Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Photos: Jerneja Jerak, Sebastijan Videc
Video: Sebastijan Videc
Location: Sotočje, Tolmin, Slovenia
Concert date: July 29, 2016
My Friday kicked off at the second stage, where I caught Finnish melodic death metallers Enthrope. Sadly, their set was a bit sloppy: they kept falling out of rhythm, rushing and cutting short the transitions, and their material sounded a little too much like fellow countrymen Omnium Gatherum and Insomnium, so they came across as nothing more than a watered-down copy. The band put out their quite listenable debut back in 2010, but live they didn’t exactly blow us away and gave off the feeling that they’ve been stagnating for a few years now. (t: David)
After Enthrope on the small stage, Dead Label took over the main stage. The Irish metalcore / death metal trio has 2 albums under their belt, and the current one, Throne of bones, came out this year. This dynamic band with an interesting lineup doesn’t overcomplicate its playing, and you can’t really blame them for that, since it simply works. The guitarist’s confident riffs gelled perfectly with the energetic female drummer and the singer/vocalist, who, despite the early hour, did a great job firing up the sparse crowd under the (for a change) scorching sun. Dead Label have nothing to fear for the future with gigs like this, and they can easily earn a later slot at Metaldays someday. We later ran into Dead Label among the crowd too, where they were chatting casually with their fans. Props to a young band with big ambitions, judging by this set. (t: Klemen)
Dead Label swapped places on stage with French power heavy metallers Nightmare. Unlike Dead Label, they already had a much bigger crowd in front of the stage. The band, fronted by the energetic singer Maggy Luyten with her far-from-gentle voice, was a likable change of pace for the afternoon. In some songs they clearly take their cues from the rulers of the heavy category, Iron Maiden. There were no real standout moments, though, and Delain the day before were more fun to listen to. Still, the drummer and the lead guitarist deserve a shout-out. Easy on the ears, but not a band that left a big impression on us, despite all the energy they poured into the show. (t: Klemen)
After Nightmare, we checked out the promising Slovenian band Morywa on the smaller stage. This four-piece, playing progressive death metal, has already made a serious name for itself. The Slovenes have no shortage of dynamics and drive, and alongside Eruption and Sarcasm we can easily rank them among the top three performances by local bands at this year’s Metaldays. The piercing vocals of frontman and guitarist Peter Gologranc work great together with Miha Klančišar on the other guitar. Both play eight-string guitars. Morywa also promoted their debut Vamana Ira at Metaldays and kindly handed out a few copies to the crowd. They clearly click with the audience too, at least judging by the reaction and the moshpit. We have no doubts about Morywa’s future and hope to see them on the main stage at a later hour very soon. Well deserved. (t: Klemen)
The first band I caught on the main stage were Latvia’s Skyforger. With their mix of pagan black metal and folk metal in Latvian, they present the history and culture of their homeland. Singer Peter introduced the story behind each song in a very relaxed, likable way, and anyone who’s curious can find English translations of the lyrics on their website. It must have been blazing hot on stage in those heavy outfits, but they got through their set without a slip and left a very positive impression. (t: David)
Shortly after five, red-painted warriors began gathering at the main stage, their paint already starting to melt in the hellish Friday heat before the German wolves Varg even started. Most of the crowd squeezed into the shade by the mixing desk tent, but over the course of the show quite a sizable crowd built up in front of the stage. The Germans very confidently delivered their modern take on hard-hitting folk metal, and the crowd’s reactions matched. (t: David)
While Varg played the main stage, Belgrade’s Infest were performing on the smaller one. The death thrash foursome, who even gave themselves stage names (Vandal, Zombie, Tyrrant, Vrag), were listenable. The energy they clearly put into their show won over the thin crowd, but sadly most of the metalheads were obviously at the main stage. There were no real standout moments from any individual member, but it still wasn’t bad. It’s hard to link them to any other band, maybe Disrupted at moments. Not bad. (t: Klemen)
On the second stage, Obscurity continued the string of pagan Viking bands. The afternoon fatigue of the fifth festival day was already very obvious among most of the crowd, and the Germans’ repetitive songs didn’t exactly give us a fresh jolt of energy. The very bass-heavy sound had an extra sleep-inducing effect, but when singer Angalaz noticed the mostly unresponsive crowd, he moved from the stage right into the photo pit and sang the last few songs with the fans in the front row. A commendable move that undoubtedly lifted the energy of the show. (t: David)
The Viking part of the program was wrapped up by Norway’s Einherjer, who are celebrating the twentieth anniversary of their debut Dragons of the North this year. The setlist matched, covering every song from that record. And that was that: they didn’t play a single newer song, which might have been interesting mainly because all the lyrics are in Norwegian. The old material, even though it can be categorized as one of the first Viking metal albums, sounds pretty monotonous. The band’s fans had a blast, while everyone else slowly started waking up from the pagan afternoon slumber. (t: David)
Before the legends Exodus on the main stage, the smaller one was taken over by the misfits Gutalax. Definitely one of the most unhinged performances at this year’s Metaldays. We don’t even know where to file them. A pretty peculiar style with a pile of themed toilet-related masquerade, both on stage and among the sizable crowd. Everybody was obviously curious about these weirdos. Interesting to see live, but we can hardly imagine playing their album on repeat in a CD player. Even a bit of variety like this has to be there. (t: Klemen)
The wake-up call came from Exodus, who got Steve “Zetro” Souza back on vocals in 2014, and who for the past few years have been playing, to the huge disappointment of fans, without Gary Holt, the only remaining member who has played on all of their albums. Despite his absence, Exodus are still more than worth seeing, and a huge share of the credit goes to Kragen Lum, the stand-in guitarist, who did more than an excellent job. The Bay Area thrash legends show no signs of weakness despite a career of nearly 40 years, and we can only hope that Gary rejoins them in the future, at least for recording a new album, and heads out with them on another thrash metal conquest. (t: David)
A jump over to the second stage, where Swedish black metallers Valkyrja were already playing in the evening dusk. Luckily, apart from the name, they have no connection whatsoever to Viking-pagan themes (not that there’d be anything wrong with that, but after four such bands in one day, one more might have been a tad too much). The usual black metal problem of excessive loudness and the resulting muddiness showed up again, but once my ears got used to the roar, I really enjoyed the set. I’m curious how their nihilistic misanthropic black metal sounds in all its dark grandeur in a more intimate club setting, and I hope the chance to find out comes along soon. (t: David)
The first headliner of Friday’s main stage program was epic power metal band Blind Guardian, who drew the biggest crowd of the festival in front of the stage. The Germans have always been known for putting on some of the best shows in the metal scene, but this time they weren’t the most convincing. If I focus on the sonic side, I’d have a very hard time finding anything to complain about, since the sound was excellent right from the start, when they opened with The Ninth Wave from their latest album Beyond the Red Mirror, and the biggest props once again go to singer Hansi Kürsch, who can be counted among the best vocalists still active in the metal scene. As for the performance itself, something was missing: the members seemed very static and tired. Even so, they delivered a good hour of top-notch epic power metal, though we might have wished for a bit more energy from the legendary blind guardians. (t: David)
Last to take the stage were a Brit, a Frenchman, an Italian, a Ukrainian, a Chinese guy and a Norwegian – no, this isn’t the start of a joke! Those familiar with the multiethnic Nintendo metallers Dragonforce have probably already noticed that I mentioned a Norwegian instead of yet another Brit. The reason is that regular singer Marc Hudson fell ill, and he was replaced by Per Fredrik Åsly »PelleK«. All I’ll say about him is that he records covers of Japanese anime songs and is very popular on YouTube. What more can I add, I can’t even imagine a better replacement for Dragonforce, especially once Per started singing. His voice and look fit the concept of the whole band even better, though sadly he spent most of the shortened, five-song show parked at the edge of the stage reading the lyrics off the floor. A logical move, since he only had enough time to get from Norway to Tolmin, and the rest of the band took care of the stage acrobatics, delivering a truly excellent show. Those who can’t stand Dragonforce wouldn’t have liked them anyway, but you can’t deny that in the past few years they’ve turned into one of the tightest and most well-rehearsed bands on the scene. And those of us who wanted to have fun got our money’s worth despite the shortened set. (t: David)
The festival’s concert program on the second stage was closed out by none other than Satan. Whoever dug up this band and brought them to Metaldays as the festival’s final act deserves an Order of Merit from the President of the Republic. Since they’re also the last band in this report, they deserve a more in-depth look.
Satan are a classic name on the heavy metal pulpit of the world. After returning to the scene in 2013 with the phenomenal album »Life Sentence« (the band’s career has always been very turbulent, with constant lineup changes and even temporary changes of the band’s name), the new album »Atom by Atom«, released last year, keeps up the extraordinary inspiration. And so, inspired and thirsty for blood, Satan stormed the stage of Tolmin’s Metaldays festival.
Satan is not at all a representative name when it comes to their musical or lyrical themes, since they play excellent British heavy metal and sing about society and injustice.
The band was therefore promoting their current studio album “Atom by Atom”, but they kicked off the show with the cult “Court in the Act” classic Trial By Fire, which Satan launched into after a taped intro (Into the Fire). The band stuck with that classic, the cult debut from the eighties, and charged on with Blades of Steel, then turned to the new era of their output with The Devil’s Infantry, Break Free and Ruination (all from “Atom by Atom”), followed by Twenty Twenty Five, Siege Mentality, Incantations and, in the last part of the show, Testimony and Time to Die (all from “Life Sentence”). In the second half of the show, the band also played two brand-new songs: the utterly furious and razor-sharp Farewell Evolution, followed by the excellent mini epic suite full of gloom and occult vistas called The Fall of Persephone. Satan closed their show with the cult Kiss of Death, one of the oldest songs the band wrote in its career. Sadly, Satan (under the name Satan) have released only four proper studio albums in their career, and it was somehow only logical to grumble that the last two, “Life Sentence” and “Atom by Atom”, should have been better represented in the setlist.
At one in the morning, these guys in their fifties blasted away for a good hour as intensely as if they were half a decade younger, and the crowd, despite five long festival days, went wild for the entire show and gave the impression of actually being possessed by Satan himself. Very stereotypically metal!
And so another edition of the Metaldays festival came to a close, one marked this year by moody weather, excellent concerts, a big turnout, the best organization so far and a very pleasant atmosphere. Metaldays 2017 will take place at the same spot from July 23 to 27, and the first acts are already announced.
text: Klemen Udovč & David Bordon
text (Satan): Aleš Podbrežnik
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1-WbE5Uiak
Photo Gallery
