‘No Pain No Gain’: There’s No HC Without the Pain (2013)

Name: Misþyrming (Owls Woods Graves, Profanation, Gorrch), Ljubljana (Orto bar), Slovenia
Start: 2026-10-20
End: 2026-10-20
Location: Orto bar

Arhiv Arhiv Last updated 11 June 2026

Location: Orto bar, Ljubljana, Slovenia
Concert date: 28.03.2013
Attendance: 40 – 50
Ticket price: €8

HC is a musical phenomenon you either love or organically can’t stand, and like any quality package of provocation, this music doesn’t do indifference. Honestly, years ago I was damn frustrated that quality HC wasn’t exactly abundant in Slovenia, and given the DIY ideology that still rules the genre, precious little is known even today about what’s brewing in the HC underground in our neck of the woods. That’s why huge props are due to the enthusiastic duo Dirty Skunks, who, with a vision that the genre deserves better care, and above all that young garage dreamers need a fresh gust of drive, hunger to make music and perseverance, launched the gig franchise Drunk In Public. It gave totally unestablished standard-bearers of punkish and hardcore revolt a chance to show the crowd what they’ve got at Ljubljana’s Orto. Alongside the lesser-known names, the odd big name makes the bill, and from experience so far, Thursdays are reserved for public excess of criticality and more physical gig release, and they’re among the better-attended events on this side of the Alps.

This Thursday was all about HC revelry, with a Ljubljana–Primorska crew raising the banners of revolt under one roof, bringing their know-how, connections and above all good music. Besides the local Dirty Skunks, the folks from the Hardcore Koper alliance showed off their aces too, but the stars of the night, and the concrete reason to brave Ljubljana’s crappy weather, were the British metallized HC crew Honour Your Pain. A name that basically promises nothing but total pain and soreness, and, if you took the time to listen to them over their four years of existence, above all a high-octane blend of NYHC sincerity in a more distorted flavor. So there should have been no shortage of reasons to show up at Orto, and as the first glance at the pretty solidly packed hall made clear, only a few loyal regulars of the club skunkfest chickened out, if I may joke around and play on the fact that Dirty Skunks gigs demand a whole-hearted and dedicated listener. First to test the hall’s atmosphere empirically were the Ljubljana homeboys, young old hopefuls By Default. Judging by the five-piece’s first look on stage, a carefree show was on the cards. The two guitars sound a bit raw and slightly out of tune at first, but after the opening bars of the first song it becomes clear that By Default are less a band of perfectionists and more a happy HC gang of death metal fans. Besides solid riffs and pretty average HC rhythms, the thing to point out is the charisma of the mustachioed singer, who at first sight reminds you of Dušan Dule Vaupotič, that TV character from the small screen. Instead of useful tips for fighting your way through the social jungle of an Alpine henhouse, though, Jaka Jelenc serves up a good dose of Borat-style humor, just the right amount of rough-and-ready fun for the front lines, and above all vocals that often morph from clipped HC diction into guttural “pig screams” discourse. And the recipe repeats across all the songs, which in structure recall the Gorenjska nightingales Dead Dildo Drome, only with less groove and math in the sound and more DIY abandon and directness. Still, the solid set stays in a rather foggy memory, and I learn precious little about By Default, since, despite supposedly playing together for seven years, you can find out absolutely nothing about them. No website, no FB page, and for all their good spirits they can’t offer either YouTube tracks or a record for a full-length adrenaline party within your own four walls. The ice was broken, and given the waking mood among the interactively egged-on crowd, I’d add that this HC icebreaker was a bit odd, but likeable.

From the center we then sailed closer to the coast, and the Izola crew Pay With Blood are, yes, something completely different. More polished, above all, and more concisely ambitious, and after only a year of existence the band already delivered a debut, the EP Get Mad, presented in Ljubljana as something totally fresh and breathing with potential surprises. Well, sort of, because beatdown hardcore is meant for more intense tripping out by the crowd, and the Ljubljana one is, let’s say, often sarcastic and critical of novelties. The Izola four-piece is a hyper-energetic conglomerate of metallized guitars, HC rhythms and an aggressive pose with real balls. After the opening bars of Metallica’s For Whom The Bell Tolls, instead of a metallized shiver down the spine, Pay With Blood sail into the bloody waters of First Blood. It’s obvious that guitarist Benjamin Pavliha, adorned with a Flying V Jackson that’s atypical for HC, and the muscular vocalist Rok Morgan are the main rotors of the four-piece’s hyper-energy, while the balance comes from Grega Kurtin’s solid bass line and the hard-hitting drumming of the merciless Mario Milanič. Get Mad is a pretty pissed-off little record, and after the cover opener Psx With Blood gaze into their bloody crystal balls and foretell fate with the song Your Destiny. The punchy two-step deathcore hits the heart of the evening with no reservations, and even the acrobatic stunts from a quartet ready for a physical showdown and the singer’s shirt reading “I’m here for mosh” fail to awaken the moshing spirit of the Ljubljana crowd. The devastating salvos continue after the expulsion from the circle of friends with Circle Of Friends, then Enemies, which despite thundering verses and rasping choruses doesn’t quite pay off, since there’s too much braking, too many pauses and too little of the punchy speed I got used to in HC from Sick Of It All, and even Hatebreed-style metallizing can’t take that much rigidity, which the young Izola lads compensate for with a confident and genuinely presentable stage performance. “There’s no second chance- just here and now” is the message of the “do or die” tune No Second Chance, while I’m more impressed by Truth To Be Told, but the enjoyment barometer sadly stays too much in a zone of grayness that just repeats itself, and the crowd, craving a switch-off and a good time, even sits down on the floor of Ljubljana’s Orto and paddles the concert regatta toward the last third of a so-far pretty average gig. Don’t take this as destructive criticism, because what matters here is that Pay With Blood only recently blew out the first candle on their cake, and beneath the rough edges and a not yet fully articulated musical voice there’s enough grit and potential for them to grow into a band that will help shape the Slovenian HC present. After the rather raw first step of Get Mad, I’m hoping for a bit of polishing and an even more concrete outpouring of socially critical emotion, and I’ll be paying a lot more attention to Izola from now on, and I won’t automatically link the little coastal town solely with rave excesses at the Gaviolli embassy anymore …

After two doses of homegrown, it was time for some imported island meat and blood. Honour Your Pain were a step forward in pushing the boundaries of quality and brutality in extreme beatdown and metallized HC two-step, and after three or four years of existence the Bristol five-piece know how to serve quality music, and how, with both stage presence and an uncompromising wall of sound, to go toe to toe as complete winners with more seasoned and above all better-known rivals from across the Atlantic. The opening bars of Pit Politics tip the scales toward a total switch-off. The punchy tandem of two merciless but suitably controlled distortion beasts, the guitar pair Ash Martin and Brian Perrett, is backed by the solid drums of Adam Price and the hard-hitting bass of the long-haired guy among the muscular crop-tops, bassist Matt Hill. Also impressive is the immediate connection of the emperor of vocal guttural-ness, here more in tune with HC, Nick Clay, who sets out to quite solidly rival Lou Koller. Honour Your Pain are freshly armed with their self-titled EP, and on stage, rather than a gala of recorded material or some fashion dictates already seen and heard, they deliver what they do best – brutal sincerity, passion and first-rate musical talent. The social reckoning of the working-class margins with the nonchalant and greedy emperors of the world we live in is angry and unfeigned, and after a telling run of release titles like Taking What’s Ours, Face To The Concrete and Honour Your Pain, the quintet managed in a very short time to shape itself into a guarantee that even the tiniest dive turns into a total gig meltdown – in the positive sense! Ljubljana was no exception. After Back To The Gutter and spontaneous crowd karaoke, from a crowd that this time knew what it was getting into, Orto’s microscopic universe was saturated with testosterone, the smell of sweat and totally unleashed heartfelt passion, and bodies hurled themselves into a wild tangle of circle pit contact and quality moshing. There was no weak link on the list of offerings from the mighty British quintet, and the crowd blazed under the wild narration of Between Blood And Pride, while one of the best moments of an already first-rate HC party was, at least for me, Stand Aside, during which Orto erupted into a self-destructive chest-to-chest clash in an uncompromising wall of death! Sexy rubble and pure-blooded passion, cut thick and with no reserves, have definitely carved the Bristol first-rate HC crew onto my wall of this year’s gig heroes, and as for the promise that we won’t be left unsatisfied or static, I can only confirm that these guys don’t talk big and aren’t selling fake flowers!

After a good hour of truly brutal stage action, very little was left unsaid. Spontaneous below-the-stage excursions into realms of total switch-off are proof that good things can sometimes leave you with a sore neck and head, but this month’s HC event in March claimed no worse injuries or bigger casualties. I have to admit I went home totally delighted and happy, and the reason was that the island orators of metallized HC fully met the high standards of the gig discourse. The metal is here only to reinforce the undertones, otherwise Honour Your Pain are a band radiating the complete HC nature of a muscular beast, meant for settling scores with systemic irregularities, anomalies and injustice, and in a fully revolted way making sure you won’t fall asleep on the social margins and settle for static oozing under the pressure of capitalist pigs. We’ve got plenty of good stuff at home too, whether you comb the coastal towns like Izola or peek into the underground of the Slovenian metropolis. They’d just need a bit more support, determination and stage hardening, and events like the Drunk In Public gigs represent at least a fraction of that process of quality growth. And instead of getting drunk on hop extracts, what matters more for the crowd here is getting drunk on good music and the right rhythms. The challenge we can always set ourselves is this: can we surpass what we’ve seen and heard on this side of the Alps too? I think we can, but it’ll take a bit more practice and determination. That’s the imperative dictated by the times we live in. They demand excellence and above-averageness, and with a bit more of the “blood, sweat and tears” triplet, the opening acts and the now milk-toothed lads can grow into real men and HC titans. I’d gladly live to see that time and that event, and I’m convinced we can and know how to make it happen in very short order! I hope I haven’t miscalculated too badly here …