Author: Rok Klemše
Photos: Nina Grad
Location: Tolmin, Slovenia
Concert date: 28.07.2017
And just like that, we made it to the last day of Metaldays 2017, which flew by in the blink of an eye. Friday brought the hottest day of this year’s festival, plus a pretty nice batch of great performances, especially in the first half of the day, which leaned heavily toward heavy metal.
To kick off the day’s music, we treated ourselves to English band Loathe, mostly because of the glowing reviews their debut The Cold Sun got this year. Live, they didn’t quite live up to the sky-high praise from the critics, but their mix of djenty riffs, melodic and growled vocals, and industrial influences, with metalcore and nu metal elements dominating, went down easily enough. Nothing we haven’t heard before, but the band’s heaviness and low tuning gave the second stage a nice shake.
Loathe were followed by the Dutch band Ortega, who failed to convince with their rather generic doom/sludge metal. The pained vocals, which unsuccessfully tried to imitate Kirk Windstein, and the uninspired, boring, repetitive riffing didn’t do much to improve the overall picture either.
The quality curve then swung sharply upward with the next acts. Friday was mostly a day for heavy metal fans, and we got our first treat early in the afternoon, when the gates of hell swung open on the main stage and out stepped the cult English NWOBHM band Hell. They have quite a history: the band formed back in 1982, recorded a few well-received demos, and fell apart in 1987 after the suicide of singer David Halliday. At the urging of legendary producer Andy Sneap (Halliday even taught him to play guitar), Hell got back together just under ten years ago and in 2011 released their first proper studio album, Human Remains. This was their second time at Metaldays, and even though a band like Hell really shines in the dark rather than under a scorching sun, this show went down as one of the best of this year’s festival. That’s mostly thanks to the excellent instrumental performance (even though they played on borrowed gear, for which they graciously thanked Manchester airport) and the charismatic vocalist David Bower. He surprised with top-notch vocal form, funny banter (while introducing the band he mentioned they come from Great Britain, formerly of Europe, which is what happens when you put power in the hands of stupid people), charisma and theatricality. That included a crown of thorns, flogging and acting gestures, which is no wonder, since Bower is a professional stage actor who has even stood on the stage of Shakespeare’s famous Globe Theatre in London. Barely three quarters of an hour of superb playing went by way too fast, but Milton’s saying still stands: »Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven.«
Over on the second stage, it was time for the last of this year’s trio of Czech goregrind bands, Spasm, which once again meant an audience full of toilet brushes and the piggy squealing of the tastelessly dressed vocalist Radim (go ahead and admire the beauty in the photos below), at first hidden behind a mask straight out of Pasolini’s Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom. My ears had had more than enough Czech grind for this year, so I went off for a fresh dose of heavy metal in front of the main stage, where Swedish trio Grand Magus tried to bring some northern, Viking chill. They failed, but only because the sun on Friday was really going all out. Grand Magus were greeted by a sizable crowd, which eagerly joined in on the epic, hymn-like choruses of songs like On Hooves of Gold, Steel Versus Steel, Like the Oar Strikes the Water and especially Hammer of the North, whose chorus the crowd kept singing for a while after the trio had left the stage.
After the Viking blow, the second stage got another attack of Swedish heavy metal, but this time with katanas instead of Mjölnirs and axes. Gothenburg’s Katana draw their themes from East Asian culture, mythology and history, especially samurai, shoguns and yakuza. I have to admit that the girl and the guys never managed to win me over with their studio recordings, but live, the katana cut right where it counts. The band surprised with excellent sound, top-notch tightness and incredible energy that carried easily from the stage to the crowd. Punchy choruses, charging riffs, the great mood of all the members, especially singer Johann, and the whole look of the band, like perfect revivalists of early heavy metal, spandex leggings and everything that goes with them, won me over. Pure heavy metal bliss!
On the main stage I only took a quick peek at German folk metallers Equilibirum, who didn’t convince me, and I think it was the right call to move them out of the closing slot of the whole festival and give it to Death Angel. Listening to the British witch hunters, NWOBHM obscurities Witchfynde, was a much better decision. The band formed back in 1973, was active until 1984, and since 1999 has been singing about evil, hell and metal again. It’s a really nice move by Metaldays to pay tribute to the NWOBHM genre every year, and in past years it has hosted bands like Blitzkrieg, Satan and Tygers of Pan Tang (or rather Jess Cox), and this time probably the least known of the bunch. So it wasn’t quite clear what to expect, but the veterans surprised us with excellent tightness and, even more so, with the exceptional vocal form of the great-humored Luther Beltz. The guys, or rather gentlemen, charmed with a musical style where hard rock and heavy metal met hand in hand, and reminded us that the NWOBHM movement still hides undiscovered gems. Diamond Head next year!
After half a day of (really high-quality!) heavy metal, something a bit more brutal hit the spot, and it was served up by Dutch death metal institution Sinister. The Dutchmen released a superb record this year, Syncretism, which is definitely among the band’s better albums, and it’s interesting that we hadn’t seen them here in quite a while, since vocalist Aad Kloosterwaard lives in Slovenia and is married to bassist Aleša (ex-Root ‘a Balluta, ex-Sarcasm, ex-Supreme Pain, who also played bass live with Sinister for a short time). He mentioned this in a lovely speech where he said this festival has a special place in his heart, because it’s where he met his future wife. Enough sentimentality: for a solid hour, in front of a nicely packed crowd, Sinister ground bones without mercy with a superb performance, led above all by the earth-shaking, precise drumming of Toep Duin and Aad’s brutal vocals dragged straight from the depths of hell. Sinister topped off the exceptional show with a wonderful choice of songs, from the classic Sadistic Intent to the new crushers Neurophobic and Convulsion of Christ, which will become classics themselves. Brutal!
After the death metal assault, it was time to dance with Swedish electronic/industrial metal heavyweights Pain, who have been led for a good twenty years by the tireless and legendary Peter Tägtgren. The band’s last truly good studio record was Psalms of Extinction, released ten years ago, and later releases were merely average, so Pain somehow slipped off the radar. Expectations were really low this time, too, but Pero surprised with excellent form, which we haven’t been used to from him in recent years. Pain greeted Metaldays with the hit End of the Line, which fired up the thoroughly packed crowd, and it stayed that way to the end. Peter, dressed in a straitjacket, convinced with good vocal form, while his guys delivered an excellent instrumental performance. It was great to hear a lot of old stuff, from Suicide Machine and On and On to Same Old Song. The new songs blended nicely with the older ones, and, as expected, Pain wrapped up their set brilliantly with the hit Shut Your Mouth.
The main stage was closed, just like in 2014, by German giants Heaven Shall Burn, once again with a megalomaniacal stage and a ton of pyro, which would have been even more welcome a few days earlier, when that kind of warming up would have come in very handy on a cold evening. Once again Heaven Shall Burn delivered an incredibly energetic show, full of fiery elements and a solid shot of melodic death metal. Compared to their first appearance, though, this one was pretty routine and really didn’t differ in anything from the one three years ago. We heard an almost identical setlist, and Heaven Shall Burn were practically the same on stage as three years ago. It was by no means a bad show, but it sank into oblivion much faster than their first one, which the crowd seemed to feel too: there was a lot less moshing, the wall of death was smaller, and the circle pit around the mixing desk (like in 2014) was nowhere to be seen. Still, Heaven Shall Burn closed the show confidently and epically with their standard Edge of Sanity cover, Black Tears.
Old friends of the festival are also American thrash legends Death Angel, who this time got the great honor of closing the festival. Even though we’ve seen Death Angel countless times, the Americans never leave the crowd cold, not even once. Death Angel greeted the completely packed crowd right from the start with the epic intro of The Ultra-Violence, and from there it only went up. The Californians won the crowd over immediately, and there was no end in sight to the mosh pits and crowd surfing. The band raced mercilessly through a setlist that covered almost all of their eras, with the emphasis naturally on their current album The Evil Divide, from which the most memorable moment was the gripping, superb performance of the single Lost. Every single member did their job exceptionally well, from the energetic and charismatic frontman Mark, through Rob Cavestany, one of the best but most overlooked thrash guitarists, to the especially good drumming this time from the beast Will Carroll. Toward the end of their set, Death Angel surprised with a fantastic rendition of the Black Sabbath classic Falling Off the Edge of the World, and said goodbye with the centerpiece of the new album, The Moth. We could easily have taken a song or two more, but we still witnessed an excellent show by an extremely well-disposed band that took its role as the festival’s closing act very seriously and delivered what was expected. Death Angel have been seen and heard many times, but every single time they’re more than excellent, and I couldn’t have wished for a better ending to Metaldays 2017.
So another Metaldays has come and gone, and it won’t be forgotten any time soon, thanks above all to the very high-quality lineup on the Boško Bursać Stage, the third stage, which I personally found a very welcome idea (though I’m sure the nearby campers weren’t so thrilled about all-day blasting), and some very welcome novelties (countless activities on the beach, the exceptional tidiness of the whole festival grounds, and the festival beer made with the Bevog brewery, which really went overboard with the price). There’s still room for improvement, first of all the Lemmy Stage lineup, which was a bit weaker this year, especially in terms of louder headliner names. But the first names announced for next year have already surprised us: Swiss tech thrash giants Coroner, the majestic Irish band Primordial, NWOBHM duo Diamond Head and Girlschool, Slovenian-Swedish depressive black metallers Shining, plus Bölzer, Darkened Nocturn Slaughtercult, Rotten Sound, Hecate Enthroned, Schammasch and Ultha. See you at Metaldays 2018!
Klemen Udovč (photo): Sinister
Setlists
HELL:
1. The Age of Nefarious
2. Let Battle Commence
3. Something Wicked This Way Comes
4. Blasphemy and the Master
5. The Quest
6. End ov Days
7. On Earth as it is in Hell
GRAND MAGUS:
1. I, the Jury
2. Varangian
3. On Hooves of Gold
4. Steel Versus Steel
5. Ravens Guide Our Way
6. Iron Will
7. Like the Oar Strikes the Water
8. Hammer of the North
PAIN:
1. Rebel Yell (intro)/End of the Line
2. Zombie Slam
3. A Wannabe
4. Call Me
5. It’s Only Them
6. Suicide Machine
7. The Great Pretender
8. Monkey Business
9. Dirty Woman
10. Pain in the Ass
11. Same Old Song
12. I’m Going In
13. On and On
14. Shut Your Mouth/My Way (outro)
DEATH ANGEL:
1. The Ultra-Violence/Evil Priest
2. Claws in So Deep
3. Left For Dead
4. Son of the Morning
5. Father of Lies
6. Caster of Shame
7. Thrown to the Wolves
8. Seemingly Endless Time
9. Breakaway
10. Lost
11. Falling Off the Edge of the World
12. Kill As One
13. Relentless Revolution
14. The Moth
Photo gallery
