Author: Rok Klemše, Aleš Podbrežnik, Sebastijan Videc
Photos: Nina Grad, Sebastijan Videc
Video: Sebastijan Videc
Location: Tolmin / Sotočje / Slovenia
Concert date: July 23, 2014
Attendance: 12,000
On Wednesday the weather finally took a bit of pity on us, so cooling off by the Sotočje with a cold beer in hand, with topless badminton going on in the crowd, was a perfectly fitting solution. The ideal source of cold beer this year was also the Mercator tent right on the festival grounds. When it was announced it sparked no small amount of controversy, but the idea turned out great and, if it sticks around, it will surely be developed and upgraded in the future. The beach offering also grew with a smoothie stand, and the veggies were looked after nicely again, not just with a kiosk on the beach but also with Indian food, which this year was joined by Mexican across from it, next to the small stage.
Between the two, the first band to step onto the second stage on Wednesday was local lads Cordura, who earned their spot at the festival by winning a Facebook vote. Cordura also played the official warm-up party at Orto bar, where they were plagued by technical problems, and sadly those came back this time too. For most of the gig the guys played without the second guitar again, but still managed to keep the thread going to the end. The technical death/thrash metal Cordura play is certainly no easy listen, but the guys managed to hold the crowd’s attention. They still lack a ton of mileage, but Cordura stand out with Tim’s snarling soloing, a varied, lively rhythm section, and Nejc’s ever-improving vocals, which work well in both growls and clean singing.
The honor of opening the main stage on the festival’s third day went to Slovenian power metal stallions Space Unicorn On Fire. Congrats are due for earning that main-stage slot through diligent festival ticket sales. The guys, who already played the Metaldays small stage last year, were supposed to deliver an upgrade in stage presence this time, having shown promise last year. But this time the gigantic stage structure literally swallowed them whole. They didn’t find their feet up there, though we’d forgive them that from the bottom of our hearts. It showed in the shaky awareness among the crew on stage, especially in the vocal harmonies, which wobbled slightly left and right of the main melody throughout. An enviable number of curious folks gathered in front of the stage, and the band had a really nice chance to introduce themselves to the world in miniature with a full swing and win new fans. The element of wit they always somehow work into their shows didn’t come across at all. It got in the way more than it helped. Despite the unsuspected musical talents of the individual members, real stage chemistry just wasn’t felt during the performance. Sadly. We believe it’ll be better next time. Just a bit more rehearsal and stage experience needs to be added to the mileage.
How to serve up a proper note of wit or sarcasm while making fun of yourself is something Space Unicorn of Fire got to experience firsthand when a crew of garden gnomes, pardon, buzzing hairballs known as Valient Thorr took the stage after them. Only the singer actually gave off the garden-gnome vibe, thanks to bright red “dance” ankle warmers pulled over his tight black leggings, which only added fuel to the fire of the band’s theatrical clowning. Of course, this whole bonkers orgy, which the cheeky frontman runs by sprinting around the stage, dropping to his knees and drumming on his ample beer belly, is fully justified in every dose. Valient Thorr are the right address for an astonishingly tangible mass of authentic rock ‘n’ roll mayhem, generously dosed with a note of punk filth. The band closed their far too short set, full of outstanding rock ‘n’ roll hooliganism, with Tough Customer, a rock ‘n’ roll firewater of a song that opens by borrowing a line from the AC/DC classic Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap. Staring straight into the scorching sun, Valient Thorr threw one of the highlights of the festival’s third day, such was the energy they cooked up with their show. A performance that wrings a whole bag of heartfelt fun out of the genius sense of humor of these utterly off-the-wall American »bushmen«.
The rest of Wednesday’s stage was painted in Slovenian colors too, as the heroes of homegrown heavy metal Black Diamond returned to the stage after several months without gigs. They’re still flying high on the wings of their phenomenal debut Last Man Standing, which was received brilliantly by critics and fans alike. This time Black Diamond appeared in a slightly refreshed lineup: Klemen Markelj was replaced behind the drums by the well-known Marko »Soki« Soršak (Elvis Jackson), and Urban Medič on bass by Primož Pavlin. With rather stingy time slots (and, of course, those epically long songs), the guys played just four tracks, adding the new single Endless Road to a trio from the debut. The relative lack of gigs does show, as there were quite a few mistakes and flubs (mostly in the admittedly extremely intricate interplay of guitar riffs and solos), but Black Diamond made up for the shortcomings with Žak’s breathtaking vocals, which shine live at least as much as on the album, and with an outstanding drum performance from Soki, who has already fully made the drum seat his own in a very short time with the band. During the epic choruses the band had no trouble drawing in the crowd, and during the closing Dreams of Tomorrow, fists went up all by themselves in the fantastic choruses. Guys, we need more of your gigs, and I also hope Endless Road means a new record is on the way!
Legendary Danish thrashers Artillery got an early slot. At last year’s edition of Bang You Head festival in Balingen, Germany, they played, believe it or not, just after ten in the morning. So, a lesson from the Scandinavian veterans of Euro thrash metal, whose reins are still firmly held together by brothers and guitarists Morten and Michael Stützer. Peter Thorslund, who joined the band back in 1989 when Morten switched from bass to guitar, is still on bass. The lineup is rounded out by the younger members, drummer Joshua Madsen and vocalist Michael Bastholm Dahl, who, after a few lineup shuffles in the search for the right singer, finally proved himself as a man made of the right stuff. Michael confirmed that with an excellent performance in Tolmin too! The new album Legions came out last November, and the band served the crowd, in the middle of (wow!!!!) still sunny weather, the title track, then the opener Chill My Bones (Burn My Flesh) and God Feather. Of course the connoisseurs got their fill in the rest of the fantastic 50-minute show, as the band fired off some classic projectiles from their seriously tangible back catalog! After that we enjoyed sharp, uncompromising machine-gunning as the band raged through 10.000 Devils, By Inheritance, When Death Comes, Khomaniac, The Challenge and closed (as expected) with the notorious shrapnel of Terror Squad and The Almighty. Venomous and devastating! Even in its mature years Artillery remains a rabid beast thirsty for blood!
»You can’t stop thrash!« say our veterans Sarcasm, and how right they are! After the mad Danes of Artillery, the small stage was reduced to dust by American Havok, whose set in a jam-packed audience had mosh and circle pits with no end in sight, and the security guys earned their pay with countless crowd surfers. True to their name, the Americans caused real thrash devastation as they tore mercilessly through the crushing thrash anthems D.O.A., Covering Fire, Unnatural Selection, Give Me Liberty… Or Give Me Death, Point of No Return and Time Is Up. Thanks to the excellent sound, the guitars cut like helicopter blades, the lively rhythm section roared like a jet engine, and David Sanchez’s vocals snarled like a madman. If the thrash »revival« is indeed practically dead, a band like Havok gives hope that the torchbearers of the thrash movement won’t be just old-timers like the Big Four, but also young blood eager to prove itself. And Havok prove it again and again. »Cry ‘Havoc!’, and let slip the dogs of war!«
Shortly before eight in the evening, an eight-piece band called Saltatio Mortis took the main stage. Translated from Latin, the band’s name means »dance of death«. Sure, but the band’s musical ID card is cut more for joy than for mourning. Germany offers a strong palette of bands that bring the melodies of medieval troubadours into metal, and as a rule that comes with ancient medieval instruments, dressing up in kilts, studded leather and other clanking bronze-and-ironmongery junk. Saltatio Mortis have two bagpipes in the lineup, and occasionally there can even be three on stage. A whole galaxy of assorted whistles, as well as a tamburica, accompany the otherwise classic metal arsenal of electric guitars, bass and drums. The band’s frontman Alea der Bescheidene, in great spirits, fired up the crowd with huge commitment the whole way through. He persistently and very effectively read a few sentences in Slovenian off a cheat sheet, instantly winning heaps of sympathy, even from those who were watching the band from further away, out of passing curiosity. As for the rest, a whole swarm of attendees found in Saltatio Mortis the perfect savior and alibi to dress up in all sorts of archaic masquerades and drag the craziest props human imagination can produce to the front of the stage, complicating their lives as much as possible. The band plays excellently, the sound was calibrated to perfection, and Alea’s vocals worked optimally. The band delivered a truly optimal performance, and the thoroughly packed meadow in front of the stage, toys and all, went into a proper delirium. In fact, at that moment there was probably no German citizen who had come to Tolmin for the festival who wasn’t at the Saltatio Mortis show. The band presented their current studio album Das Schwarze Einmaleins! The evening of music was therefore opened by the new song Früher war alles besse, followed by Idol, Satans Fall, Prometheus, Uns gehört die Welt, Eulenspiegel, Wachstum über alles, Nur ein Trau, Koma, Sündenfall, Falsche Freunde and the closing Spielmannsschwur.
After the thrash bomb, the second stage was wrapped in depression and nihilism by Italian Forgotten Tomb, proof that you can find excellent bands among the Italians too. Forgotten Tomb stepped in at the last minute for Cattle Decapitation, who sadly dropped out, and it turned out to be an excellent move. Just as night was falling, the Italians created a mighty atmosphere of doom under the tree canopy, pulling it off perfectly with a unique blend of black metal with elements of gothic and doom metal. The slow, mighty riffs and the raw, suffering vocals of founding member Herr Morbid, who started Forgotten Tomb as a one-man project, put the crowd in a real trance. This time only the music did the talking, as no nonsensical banter interrupted the atmospheric flow, and Forgotten Tomb wrapped a fairly sizable crowd (considering that the Italians play a pretty specific genre that doesn’t draw the masses) in darkness, solitude and depression without any trouble.
Most of the Metaldays crowd was anxiously awaiting the performance of Finnish metallers Amorphis. Many newcomers to the grounds came to the festival for just one day, with the main goal of seeing Amorphis. From an early death metal outfit, the band has gone through a radical transition over the years, building a real genre fusion into its musical dossier, which today, alongside the restrained extreme side, tips the scales largely in favor of elements of symphonic power metal, as well as traditional folk melos and even progressive metal! A growing degree of broadly accessible musicality and the combination of growling with clean singing widened the Amorphis fan base, especially after the album Skyforger (2009). The main magnet of Amorphis’s stage show is of course vocalist Tomi Joutsen, who this time didn’t have his “strange device,” normally known as a microphone, mounted on a stand. A couple of times, seeing that particular contraption, Tomi came across as if he were drying his hair with a hair dryer. Jokes aside. The little wild man, whose dreadlocks hang almost to the floor, once again proved himself a great frontman. Especially thanks to his huge charisma and skillful use of the spacious stage, which the vocalist, in great spirits, theatrically ran around throughout the show. Circle, the band’s current studio album, opened the concert with the intro and the new song Shades of Gray, but otherwise the band kneaded together a repertoire from a heap of older songs, which satisfied those who like to remember Amorphis as one of the most interesting death metal bands to emerge on the planet in the years right after the genre’s birth (for example, the performance of Into Hiding right after the instrumental Thousand Lakes, and at the very end Black Winter Day). The band didn’t skip the debut album either, tackling Vulgar Necrolatry in the second half of the set, while hearing a song like My Kantele from the album Elegy (1996) live is always a one-of-a-kind experience full of true atmospheric perfection. The band is in excellent form. You can feel that Amorphis play and perform constantly and that they have yet another of many tours behind them, this one closing out the current summer festival run. The crowd was literally eating out of Tomi’s hand. Amorphis left the stage in the glow of outstanding performance perfection. Given the later fiasco of the “Elvis metalheads” Volbeat, Amorphis in fact took the title of winner of the main stage on the festival’s third day.
This year’s festival was slightly more tailored to death metallers, as by Wednesday we had already enjoyed excellent sets from Mephistophelian, Grave, Aborted, Immolation, Obituary and Vader, but it seemed the true peak of death metal only arrived on Wednesday (and then again on Friday), when two legendary bands took the small stage one after another. The first shot was fired by Dutch death/doom veterans Asphyx, one of the first European death metal bands, sowing horror and death since 1987. It seemed that with the very first note of the classic The Quest of Absurdity the sky over Tolmin turned into the threatening red horizon of war, as total-war is the effect of the apocalyptic riffs, the sick vocals of Martin Van Drunen (who already made history with his shrieking on the first two cult Pestilence albums) and the cannon-like rattle of the crushing rhythm section. Bombs fell in every direction as Asphyx lined up one crusher after another, from the classics M.S. Bismarck, Asphyx (The Forgotten War) and Vermin to brutal slaughters from the album Death… the Brutal Way, Scorbutics and the title track, and killers from the current record Into the Timewaste and Deathhammer. The crowd ate out of charismatic Van Drunen’s hand, and there was no end in sight to the chaos under the stage until the last note of the anthem Last One On Earth. An Asphyx show has about the same effect as standing in the middle of a field of napalm. »This is true death metal you bastards!«
After Amorphis’s superb set, the space in front of the main stage filled up even more for Wednesday’s headliner Volbeat. In recent years the Danes have broken through into the most in-demand bands, so their Metaldays slot was no surprise. But sadly, not everything went to plan. Volbeat kicked off the show with the punchy Doc Holiday from the current album, and carried on in the same style with the older Hallelujah Goat and Boa [JDM]. The danceable Lola Montez followed, where the singer’s frequent coughing already hinted at trouble. The acoustic guitar on stage then meant only one thing – Cash’s legendary Ring of Fire, with the crowd below the stage joining in loudly, followed by Sad Man’s Tongue, dedicated to Cash and probably this band’s biggest hit. Sadly, it became clear here that Michael wasn’t able to drop into the vocal depths the way only he can, and during Sad Man’s Tongue he even skipped the high parts, and during the guitar solo he went backstage. Hope that everything would be fine was lit when Michael returned to the stage, but sadly after just a few verses of Heaven nor Hell he vanished from the stage again, and the rest of the band finished the song instrumentally. Instead of one of the band members, one of the organizers went on stage to apologize to the disappointed crowd, which left an extra bitter aftertaste. The band’s official statement is that Michael lost his voice because of a bacterial infection of the vocal cords, and that they promise a quick return to Slovenia.
A perfect close to the third day, after the Volbeat fiasco (because of which the organizers made a nice gesture and extended the validity of Wednesday tickets for one more day), was delivered by the legendary Possessed, probably the biggest treat of this year’s festival. Possessed is a band formed in 1983 that wrote itself into history forever with the cult debut Seven Churches. That legendary debut also contains the song that gave its name to an entire genre. Death Metal! What Venom are to black metal, Possessed are to death metal. Van Drunen paid them respect during the Asphyx show, and names like Chuck Schuldiner and Death, David Vincent and Morbid Angel, Cannibal Corpse and countless others list them as an influence too. During their run Possessed also released the album Beyond the Gates (1986) and the EP The Eyes of Horror (1987), then broke up in 1987. The members went their own ways (guitarist Larry LaLonde, for example, now plays in Primus), and in 1990 vocalist Jeff Beccera was shot and has been paralyzed from the waist down ever since. Still, in 2007 Jeff summoned incredible courage and iron will and fired up the Possessed machine again with friends from California death metal band Sadistic Intent. Possessed are a cult, and accordingly the grounds below the second stage were jam-packed, and the crowd first exploded during the ominous intro. The Possessed delivered a good hour and a half of wicked, occult and satanic death metal at truly hellish volume levels, and the death metal onslaught didn’t let up until the last second of an outstanding performance, ruled above all by Beccera as a model of incredible willpower and optimism, which Jeff inspires with even in conversation (you’ll be able to see an interview with him soon). Jeff didn’t just prove his vocals are excellently preserved, still brutal and raw, he also egged on the crowd the whole time, headbanged non-stop, and used the stage as much as he could. Through the immortal classics Pentagram, Evil Warriors, Seven Churches, Twisted Minds, Evil Warriors, The Heretic, Tribulation, My Belief and The Eyes of Horror, the band tore and raced like Cerberus, with none other than Nick Barker as a special guest, bestially wrecking it behind the drums, and they also introduced a new track, The Crimson Spike, which will appear on the upcoming comeback record. Without a doubt one of the best (and at the same time most sincere) performances of this year’s Metaldays, and an example for all the bigger bands who have lost touch with their fans and the very essence of metal through their behavior. Possessed could only end their set one way, which was also the perfect close to the day – Death Metal!
Nina Grad (photos): Cordura, Valient Thorr, Black Diamond, Artillery, Havok, Saltatio Mortis, Forgotten Tomb, Asphyx, Possessed
Sebastijan Videc (photos, videos, Volbeat text): Space Unicorn on Fire, Amorphis, Volbeat
Aleš Podbrežnik (text): Space Unicorn on Fire, Valient Thorr, Artillery, Saltatio Mortis, Amorphis, Volbeat
Rok Klemše (text): Cordura, Black Diamond, Havok, Forgotten Tomb, Asphyx, Possessed
Setlists
HAVOK:
1. Covering Fire
2. Point of No Return
3. Give Me Liberty…or Give Me Death
4. I Am the State
5. From the Cradle to the Grave
6. Unnatural Selection
7. D.O.A.
8. No Amnesty
9. Afterburner
10. Time Is Up
AMORPHIS:
1. Circle Intro
2. Shades of Gray
3. Narrow Path
4. Silver Bride
5. Sky Is Mine
6. My Kantele
7. Thousand Lakes
8. Into Hiding
9. Nightbird’s Song
10. Vulgar Necrolatry
11. The Wanderer
12. You I Need
13. Hopeless Days
—encore—
14. The Smoke
15. Black Winter Day
ASPHYX:
1. The Quest of Absurdity
2. Vermin
3. M.S. Bismarck
4. Death the Brutal Way
5. Asphyx (Forgotten War)
6. Deathhammer
7. We Doom You to Death
8. Wasteland of Terror
9. Scorbutics
10. Last One on Earth
VOLBEAT:
1. Doc Holiday
2. Hallelujah Goat
3. Boa [JDM]
4. Lola Montez
5. Ring of Fire / Sad Man’s Tongue
6. Heaven Nor Hell
Photo Gallery
