Author: Rok Klemše, Aleš Podbrežnik
Photos: Nina Grad
Location: Tolmin, Slovenia
Concert date: July 25, 2017
Attendance: 13,000
Ticket price: €160.00 (full-week ticket) / €140.00 (three-day ticket) / €60.00 (single-day ticket)
After Monday’s downpours, we were all hoping Tuesday would feel a little less like Judgment Day, and luckily that partly came true. So in the early afternoon we got to catch a few bands on the smaller two of the three stages. First up, we quickly checked out German melodic death metallers The Black Court, who were nothing special, but with their melodic take on death metal they at least didn’t send anyone running as far from the stage as possible. With their pretty generic melodic death metal, the guys were basically closest to Amon Amarth, mainly because of Oskar’s vocals, which strongly recalled Hegg’s. Despite all their effort on stage, though, The Black Court were quickly forgotten.
Dutch band For I Am King stuck in the memory a bit longer, first of all thanks to their tiny, shy vocalist Alma Alizadeh, who sounded like a frightened little mouse when she talked between songs, but when she roared, she unleashed an enviable voice. The Dutch five-piece is firmly rooted in modern melodic death metal with clear metalcore influences, which this time didn’t even bother us, since the girl and the guys put on a hell of an energetic show. Even the frequent breakdowns didn’t get in the way, spiced up as they were with melodic guitar bits, mostly breakneck song tempos and a convincing Alma. A surprisingly listenable band for such an early hour, and one that doesn’t sound bad even on the home PA.
Avven are a Slovenian musical institution that has taken a huge step up in recent years. Especially when it comes to racking up gig mileage, and from the very start Avven were seen as a band managing to deliver something different and fresh in their musical vision. And that constant transformation of their artistry is still going strong, as the current EP »Eos« shows. In three quarters of an hour the band thoroughly warmed up the crowd, who happily partied in the little grove by the second festival stage, and delivered an extremely tight, well-rehearsed and confident show. The sound was spot-on too. The band has found its own niche, fusing modern riff structures of heavy metal with a bold implant of folk melodies and highly melodic chorus hooks, commanded by an authoritative male voice, and it served up a repertoire of old and new. They played most of the EP »Eos« (Oceans, Reborn, Red Sun, The Void, Join the Dance, Empires), while older songs (Zmaji, Vvile, Sijaj, Hej ti!,…) found their place in the first half of the set.
Since we support the home team, four o’clock was the time to get ourselves in front of the New Forces stage and give in to the joys of vasectomy at the surgically precise fingertips of the Prekmurje death metal doctors Vasectomy. After Monday’s disaster, which wrecked the third stage, they unfortunately had to play on an improvised version of it, but that didn’t bother them. Early in the afternoon the guys gave a nicely packed crowd a proper neck workout and showed what a Prekmurje death metal wind means. Patrik confidently growled and screamed over a massive, fat foundation of good riffing and a solid rhythm section. For a great show, Vasectomy deservedly earned a slot on the Boško Bursać stage at Metaldays 2018. Guys, stop teasing already and finally unleash the long-awaited debut Deathcon 1!
Evil Invaders, Belgian heavy metal revivalists, or more precisely hurricane-force speed metallers who have been holding their ground on the scene for a whole decade, spent this summer visiting festival grounds. We’d already caught the band at this year’s edition of Germany’s Bang Your Head!!! festival, where they staged a truly orgasmic delirium of a breakneck show. It’s incredible how these guys can keep running back and forth, pull off amazing acrobatics, and still stay constantly tight and compact, led by the devilishly screechy Joe on vocals. Metaldays 2017 was not much different. The band had the first five rows hooked, eating out of its hand, while right behind them dust and sand swirled around wild circle pits that never let up throughout the show. Another gig where you knew right away it would be over before it started, and forty minutes to enjoy a show like this is definitely far too little. The band opened the set with As Life Slowly Fades, which is on the current EP »In for the Kill« and thus announced the upcoming new studio album »Feed Me Violence«, due at the end of September this year. Around the middle of the set they confirmed it with another new song, Mental Penitenciary. The bulk of the material, with songs like Pulses of Pleasure, Fast, Loud ‘n’ Rude, Shot to Paradise, Master of Illusion and Starway to Insanity, focused on the still-current last studio album »Pulses of Pleasure« (2015), and Evil Invaders literally rolled from one song to the next. Uncompromising, with all their might and fury, armed with a full bag of rabies and extreme aggression. A young band delivering a first-rate revivalist blast back to the old days, when metal bands in the era of this genre’s rapid development sought shock value by wanting to play even faster and even louder.
When Krisiun were supposed to take the main stage, it absolutely poured, and the heavy rain didn’t let up until seven o’clock, even a bit longer. Regardless, in the middle of the downpour the legendary American metallers from Seattle Sanctuary stepped onto the main stage, fronted by the famous and one-of-a-kind figure of Warrel Dane. Their show was split into two halves. Rainy and dry, and when a window of clear sky appeared from the northwest, Warrel deftly nailed it: »Oh, a glimpse of light!« The set was, logically, a bit shortened, and the band strung together just seven songs, opening the show with Arise and Puriy, and of course not forgetting to squeeze in Frozen, followed by Let the Serpent Follow Me, Season of Destruction, Die for My Sins, Question Existence Fading, and the gig ended with Taste Revenge. Cult riffs, cult faces, cult band. Shame the weather screwed it up, so Sanctuary didn’t play under optimal conditions. Warrell remains an outstanding commander, charismatic, sharp in his on-stage banter with the crowd and a constantly interesting conversationalist. Still, the man no longer has the vocal form and power he once did, when walls cracked under his screams, so most of the time he adapted, only occasionally showing his vocal wear more noticeably when reaching for the higher notes (the odd scream), and otherwise preferring to stay in the mid range. It’s a pleasure to watch and listen to Lenny Rutledge’s soloing, and the band as a whole remains magnetic, even though it couldn’t build that magnetism as intensely as it did on the warm-up day of this year’s Bang Your Head festival in Germany. Let’s hope we get to see Sanctuary again soon. In optimal concert conditions. Props to the band, who despite the weather mishaps bravely stepped on stage and did what could be done in such tough conditions.
One of the most unfortunate clashes of the festival was definitely Sanctuary against Macabre. I went with the latter, because I was hungry for children’s flesh and everything else the cult American band sings about in its songs. Macabre have been around for almost three decades and, even though they never really belonged to this scene, have noticeably influenced death metal and grind. The trio, whose songs celebrate serial killers and other mass murderers, is finally playing live again after a few quiet years, and they won people over at Metaldays too. Even though it started pouring again right during their set, quite a few enthusiasts stuck with them in front of the stage, and Macabre delivered an priceless live experience. The star of it was frontman Corporate Death, who screams and growls the songs like a victim of one of the serial killers he sings about (Jeffrey Dahmer, Albert Fish, Ed Gein and others), while between songs he innocently serves up the story behind each individual track. The band proved it’s in great shape, and I hope the long-announced second part of Grim Scary Tales – a historic cross-section of mass murderers that only Macabre can deliver – is finally getting close to release.
Katatonia were the musical oddballs on this year’s Metaldays lineup. Although they’re a cult Swedish band that’s been active since 1991 and has ten studio albums under its belt, Katatonia are a band that has radically changed its musical style over the years. Today it’s very hard to pin that style down with just one word (maybe dark art rock?). The band that once defended the colors of death and doom metal now sounds closer to the tastes of people who like, say, the new Anathema, then Porcupine Tree, Tool, or even Pink Floyd. In the Stockholm quintet, the two main faces today are still the original members, vocalist Jonas Renkse and guitarist Anders Nyström, while the current lineup is rounded out by guitarist Roger Öjersson, drummer Daniel Moilanen and bassist Niklas Sandin. Katatonia served up a repertoire reaching back no further than their fifth studio album “Last Fair Deal Gone” (2001), from which they played Teargas in the first half of the set. It cut through the opening trio from the current studio album »The Fall Of Hearts« (2016), represented by Last Song Before the Fade, Serein and Old Heart Falls in a row, while the rest of the set was covered by songs from the albums »Dead End Kings«, »Viva Emptiness«, »The Great Cold Distance« and »Night is A New Day«, and toward the end of the show there was one more song from the new album, called Passer.
Katatonia are great perfectionists when it comes to performance. For modern times, their expressive stance has kept the original gloominess, darkness and obscurity, musical expression staring into eternal melancholy and doom. And thanks to all its character quirks, that atmosphere quickly took over the festival grounds. A real treat for true fans of the new Katatonia. The conditions for the show itself were also optimized, and luckily they suited the band perfectly. Renkse is an exceptional vocalist. Incredibly immersed throughout, and strikingly real in his passions and emotions. The band, clinging to old-school musical logistics, has developed an excellent, full sound, with otherwise tight playing where pure feeling absolutely takes the dominant role. The dark atmosphere of intoxicating trip-hypnosis worked all the way, and if you found yourself on the same wavelength as that mood, the gig felt like a sweet, short dream from which you were only jolted awake by Jonas’s closing greeting and thanks to the crowd.
The whole crowd that came to the festival this year was waiting on the second day for one single act. On the grounds of the confluence, long since turned into a folk legend. That’s the Swedes Amon Amarth. The access path to the main stage grounds was repeatedly literally blocked, as the crowd euphorically waded in to see the band. It’s probably not superfluous to add that basically the entire festival watched the show. Over the years Amon Amarth have grown into a gigantic franchise that fills venues all over the world. Over the years the scenery and the richness of the stage sets have grown too. And with the still-current album »Jomsviking«, released last year, the band is constantly on stages. This time’s festival visit can certainly be summed up in a single word. Spectacular. The entire production. With constant changes of backdrops, outstanding pyrotechnics, the crowd being fired up in between by vocal hulk Johan Hegg, who in the grand finale heroically tamed a giant, ugly and evil dragon, and of course the performance of the repertoire itself. Strictly professional and studied down to the last detail. From the first second to the last. Only one thing was bothersome. The show was too quiet. The logistics of the available PA on this day and the first, both considered »stormy«, simply allowed no more. But that didn’t spoil the incredible energy and interaction between the crowd and the band, which never let up throughout the show. A massive presentation of the new album and must-have classics from the iron repertoire brought the band yet another victorious visit to the Tolmin confluence, and it’s clear it won’t be the last. Amon Amarth came, saw and (once again) conquered.
The second day of the festival was closed on the Boban stage (after Kadavar very incorrectly canceled their show at the last moment) by Polish black metal institution Mgla, and the fact that the band is stepping away from the stages for a while after the summer festivals added a touch of exclusivity to the show. In a good hour the Poles showed how to serve black metal and strung together a heap of terrifying melodies, sinister moments and one of the best approaches to modern black metal. The Poles blurred the lines with songs from all three albums, Groza, With Hearts Towards None and Exercises In Futility, but what shone most were the effective and masterful guitar parts from the last two. The excessive stiffness of the band members, whose faces are covered by black masks, was a bit off-putting, but the band still proved that Poland is currently at the top of European black metal. The (personal) favorites from Exercises in Futility rang out spectacularly into the night, and together with Batushka, Mgla were without a doubt the black metal highlight of Metaldays 2017.
Rok Klemše: The Black Court, For I Am King, Vasectomy, Macabre, Mgla
Aleš Podbrežnik: Avven, Evil Invaders, Sanctuary, Katatonia, Amon Amarth
Klemen Udovč (photos): Avven, Vasectomy
Setlist
SANCTUARY:
1. Ad Vitam Aeternam/Arise And Purify
2. Let the Serpent Follow Me
3. Die For My Sins
4. Seasons of Destruction
5. Question Existence Fading
6. Frozen
7. Taste Revenge
MACABRE:
1. Zodiac
2. Nero’s Inferno
3. Dr. Holmes (He Stripped Their Bones)
4. Albert Was Worse Than Any Fish in the Sea
5. Scrub a Dub Dub
6. Ed Gein
7. The Iceman
8. The Bloody Benders
AMON AMARTH:
1. The Pursuit of Vikings
2. As Loke Falls
3. First Kill
4. The Way of Vikings
5. At Dawn’s First Light
6. Cry of the Black Birds
7. Deceiver of the Gods
8. Tattered Banners and Bloody Flags
9. Destroyer of the Universe
10. Death in Fire
11. Father of the Wolf
12. Runes to My Memory
13. War of the Gods
— encore 1 —
14. Raise Your Horns
15. Guardians of Asgard
— encore 2 —
16. Twilight of the Thunder God
Photo Gallery
