Author: Rok Klemše
Photos: Nina Grad
Location: Orto bar / Ljubljana
Concert date: June 20, 2014
Now we can finally start counting down the days to Metaldays 2014, which looks set to be the most successful edition of the festival so far. Just over three weeks to go and we’ll once again be dunking our butts in the Soča, drowning our throats in something else, and plunging our ears back into a rich, wide-ranging lineup of bands playing across two stages over five days, in hell above paradise. But there’s still just under a month until then, and last Friday hell opened early, also on two stages, at Ljubljana’s Orto bar. The American duo of Battlecross and Huntress rolled into town, and for the official warm up party they were joined by six local bands who »battled it out« for a spot at Metaldays 2015 (though it’d be wrong to call it a real competition, since the bands were all about camaraderie and watched each other’s sets).
The ice was broken by technical death/thrash outfit Cordura, who dropped their debut Astral Projection a good month ago. The guys showed off staggering technical chops and polished instrument work, and surprised with a few genuinely good tracks, mostly thanks to their sheer complexity. What won us over was Tim’s rock-solid riff sawing, a good rhythm section, and Nejc’s energetic, versatile vocals, which sound a lot, a lot better than Cesar’s on the album. Cordura sound even better live than on record in places, shining brightest in parts like the »Schuldiner«-sounding solo and the tapping battle between bass and guitar. Despite the solid performance, though, Cordura still need a few more miles on the clock. Once they’ve racked up enough, they’ll be able to truly explode on stage.
Cordura passed the baton to Era of Hate, a melodic death metal band from Gorenjska who lean heavily on the Swedish melodic death sound a la Amon Amarth. You can tell the guys know their instruments, but the riffs are mostly dry, generic and boring, and the songs often feel like a bunch of bits randomly stuck together into a whole. No, Era of Hate don’t have any progressive flavor to them, just an aftertaste of stuff you’ve already heard elsewhere, and the guitar lines, which should be carrying the music here, are pretty weak. The vocal work is very solid, but sadly the vocals quickly get monotonous too, since the screaming stays in the same range the whole time. Era of Hate are very confident and self-assured on stage, but the music sadly lacks a lot more originality and insight.
Meanwhile, downstairs, the death metal butchers Vasectomy from Prekmurje had already sharpened their scalpels. We hadn’t seen them in Ljubljana in quite a while. The guys were greeted in front of the stage by loyal fans, and although there weren’t exactly many of them, they dutifully obeyed the energetic frontman’s orders for circle pits and even a wall of death. Vasectomy impressed with simple but punchy, raw-sounding death metal that’s close to the Swedish school. The guitar riffs are lively and butcher-like, though they could use more depth and a sharper sound, and with no bass guitar to speak of, you miss some extra punch and grease here and there. Still, the flaws never really make it to the front, mostly thanks to Patrik’s brutal vocal assault and excellent, strong communication with the crowd. »She was a whore. So I killed her!«
Upstairs, the metal marathon was continued by by far the most experienced band of the night, Sabaium from Štajerska. They’ve been going nonstop for more than fifteen years, and it shows on stage: the band hit us with excellent sound and an outstanding performance, honestly the best I’ve ever seen Sabaium play. Credit goes first and foremost to Milko Kraner’s charismatic vocals, whose clean singing was complemented very nicely by the growling voices of Jure and David, and every now and then Milko knocked our socks off with his surprisingly brutal growl. Sabaium also put real effort into the song selection and pleasantly surprised with fantastic takes on old classics like Black Heart from the debut Embrace With Silence and Tiha pesem from Beyond…, and if I’m not mistaken, the new track Forgotten Shadow promises great things.
Downstairs, Panikk then got the thrash rhythms spinning. They’re still flying high on the wings of their debut Unbearable Conditions, and they recently welcomed a new drummer, Črt Valentić (Mephistophelian), with whom they played their first live show this time. With Črt, Panikk sound even more destructive, since the drumming has been taken up a level, and despite somewhat worse sound, the guys won us over again by bulldozing through with fat, massive groove parts. The self-assured Gapa has become a really convincing frontman, and energy just erupts out of him on stage. Just like the aggressive guitar lines and masterful bass lines erupt.
Upstairs, the last of the local bands to play was groove/thrash outfit Rise from Trbovlje, who have only just started building up their live mileage. Even so, they’re already completely confident on stage, but they still lack some experience, and they should shake off the very obvious influences of bands like Metallica. And with songs like Činčila and its lyrics, they’re really not doing themselves any favors.
In the basement, meanwhile, it was time for the first of the American bands, death/thrash maniacs Battlecross, whose set can only be described with one word: whoooosh! The guys unleashed an unbelievable amount of energy from the stage, riffs flew in every direction nonstop, and the rhythm section flattened everything in its path. Behind the kit sat the animal of a drummer Shannon Lucas (ex-The Black Dahlia Murder), who showed off a wide range of drumming skills, while bassist Don Slater impressed not only with his look (skullet and epic sideburns) but also with his lively, dynamic playing. The guitar duo of Hiran and Tony served up colorful, melodic riffage, and vocalist Gumby proved himself with varied screaming and growling, plus great banter and pleas for the crowd to buy him shots at the bar downstairs.
To close it out, American heavy metallers Huntress, led by Jill Janus, took the upstairs stage. Expectations were high, but we got very little. Or rather, put it like this: instrumentally the band runs like a well-oiled machine, the riffs are smooth, the solos well thought out, the bass rumbles, and the drums fluidly round out the whole sound. It all falls apart with Jill Janus’s vocals, which sound convincing on the album but turn into an indigestible mess of screaming live. On top of that, Jill tries to come across as quasi-scary with cheap make-up and silly grimaces, but the whole thing just looks ridiculous and unconvincing. Huntress did play most of the current album Starbound Beast, including Zenith and I Want To Fuck Your to Death, and added some crushers from the debut, the title track Spell Eater and Eight of Swords, but judging by what they showed, listening to them on record is where it’ll stay.
So what’s the verdict on Friday night? That Huntress are crap live, that our bands can easily hold their own against established foreign acts, and that, by the choice of the audience and the jury, the winners of the contest, who will automatically play Metaldays next year, are Panikk!
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