Location: Ljubljana / Orto bar / Slovenia
Date: Thursday, 01.06.2017
Ego in a band is a huge problem, and it’s been proven time and time again. If I stick to metal alone, there have been quite a few cases of ex-members snitching and suing each other lately. Off the top of my head I can name at least Entombed/Entombed A.D. and Abbath/Immortal, and by the looks of it Morbid Angel/I Am Morbid too. One of the biggest death metal bands of all time has a colorful history, at least when it comes to singer David Vincent. Vincent first left the band in 1997 and returned in 2005, and in 2011 he also put out the infamous Illud Divinum Insanus. The love between Vincent and Trey Azagthoth ended again two years ago and the Morbid Angel wagon split in two. One carries on under the original name with returnee Steve Tucker, while Vincent runs with the I Am Morbid project, and last Thursday he brought the blasphemy to Ljubljana with it.
First up on stage, probably on a pay-to-play basis, were California folk/thrash metallers Helsott, which means “deadly disease” in Old Norse. They didn’t exactly win over the sparse crowd, but the guys on stage lived up to their name perfectly. Static, monotonous, tired and bored. They convinced exactly one person down in front, while the other ten people watching Helsott were bored to tears by generic, worn-out folk metal that sounds closer to Germany than to California. Every now and then a melody did sound pleasant to the ear, but the band was missing nothing but a tin whistle to reach full folk cheesiness, to borrow Dihur’s description of the first opener.
The amount of energy put out by the next act, cult American death metal veterans Necrophagia, was at a similar level to the openers, but musically it was a whole different story. Necrophagia, led by the last remaining founding member, vocalist Killjoy, are considered one of the founders of the death metal genre, and definitely the founders of “horror metal.” Thanks to the cult name, a fairly sizable crowd was waiting for the band down in front, including the Dickless Tracy trio in the first row, and Necrophagia wrapped Orto in guts, blood and offal for three quarters of an hour. Killjoy and his boys served up primitive butchery from most of their albums, and made up for the lack of energy with great sound and a solid show. For the latter we can thank mostly the guitarist, who wandered across the strings as nimbly as zombies across human carcasses in Fulci’s gore-fests, and the drummer, who pounded the skins without a shred of mercy. Necrophagia said goodbye to Ljubljana with the cult Cannibal Holocaust, and I hope they’ll treat themselves to our stages again someday.
Whatever the recent drama, the fact is that David Vincent was, is and remains the number one voice of Morbid Angel. The lineup he put together for I Am Morbid isn’t bad either – the outstanding Tim Yeung sat behind the drums again, and the axes were slung over the necks of Ira Black (ex-Vicious Rumors, ex-Heathen, ex-Lizzy Borden) and Bill Hudson (Circle II Circle, Jon Oliva’s Pain, U.D.O.). Well, this time only the first, since Thursday’s gig got a bit stuck in the throat mainly because of the latter’s absence. The missing guitar was really noticeable, and the band offering neither the promoter nor the crowd an explanation or an apology wasn’t exactly cool. But if we overlook that, there’s not much to blame Vincent and his morbid crew for, since the performance of classic material from the legendary quartet of Altars of Madness, Blessed are the Sick, Covenant and Domination was pretty much flawless. Vincent’s vocals are still in great shape, between songs he still hits the crowd with his trademark black humor in that deep voice, Yeung pounded the drums like an animal (though with a lot less feel than Sandoval), and Black handled his job confidently, assuredly and energetically. Still, during the solos the lack of rhythm guitar lines was sorely felt, and Vincent’s bass playing couldn’t make up for them. Judging by the advertised running time, the trio also cut their set quite short. This time Vincent earns a 3+ for what he showed us, and if he comes back next time with the full lineup, that grade could go a lot higher.
avtor: Rok Klemše
fotografije: Nina Grad
