Author: Rok Klemše, Aleš Podbrežnik
Photos: Nina Grad, Sebastijan Videc
Video: Sebastijan Videc
Location: Tolmin / Sotočje / Slovenia
Concert date: July 21, 2014
Attendance: 12,000
Tent. Check. Fresh undies. Check. Cooler bag full. Check. Destination: Tolmin, Metaldays 2014! Last year the festival, which in the popular imagination still goes by the affectionate name metalcamp (though the new name is slowly starting to stick), debuted in a new light, and not just under a new name. This year the story continued: five days of metal holidays, two stages, over seventy bands, plenty of novelties (which we’ll get to in five reports), tons of good metal and lots of beer.
The honor of breaking the ice at this year’s festival went to Mexico’s Nuclear Chaos, who delivered not a nuclear explosion but, at best, the pop of a firecracker. Their melodic-tinged death metal offered nothing more than a pile of generic riffs and monotone vocals, and the boredom was only amplified by the frequent mind-numbing breakdowns. Luckily times are changing, and where a few years ago the small stage was crawling with this sort of band, for the last two years they’ve been the exception rather than the rule.
The main stage was opened this year by Rest in Fear. The melodic death metallers come from Graz, Austria. The sextet already played Metaldays last year, on the third day, the only day the festival saw rain. And this year the band had no luck in that department either. The group, which earned its slot at this year’s edition thanks to a hefty quota of sold festival tickets, took the stage just as a cloud burst over Tolmin. The decimated crowd in front of the stage did cheer on the »weather-damned band«, but the handful of diehards probably consisted of the band’s close friends and acquaintances. A few days after this festival gig Rest in Fear are releasing their new studio record »Shallows Deep«, which got its showcase at this show too. But like I said. In »inhumane« conditions. Not even two different extreme vocal approaches could »cover up« the pile of generic stylistic mannerisms, and the band couldn’t shake its unease and cramp as it stared out at the pouring curtain of rain from the stage.
The first defender of the Slovenian flag at this year’s Metaldays was the death metal monster Mephistophelian, from Dolenjska and Bela krajina, who wrecked the second stage in the early afternoon along with everyone who s(t)ood beneath it. You can tell the lads have been racking up live mileage, but what ears and necks like even more is brutal, technically polished death metal that doesn’t hide influences like Suffocation, Aborted, Cannibal Corpse and the like, yet still offers a fresh and interesting take on the genre. Great sound helped the guys deliver a fantastic gig full of crushing drumming, raw riffs, fat bass guitar and Deni’s varied, dynamic growling, which ranges from deep gutturals all the way to grindy pig squeals, and they did it without any major hiccups. We’re waiting for the bloody birth of the debut!
Berliners Rising Storm brought one of the rarer metal acts at the festival led by clean vocals. At the core they’re typical Euro power metallers of the German school, but with fashionably »thrashed-up« guitar phrases and a reliance on well-crafted lead melodies, in the style of their older countrymen Brainstorm, plus the aforementioned melodic, authoritative clean vocals. What’s especially nice is how the band steers into elaborate instrumental mid-eight passages, where Rising Storm show off their unsuspected musical talent and innate sense of musicality. The quartet presented their studio debut »Initium« and, besides the instrumental title track, played Iron Faith, Avenger, Trial of the Sun, Thoughts of Perception and, among others, the excellent new Conquer of the Sea, which means a new studio album is in the works. Heart, confidence and a fully used half-hour set.
German thrashers Cripper weren’t exactly lucky with this appearance on the big stage, since it absolutely poured right in the middle of their show. But Britta, who is clearly set to inherit the thrash throne from her countrywoman Sabina Classen (Holy Moses), and her boys didn’t mind in the least, quite the opposite. Although their take on thrash doesn’t deviate a single step from genre standards, Cripper make up for the lack of originality with an energetic, wholehearted live show. The driving force is mainly human bomb Britta, who fills the stage the whole time, and besides the beastly presence the girl also nails the vocal job. It’s close to what we heard from Chuck Billy on The Gathering; Britta attacks with raw, aggressive vocals that almost approach death metal growls. Cripper made sure the crowd, which wasn’t bothered much by the rain, properly warmed up their neck muscles with songs like Animal of Prey and Fire Walk With Me, and fired up the response even more with the news that the show was being recorded for an upcoming DVD. With the crushing Bloodshot the band premiered the first outlines of the new record Hyena, out this November. Even though the stage crew were already hurrying them along, Britta treated herself to a stage dive and the classic FUQU to finish.
Whoever »skipped« the extreme maniacs Cripper with wild filly Britta on growls and headed to the small stage instead, where the air was still heavy with moisture after the downpour, had something to feast on. Serbia’s Alogia had taken the second stage. The sextet from Smederevo counts as progressive metal! A seasoned crew that has been active since 2000 and has three proper studio albums in its pocket, they’re full of multilayered musical receptivity. Definitely something Dream Theater and Symphony X fans have to check out. Half an hour of excellent original material that treads its own distinctive path. The complex passages are seasoned with arabesques and the genuine character of Balkan melos, while the songs are led and commanded by an authoritative, melodically crafted clean vocal that playfully conquers the highest registers. In the transition from mid to high and highest registers he keeps all his performing power, so with his bandmates’ brilliant playing and their daringly tight interplay, the singer is definitely the standout element of the band. Vocally, Alogia blew away their predecessors Rising Storm. Elegia Balcanica is the new single Alogia played in Tolmin, the track with which, after the more sophisticated album »Priče o snovima« (2012), the band returns to its progressive character. Right now this song is practically the most representative reference for what to expect from Alogia. We’ll undoubtedly be hearing plenty more about these guys. Good things, of course. If they turn up anywhere near you and you’re into melodic lead lines combined with multilayered arrangement complexity and clean, melodically crafted vocals, then Alogia are the right address for you.
From aggressive thrash waters, the main stage took us somewhere else entirely, into the ethereal, gentle, fairytale sounds of France’s Alcest. Frontman Neige’s obsession with the fairytale land he dreamed up as a child is downright contagious, as the delicate, dissonant guitar sounds and atmospheric keyboards (sadly still just on backing track) easily lull you into a childishly playful Peter Pan trance. Fragile vocals and the sun peeking out from behind the clouds right during Alcest’s set only reinforced the wonderful experience. Metal? Not by a long shot, but the French trio, who lingered longest on the current record Shelter, made for a lovely transition from late afternoon toward evening and more brutal genres, which no longer caressed eardrums with dreamy waves but dug into them mercilessly like a facehugger.
Anyone scared of too big a dose of intravenous tranquilizers from Alcest bolted to the second stage, where they could catch an »exotic attraction«! That’s Maltese death metallers Beheaded, who sowed bestial noise and mercilessly laid waste to the small stage for the next 40 minutes. Although the band, active since 1991, has no original members left, Beheaded maintain their old-school, primordially raw death metal fury even in their mature years, with no beauty frills. They bet solely on the card of crushing extreme aggression that can draw blood from ears and snap neck vertebrae. Musically they occasionally pull toward the likes of Hate Eternal, Diabolic or later Kataklysm, and the heavy salting of blast beats conjures an atmosphere that vaguely recalls Vader’s tricks. With the new album »Never to Dawn« (2012) Beheaded define their musical path even further, thanks to the specifics of the growling of new vocalist Frank Calleja, who is something special. Brutal, malevolent, ominous. The seed of evil thus truly sprouted at the festival for the first time and made for a proper overture and warm-up ahead of Sweden’s Grave.
A complete genre swerve, which at the same time showed off the diversity of this year’s festival, came on the second stage right after Alcest with Norwegian black/viking metallers Helheim, who knocked us out of Neige’s sunny land straight into Jotunheim among the ice giants. The Norwegians drink deeply from Norse mythology, which they bring into the music not pompously and cheaply like Amon Amarth, but more intimately and truer to tradition, like early Enslaved, for example. In the shade of the tree crowns, the double vocal attack of V’gandr and H’grimnir conjured an even gloomier, bleaker and colder mood, and the excellent sound put the cherry on top.
Sadly, the hellish world the Norwegians rose from clashed with the set of Swedish death metal veterans Grave, so the smell of rotting flesh called us to rise from the grave, shake off the dirt and the scent of cypresses and head to the main stage. Besides Unleashed, Grave are currently probably the only still full-blooded old-school Swedish death metal band that plays… well, death metal. Dismember went off to crochet in premature retirement, and both versions of Entombed keep promising, but we know a new Left Hand Path is not to be expected. Grave are the ones who have been diligently making sure no dust gathers on their Boss Heavy Metal and Distortion pedals since 1986. And judging by what they showed, nothing suggests Grave will soon belong where their name points. The power and brutality of Swedish death metal still blows convincingly out of them, and with the current record Endless Procession of Souls they definitely proved they haven’t said their last word. Grave greeted us for starters with the classic crusher Into the Grave, then walked us through more or less all the records. Although the only constant of the band for almost a quarter century remains vocalist and guitarist Ola Lindgren, who still growls like on the Sexual Mutilation demo, thanks to the excellent, loud and explosive sound the other three relatively fresh corpses shone too. The first death metal peak of the festival, and there were still a few more to come!
Another batch of death metallers floated out of the grave onto the second stage, the hope of European death metal, Belgium’s Aborted, who have been regular guests on our stages for the past few years. If there were bands that tried to force their way to Slovenian citizenship in the past (Ektomorf, Korpiklaani, Amon Amarth), Aborted can calmly go ahead and pick up a Slovenian passport. Aborted started promisingly already during the soundcheck, when guitarist Danny Tunker amused himself with Carcass and Decapitated riffs, and then came a real hydrogen bomb of brutal death metal full of guts, blood, excrement and the like. Svencho has become a fucking good frontman who doesn’t stand still on stage for a second, and through all that intense gymnastics he squeezes deep growls, high screams and piggy squealing out of his vocal cords. Aborted ground up the almost packed venue like in Soylent Green or Delicatessen (the newer one), and it still pisses me off that, as always, they completely ignored the album Slaughter & Apparatus, which admittedly sounds like a Carcass clone, but even a Carcass clone can’t sound bad, heh. Still, the setlist was delicious as a soylent green burger, thoroughly shaking us with songs from the current record The Necrotic Manifesto, and the classic The Saw and the Carnage Done wasn’t missing either. The crowd didn’t stay indebted to the band’s excellent show, turning for a good hour into an unrecognizable mix of limbs, hair and bodies.
It was hard to tear yourself away from the second stage in the middle of the set by gore/grind metal usurpers Aborted and head over to see what was happening at the main stage. Aborted’s show was simply captivating. But the clock struck nine in the evening and the meadow in front of the main stage was already packed to the last corner. Despite the abundance of moisture the meadow was soaked with that day, crowds also sat down on the riverbank slope to the left of the stage. The atmosphere that was brewing was just right for? The arrival of Children of Bodom. The Finnish metal troublemakers are by now counted among the veterans. Although their most creative days are behind them and their output somehow no longer surprises, they remain a byword for consistency and quality. The band’s great popularity rests mainly on the hooliganism evoked by the dark little demon at the helm of Children of Bodom. That’s the singer and lead guitarist, the indestructible Alexi Laiho. Though last year’s album »Halo of Blood« is still current, the band played just two songs from it (the title track and Scream for Silence), while the rest of the repertoire was a walk through a cross-section of the band’s discography, including the »gems« of their classic days, led by Lake Bodom, Towards Dead End, Downfall, Bodom After Midnight and the famous single Hate Me!. After all that mileage the Finns are of course known as performers who can hardly put a foot wrong on stage. Brilliant tightness, excellent sound, a crazed crowd, great energy flowing from the stage to the crowd and back again. Children of Bodom remain those »friendly« guys whose bark is worse than their bite. Calling them death metallers is too harsh a label, more like Finnish power metal with snarling vocals. The musicality component tips the scales deeply in their favor in any case, which is why Children of Bodom are so musically accessible to the masses.
While Finnish heroes Children of Bodom were playing, the second stage hosted something completely different, aimed mainly at music gourmets. Norwegian avant-gardists Vulture Industries visited Tolmin again. We met them a good month ago at Maribor’s Pekarna, but this time they brought along the Norwegian dance/theater troupe Happy Gorilla Dance Company, with whom they perform under the name Turning Golem (more on that soon in an interview with charismatic vocalist Bjørnar). The Norwegians still cling firmly to their current album The Tower, which made up most of the set, but there’s nothing wrong with that, since even the title and opening track raised the hairs. The instrumental and vocal delivery were once again superb, which we’ve gotten used to from Vulture Industries, and the special charm of this show came from the mix of music and theater, which bordered on the bizarre like something out of Terry Gilliam. Three actors in fantastic masks and costumes brought Vulture Industries’ lyrics to the stage in theatrical form, and not even Bjørnar escaped being manhandled. This time he wasn’t the one breaking the »fourth wall«; it was the actors who truly punctured it, mingling among the crowd. Wonderful lighting, a phenomenal performance, good sound and the uniqueness of the production (which was truly exclusive, as Turning Golem shows numbered only a handful) were the factors that made Turning Golem not just one of the highlights of the first day but of the entire festival. Especially given what Bjørnar stressed at the end: for Turning Golem this was the last show, with no repeat ever again.
Opeth. A band in the metal universe that has been going through one of its biggest stylistic transitions in recent years was picked as the headliner of the festival’s first day. You don’t even know exactly what label to pin on them anymore. The adjective »progressive« definitely stays, while the metal component has lately been increasingly replaced by elements leaning toward a revival of the symphonic progressive rock sound of the seventies and even jazz-rock fusion. Opeth have always loved experimenting, and have always shocked with their free-spirited experiments. The genius Mikael Akerfeldt, in keeping with the tradition of a master of black humor, kept the mood good throughout the set, drawing positive vibes from the crowd, and the band was in fact playing one of its last shows with the »Heritage« backdrop. Akerfeldt is known for his musical worldliness, so to open he »shocked« the audience by choosing a taped intro of Through Pain to Heaven by German cosmic electro avant-rockers Popol Vuh! But The Devil’s Orchard (»Heritage«, 2011) soon put things »in their right place«. After Heir Apparent, evidently one of Akerfeldt’s favorite »Watershed« songs, the band shook the crowd for the first time with the first sweet indulgence of the Opeth show, White Cluster from the cult album »Still Life« (1999). Crowd surfers had a heap of headaches this time. Okay, White Cluster still went by somehow for them. But even this song is full of fluctuating moods. So it looked downright funny when some crowd-surfing tough guys slid over the audience’s hands during almost hypnotically seductive calm acoustic passages with Akerfeldt’s clean vocals. Magic and hypnosis. One word. Opeth. An excellent setlist, closed by a superb Blackwater Park in a grand finale. The Opeth show rolled on giant waves of big mood shifts. Demon of the Fall, an almost forgotten Opeth song from their third album, was a surprise in the setlist, while lovers of the »golden age«, the »progressive death metal« one, surely enjoyed songs like the fantastic Deliverance and, after it, the only »Ghost Reveries« number, Atonement.
The band’s show could turn on a dime. Simple as that. The Swedish perfectionists deliver the best, and the magic that accompanies the world they create in the hour and a half they’re on stage is so strong that it can’t be resisted. Interestingly, the new album »Pale Communion« is announced for the end of this August and the band didn’t play a single new song from it. Which is good. The transition is unavoidable, and many Opeth lovers who stopped somewhere around »Ghost Reveries« are very afraid of it. Akerfeldt had been signaling this not only with the last two Opeth releases but also with the Storm Corrosion project! An Opeth concert feels like the band is playing an hour-and-a-half suite of jazz and metal fusion, spiced now with clean singing, now with death metal growling. The atmosphere of Opeth’s music created live is unique and unrepeatable. Black blackness. Draped in mourning. Whether acoustic sounds accompany them and Akerfeldt is a »normal« singer, or they unleash more death metal aggression. True fans of the band certainly got their money’s worth this evening. Even though the band is somewhat static on stage, with Akerfeldt glued to the vocal mic throughout and rarely stepping away from it even in longer instrumental passages, the group makes up for it by creating a one-of-a-kind musical adventure.
But after Opeth nobody went to bed yet. Those who hadn’t had enough brutalizing on the first day, and there was definitely no shortage of it, gathered in front of the second stage to see the last band of the first day live. New York’s technical death metal fortress Immolation. Wisps of damp played with the beams of the rotating spotlights as the stage swallowed smoke and gloomy silhouettes broke through, led by the big boss Ross Dolan, who was certainly among the festival’s record-holders for length of hair. Immolation approached the final act of the evening (or rather the night) straight on and without compromise, with no special theatrics. To the fact of total destruction. The band weighted the setlist with its current studio release »Kingdom of Conspiracy« and kicked off the show with the album’s title track. The packed venue and the engaged crowd contributed to the great feeling of the band, which demonstrated top-notch execution of its repertoire. Technical polish of performing perfection hand in hand with blasphemous aggression that leaves no survivors! Particularly impressive was the work of drummer Steve Shalaty, who delivered a show close to real metal jazz, where there’s hardly a moment without a sparkling touch of improvisation! There’s no time for a breather during the show. Immolation don’t let you breathe. They simply suck you into their world, ruled by the great performing perfection of brilliant playing, and at the same time create what most people came for. Armageddon! Hell on earth. The boundless agony of the doomsday of a raging cataclysm. Of course the band weighted its, as a rule »blasphemous«, setlist with the new album »Kingdom of Conspiracy«, and Ross took a few moments’ breather to introduce the quartet to the audience before the cult song What They Bring. The band ended the show in grand style by playing an ancient classic from the debut »Dawn of Possession« (1991), Those Left Behind, and closed the set the way it began. With the closing track of the current album »Kingdom of Conspiracy«, All That Awaits Us. The old school of New York technical death metal perfection crossed with an indescribable dose of raw brutalizing finally sent everyone who’d had their fill of death metal with their heads shot off to a restorative sleep, and so the first festival day came to an end.
Nina Grad (photos): Nuclear Chaos, Mephistophelian, Cripper, Grave, Aborted, Turning Golem
Sebastijan Videc (photos, all videos): Alogia, Alcest, Helheim, Children of Bodom, Opeth
Aleš Podbrežnik (text): Rest In Fear, Rising Storm, Alogia, Beheaded, Children of Bodom, Opeth, Immolation
Rok Klemše (text): Nuclear Chaos, Mephistophelian, Cripper, Alcest, Grave, Aborted, Helheim, Turning Golem
Setlist
ABORTED:
1. The Extirpation Agenda
2. Meticulous Invagination
3. Coronary Reconstruction
4. The Saw and the Carnage Done
5. Coffin Upon Coffin
6. Necrotic Manifesto
7. The Origin of Disease
CHILDREN OF BODOM:
1. Needled 24/7
2. Kissing the Shadows
3. Bodom Beach Terror
4. Halo of Blood
5. Scream For Silence
6. Hate Crew Deathroll
7. Lake Bodom
8. Angels Don’t Kill
9. Are You Dead Yet?
10. Towards Dead End
11. Hate Me!
12. Downfall
13. Bodom After Midnight
14. In Your Face
TURNING GOLEM:
1. The Tower
2. Divine Appalling
3. The Pulse of Bliss
4. Sleepwalkers
5. Blood Don’t Eliogabalus
6. The Hound
7. Turning Golem
8. Lost Amog Liars
OPETH:
taped intro: Through Pain to Heaven (orig. Popol Vuh)
1. The Devil’s Orchard
2. Heir Apparent
3. White Cluster
4. Demon of the Fall
5. Hope Leaves
6. Atonement
7. Deliverance
8. The Lines in My Hand
9. Blackwater Park
IMMOLATION:
1. Kingdom of Conspiracy
2. Majesty and Decay
3. Swarm of Terror
4. Into Everlasting Fire
5. Providence
6. Indoctrinate
7. Lost Passion
8. World Agony
9. Of Martyrs and Men
10, A Glorious Epoch
11. A Spectacle of Lies
12. What They Bring
13. God Complex
14. Those Left Behind
15. All That Awaits Us
Photo gallery
