Author: Rok Klemše
Photos: Nina Grad
Location: Ljubljana, KUD France Prešeren
Concert date: February 24, 2011
Attendance: 150
Ticket price: €10
Slovenia’s homegrown metal champions Noctiferia are without a doubt the most active Slovenian band on stages all over Europe. They were forged in the waters of orthodox black metal on their first record, Baptism at Savica Fall, but with each following release they’ve fearlessly experimented and explored new musical horizons. After the cult technical death metal masterpiece Per Aspera, the band drifted off into waters mixed with industrial and electronic influences. And if they were still somewhat searching for themselves with the new sound on Slovenska morbida, they took their niche to perfection on the new record Death Culture. No matter which Noctiferia era you’re a fan of, there’s no denying the high quality of everything Noctiferia have put out. Riding the wings of the enviable success the guys are reaping with the new album Death Culture, Noctiferia made a triumphant, if intimate, return to home stages after a long absence, at KUD France Prešeren.
First on stage were the young melodic death metal band Convulsive from Nova Gorica. A fresh-out-of-the-oven group that’s already busily racking up stage miles, they blend elements of hardcore and death metal into a basically Swedish-sounding melodic death metal (and we’re not talking the whiny, wailing Gothenburg stuff à la In Flames, but the sickness and depravity of the masters At the Gates!). Every now and then, though rarely, a breakdown joins the brutal-sounding melodies, and luckily it doesn’t spoil Convulsive’s aggression, if anything it enriches the experience. Once those guys from Gorica get going, they sting without mercy! The guitars chop and slice like Destruction’s Mad Butcher, the drummer torpedoes relentlessly, and the vocalist, with a cruel and aggressive voice, slaloms through higher screams one moment and dive-bombs with brutal deep growls the next. And despite the more modern direction of their music, Convulsive don’t bend to trends. You’ll look in vain for lovey-dovey catchy choruses in their music, because what you get is “just” varied, dynamic and raw death/thrash metal.
The next act, the Ljubljana quintet Breedlock, signaled with their very looks (the guitarist and the vocalist sporting long dreadlocks) that something quite different was coming. Even more than Convulsive, these guys swim in modern metal waters, effectively combining it with elements of several musical genres. They managed to pull together a fairly unique sound on their debut Every Man For Himself (you can get it straight from the band for 7€, at their e-mail address!), which they also properly presented at Thursday’s show. Breedlock delivered a dynamic racket enriched above all by a versatile vocalist, who goes all the way from high screams to lower growls and tops the whole thing off with rap inserts. In places the band recalls the influence of acts like Rage Against the Machine and Soulfly, spiced up with tricks from more modern bands like Otep. Breedlock proved their debut is worth a listen. The static stage presence and the vocalist’s slightly awkward banter were a bit off-putting, but this band is also only just building up its live mileage, and they’ll get the chance to fix those “blunders”, if I may call them that.
Right after the intro that played before the members of Noctiferia took the stage, the atmosphere in the KUD France Prešeren hall made it clear that something big was coming. With the crushing Terror from the new album Death Culture, the veterans of the Slovenian metal scene took their places and covered us for an hour and a half with a massive curtain of sound made of quality death and industrial metal. Strict, flawless professionalism radiates from the stage a mile away and reflects the quality, long-running work of the band. Still, you can’t say Noctiferia put on any kind of lofty, snobbish airs, because for that hour and a half the guys live only for the stage and nothing is left to chance. Each in their own way, the band members are an unerring whole without which the band wouldn’t breathe so mightily, and each in their own way is a master of their instrument. The eyes couldn’t get enough and the ears couldn’t take in enough of the merciless torpedoing of drum wizard Matjaž Gergeta. The way the skins and cymbals cracked, and the way the foundations of KUD shook under the monumental, inhuman playing of the octopus man. Guru Igor Nardin instantly grabs attention with fantastic, mystical and in places oriental-sounding solos and phenomenal riffs, while frontman Gianni Poposki provides the liveliest and most dynamic part of Noctiferia’s stage show. Besides the beastly vocals and rehearsed, pre-planned but very fitting banter between songs, Gianni also takes care of the band’s new, upgraded sound. Every so often he strolls to the back of the stage, grabs the drumsticks and lays down colorful “tribal” drumming that enriches an already rich and mighty sound. This time Noctiferia clearly put the biggest emphasis on the current record Death Culture, and tracks from the Slovenska morbida album weren’t missing either, while as both an aperitif and a dessert, Noctiferia served up a trio of songs from the cult Per Aspere. It was a feast for the eyes, so to speak, to hear Grief to Master and God’s Debris next to the unfailing staple Fond of Lies. The truly high volume also made sure we remembered the Noctiferia show well into the next day.
With the KUD show, Noctiferia delivered one of the best live performances by the band that yours truly can remember. It’s a pleasure to watch the band do its job on stage so professionally and with such confidence, and that alone is proof that clearly explains why Noctiferia is one of the biggest metal acts on the home scene. The heralds of death culture more than deserved their second place for best industrial album of 2010, awarded by the readers of the webzine Metalstorm.ee! Welcome to the death culture!
Photos: Nina Grad
Setlist
NOCTIFERIA:
1. Terror
2. Slavedriver
3. Delluders & Followers
4. Evil vs. Evil
5. Bring Out the Beast 6.
Non Individuum
7. Catharsis
8. Demoncracy
9. Demagog
10. Monarch
11. Grief to Master
12. God’s Debris
13. Forebang
14. Samsara
15. Mara
16. Fond of Lies
17. Navras
Photo gallery
