up there only occasionally. La Roque took maybe two steps left and right of his home spot on stage during the show, whereas hyperactive Hal Patino, by contrast, crisscrossed the stage from end to end. The excellent chemistry between Wead and La Roque sparkled in a few unforgettable riffs from King Diamond’s career. The setlist was excellent, made up of the songs on which King Diamond built his cult monument in the golden eighties. As expected, and to the crowd’s great delight, the band also cut two Mercyful Fate classics (Come to the Sabbath, Evil). The only “newer” song was Shapes Of Black from the latest album “Give Me Your Soul” (2007), and King Diamond brought the regular set to a close relatively quickly with The Eye Of The Witch (“The Eye”, 1990). The King and his crew took us into an intense finish with two “Abigail” classics and salted it with the obligatory encore everyone wanted, Evil from the Mercyful Fate debut “Melissa” (1983).
The somewhat short set and the drum solo in the middle suggest King Diamond isn’t as fresh as he used to be. Still, with his vocals and stage theater he created exactly what we came for. Of course, with excellent playing from his loyal servants. There were no blunders to be felt during the show, just a bit of energy-saving and a repertoire at least 15 minutes too short. A new studio album is in the works. And then we wait for a new tour. I can conclude that, energy-saving aside, King Diamond’s show lived up to expectations as one of the highlights of MetalDays 2013.
The headliners of the evening on the second stage were Swedish doom metallers Candlemass. Original members Leif Edling (bass) and Mats Björkman (guitar), alongside Jan Lindh (drums), guitarist Lars Johansson and the newest addition, vocalist Mats Leven, hold the reins, while keyboardist Per Wiberg (ex-Opeth) helps out live as the sixth member. Candlemass aren’t letting up, and they definitely delivered one of the best shows of the entire week at the festival. The right pick for the right band, which was given the honor of closing the festival! Last year Candlemass released a new studio album, “Psalms For The Dead” (2012), and opened the night with the album’s first track, called Prophet!
The minimalist stage lighting suited the nature of the band hugely. The ambient setting suited it even more. The little forest. Especially when they hit us with Under the Oak. Mats Leven, sadly, will never be Messiah Marcolin, but his singing still captured the story of the atmosphere that only Candlemass can create. Leven is a seasoned man. He already worked with Björkman in Krux, and he’s got a touch of theatricality in his pinky, having previously worked with Therion. An experienced artist, then. Of course, the charisma of his stage presence is cut from a completely different cloth than Marcolin’s, but execution comes first. And the Swedes are genuine in their actions on stage and perfect in execution! The manifesto of true Scandinavian perfectionism radiated, somewhere underground, the sincere passion of musicians who uncompromisingly tore through the riffs of their repertoire. Both the newest ones (Prophet, Waterwitch, Psalms For The Dead, Black As Time) and the most eagerly awaited ones, which offered mocking “Our Fathers” in the form of the classics Emperor of the Void, At The Gallows End, Bewitched, Dark Reflections, Crystal Ball and, as expected, Solitude at the close. The MetalDays 2013 show overshadowed the band’s Balingen gig during the Bang Your Head!!! warm-up day. Simply because of the ambience in which Candlemass played in Tolmin. They felt great. They radiated even more relaxation and even more communication and openness toward the crowd, which filled every last corner in front of the stage. It was the final show of the festival, which was quietly and slowly winding down. And with Candlemass, what a handy band name, the last festival candle went out too. A brilliant show and atmosphere, where the chemistry between the crowd and the band reached incredible harmony and you could feel that saying goodbye would be hard. Goodbye to this year’s MetalDays festival. See you next year!
authors: Sebastijan Videc & Aleš Podbrežnik
photos: Nina Grad & Jerneja Jerak
Setlists:
METAL CHURCH:
1. Terminator 2 Main Title (intro)
2. Ton of Bricks
3. Start the Fire
4. A Light in the Dark
5. Fake Healer
6. Gods of Wrath
7. Badlands
8. Watch the Children Pray
9. Beyond the Black
SVART CROWN:
01. Intro
02. Apocalyptic Triumph
03. Into a Demential Sea
04. In Utero: A Place of Hatred and Threat
05. Nahash the Temptator
06. Profane
07. Ascetic Purification
08. Revelation: Down Here Stillborn
PRIMORDIAL:
01. No Grave Deep Enough
02. Gods to the Godless
03. Bloodied Yet Unbowed
04. As Rome Burns
05. Traitors Gate
06. The Coffin Ships
07. Empire Falls
POWERWOLF:
01. Lupus Daemonis (Intro)
02. Sanctified With Dynamite
03. We Drink Your Blood
04. Amen & Attack
05. Werewolves of Armenia
06. In the Name of God
07. Resurrection by Erection
08. Coleus Sanctus
09. All We Need Is Blood
10. Kreuzfeuer
11. Raise Your Fist, Evangelist
12. Lupus Dei
13. Wolves Against the World (outro)
WINTERSUN:
01. When Time Fades Away
02. Sons of Winter and Stars
03. Beautiful Death
04. Death and the Healing
05. Winter Madness
06. Starchild
AURA NOIR:
01. Upon the Dark Throne
02. Blood Unity
03. Abbadon
04. Hades Rise
05. Deep Tracts of Hell
06. Black Deluge Night
07. Hell’s Fire
08. Shadows of Death
09. The Stalker
10. Black Metal Jaw
11. Conqueror
12. Sons of Hades
KING DIAMOND:
01. The Candle
02. Welcome Home
03. At the Graves
04. Up from the Grave
05. Voodoo
06. Sleepless Nights
07. Drum Solo
08. Dreams
09. Come to the Sabbath
10. Shapes of Black
11. Eye of the Witch
—encore—
12. The Family Ghost
13. Evil
14. Black Horsemen
CANDLEMASS:
01. Marche Funebre (intro)
02. Prophet
03. Bewitched
04. Dark Reflections
05. Waterwitch
06. Emperor of the Void
07. Under the Oak
08. At the Gallows End
09. Psalms for the Dead
10. Black as Time
11. Crystal Ball
12. Solitude
