Thursday in Tolmin promised hellish heat again, and the organizers warned festival-goers about it too. In weather like this, the nearby river and the free drinking water all over the festival grounds come in really handy. Thursday was also without a doubt the day with the strongest lineup, and you could feel it in the crowd, which grew noticeably compared to the previous days. For the first time this year, the festival buzz really kicked in.
On day four, the main stage was opened by Slovenian death metallers Morost, who last played here last year on the New Forces stage. In the serious heat, the band tried their hardest to get their material across, a mix of death metal and black metal, with a touch of doom metal melancholy in there too. It’s a pretty dynamic and promising thing, but in conditions like these the band had a hard time showing all their aces. There’s definitely potential, they just need a bit more mileage and another album or two before people can really get a proper grip on them.
We kicked off day four in the early afternoon on the BB stage with Mexican melodic death metallers Orcus O Dis, who played the New Forces stage last year, sold an enviable number of tickets and earned themselves a slot on the bigger stage. This year the guys came back to Metaldays in a slightly reduced lineup, without keyboardist Jesus Fuentes, with Eduardo Cuadros (Behold the Grave) stepping in on bass. The cabrones had the thankless job of playing first, when the grounds were still practically empty, but their energy quickly drew a nice number of people to the front and got them moving and moshing without much trouble. Without keyboards, Orcus O Dis sounded a bit rawer and more primal this time, frontman Alfredo commanded his boys well with his harsh vocals, and they proved themselves instrumentally too, especially the guitar duo Emmanuel Gonzalez/Markus Banda with a few lovely moves. Orcus O Dis scratched the itch for a solid dose of melodic death metal à la early Dark Tranquillity and delivered a very good opener to the second-to-last day of the festival.
Second up on the BB stage were England’s Heart of a Coward. The name alone sounds pretty metalcore, but the music itself is actually more hard-hitting than that. The band came back this year with the album The Disconnect, which also introduced a new vocalist. If it looked like this would be just another heat-weary band funneling everything into breakdowns, it luckily turned out to be something quite different. Heart of a Coward delivered their material without compromise, the breakdowns were heavy, and the power of the eight-string guitars thundered across the whole grounds. There’s nothing to fault the band for. The show was energetic and aggressive enough that fans of modern metal welcomed them with open arms.
English death metal outfit Bloodshot Dawn has already played in Slovenia, but this time they got the chance to play for a bigger crowd. The band, with three albums behind them, served up some pretty fast-fingered death metal with plenty of melody. They’re undeniably tight, and the big stage didn’t cause them any trouble. Their melodies are catchy, which draws the listener in. But for more than half the show the band sounded pretty bad. One guitar wasn’t working at all at the start. Around the halfway mark the sound got fixed, but it still wasn’t loud enough to really get excited about them. Next time, here’s hoping for a show on the BB stage, since they fit stylistically right in there.
While the two main festival stages were drowning in the sweat of symphonic and metalcore acts, the smallest of the three was taken over by Novo mesto’s rock hopefuls Captain Morgan’s Revenge. Despite the unfavorable hour, when the Soča is still busier than the area in front of the stages, the guys from Dolenjska managed to draw a nice crowd, who visibly enjoyed the great energy coming off the stage. As expected, the guys presented their debut Queen of the Night, which, with a modern hard rock approach most reminiscent of Black Stone Cherry, slightly Southern sounds (American, just to be clear), dirty riffs and just-hard-enough rhythms, makes sure this genre stays relevant.
Grind feels right at home on the BB stage, and the crowd takes to it well too. In previous years the grounds got filled with poop, toilet bowls and toilet paper by Spasm, Gutalax and Jig-Ai, and this year the cunnilingus was courtesy of Dutch goregrinders Cliteater. Already during the sampled South Park monologue about anuses, dongs and duodenums, a nice crowd armed with toilet paper rolls and covered in plush poops streamed onto the grounds, and in three quarters of an hour Cliteater played a set of classic grind with ultra-short, lightning-fast tracks.
Judging by the crowd’s reaction, one of the most anticipated bands of this year’s festival were Polish technical death metal maniacs Decapitated, living proof of will and perseverance, since despite all the shit they’ve gone through over their career, they keep going their own way without mercy. The Poles already blew people away last year at Metaljot raspaljot in Laško, and at Metaldays it was no different, as they caused a real tornado of mosh pits and a huge wall of death in front of the stage. Decapitated reportedly had close to 50 degrees Celsius on stage, but that didn’t stop them from putting on one of the stormiest sets of this year’s festival. Guitarist Vogg is to be admired not just for the willpower it took to find the strength to carry on with Decapitated after the tragic death of his brother Vitek, but above all for his unique, distinctive guitar work, which includes not only hurricane riffs but also varied, colorful solos. Vocalist Rafal killed the crowd with excellent versions of the wreckers Kill the Cult, Never, Earth Scar and the obligatory anthem Spheres of Madness, while drummer James Stewart (Vader) proved with his devastating drumming that he’s the best Decapitated drummer after Vitek and Krimh (a shame he’s only temporary for now). With the cult Spheres of Madness, Decapitated delivered the earthquake Uroš had predicted and played one of the best shows of this year’s festival.
While Decapitated were hammering away mercilessly on the main stage, Skeletal Remains were getting ready on the BB stage. Skeletal Remains is a band where fans of old-school death metal really got their fill. It’s kind of unusual in its own way that anyone still plays this stuff, but the band clearly swears by the recipe of the legendary death metal bands that started out in the mid-eighties and peaked in the nineties. You could hear influences from early Death, Obituary, Morbid Angel, Monstrosity and so on. All you can expect is a “punch” with no frills and no unnecessary extras. It’s definitely worthy of respect that someone still takes on playing classic death metal. The question is whether the band will stick around or suffer the same fate as the revivalist thrash metal bands.
Soilwork are old friends of the festival. They first played here back in 2006. This time they had a slightly less scorching slot. The band presented their current album Verkligheten, which got relatively good reactions. Of course, it wasn’t without the band’s staples like Nerve, Stabbing the Drama, Like the Average Stalker and Death in General. The setlist was short and focused on the new album. It was played solidly, but Soilwork are capable of much more. Their Metaldays show felt routine and somehow didn’t convince. The heat was obviously getting to them too. Soilwork can still show a solid amount of melodic death, but for anything more the band needs a chance in a club with a longer setlist, where they’d also touch on some older albums.
Probably the biggest black metal name of this year’s Metaldays was Kristian Eivind Espedal, better known as Gaahl, former Gorgoroth vocalist and known for his infamous interview in the documentary Metal: A Headbanger’s Journey. The controversial Gaahl withdrew from the music scene entirely in the summer of 2009, returned among the living three years later with the debut God Seed, I Begin, and this year released the debut album of his “solo” project Gaahls Wyrd, GastiR – Ghosts Invited. Gaahl, totally typical for him, marched onto the stage in a black leather jacket and covered in corpse paint, and didn’t say a single word to the crowd the whole time. Gaahl gave Metaldays a kind of cross-section of his career, playing Gorgoroth as well as God Seed and Trelldom tracks, though sadly only three songs from the current album. A shame, since it’s a very good record, just like his show in Tolmin was.
Swedish atmospheric/melodic death metallers Hypocrisy deserve a special status at this festival. They did come back after years of inactivity, but they earned their legendary status in 2004, when they played the first Metalcamp in a wild downpour. Hypocrisy are back. And not for the first time! The question arises whether the band can justify its reputation. Actually, it can. The band’s form is no longer top-notch, but as a whole it convinces. The tightness isn’t slipping, and Peter Tägtgren’s voice has held up despite all the boozing. For the most part, Hypocrisy served up a solid “greatest hits” setlist. With the opener Fractured Millenium, where the morbid keyboards stand out, the band shifted into a higher gear and offered up a few newer things. During Eraser the crowd sang the chorus loudly, and Peter was thrown off mid-scream by a fly that blocked his vocals, which was pretty comical. They even touched on the first two albums, Penetralia and Osculum Obscenum, paying tribute to the old fans. Apocalypse and The Fourth Dimension came down at a doomier tempo and in a morbid tone. The setlist was predictable. Hypocrisy don’t usually skip tracks like Fire in the Sky, Warpath, The Final Chapter and Roswell 47, which they often use to close their shows. Hypocrisy are not to be written off. A new album is in the works, which will bring a bit of freshness to the classic setlist. So the comeback after the new album will be more than welcome.
The second-to-last day of the festival was closed out on the Lemmy stage by the Hansi Kürsch/Jon Schaffer duo project, Demons & Wizards. Considering the band has only two albums to its name, it was a bit of a surprise to see them take the headliner slot so easily, but then again, a project from the main men of Blind Guardian and Iced Earth was always going to be in high demand. Especially since almost fifteen years have passed since the last studio album, Touched By The Crimson King. Skepticism or not, Demons & Wizards made it clear from the very first bars why they’re the headliner. The stage was downright majestic and reminded us of the one King Diamond treated himself to on the same stage a few years back. Stairs, crosses, stone elements. But even that would’ve been just kitsch if the band had sounded like crap, and they were nowhere near that, since Hansi, Jon and their helpers were in top form, with Hansi in particular delivering an outstanding vocal performance. Demons and Wizards greeted Tolmin with a classic from the debut, Heaven Denies, and then, in a little under an hour and a half, played most of the songs from both albums, sprinkling in a few Blind Guardian and Iced Earth classics along the way. Welcome to Dying in Valhalla, a track “better than both of the project bosses’ bands,” as Hansi joked, got an excellent response from the crowd, as did Burning Times and I Died For You, though those two wore Hansi out quite a bit more. Still, Demons and Wizards shone brightest with their own songs, led by the trio of Crimson King, The Gunslinger and Terror Train, whose creation was inspired by Stephen King’s epic saga The Dark Tower, especially because the choir parts were performed live, which gave the whole thing an even more mighty look. The acoustic stroll down the yellow brick road, or rather with Wicked Witch, was pure magic, and all too soon Hansi and Jon led the crowd to the finish with the epic Fiddler on the Green. They could easily have played a song or two more, or even debuted a track from the upcoming record, which is due out next year. Still, by far the best headliner performance of Metaldays 2019.
The fourth day was closed out on the BB stage by God Is An Astronaut. This is a band that has already played a packed Kino Šiška several times. Stylistically, they don’t really fit the concept of a metal festival. But for calming down all that brutality, God Is An Astronaut were more than fitting. These days the band is counted among the main representatives of post-rock. They did have their moments of loudness and distortion, but what really enchanted was the calm that built up through each entire song. Nothing you couldn’t hear from Neurosis, but GIAA don’t put rawness front and center. With hypnotic guitars and keyboards they achieved a lot, and the lighting helped too, making the whole thing that much more convincing. The band is undoubtedly experienced, and managing to win over a metal festival crowd deserves a lot of respect.
Photos Orcus O Dis, Heart of a Coward, Bloodshot Dawn, Cliteater, Decapitated, Soilwork, Liquid Graveyard, Hypocrisy, Gaahls Wyrd: Nina Grad
Photos Morost, Hydra, Captain Morgan’s Revenge, Fallen Arise, Decapitated, Skeletal Remains, Soilwork, Hypocrisy, Demons & Wizards, God is an Astronaut: Sebastijan Videc
Video: Sebastijan Videc
Text Captain Morgan’s Revenge: Sebastijan Videc
Text Morost, Heart of a Coward, Bloodshot Dawn, Skeletal Remains, Soilwork, Hypocrisy, God Is An Astronaut: Primož Novak
Text Orcus O Dis, Cliteater, Decapitated, Gaahls Wyrd, Demons & Wizards: Rok Klemše
