Author: Rok Klemše
Photos: Nina Grad
Venue: Gala Hala, Ljubljana
Concert date: July 8, 2012
Attendance: 120
Have you seen the documentary Life After People, which shows what would happen to Earth if all humans suddenly vanished? Within just a few decades, every building, every product of human hands, would start crumbling to dust, branches would swallow the bridges, all the records of humankind would slowly turn to ash and dust, and nature would become master of the planet once again. That’s pretty much what Gala Hala looked like on Sunday, July 8th, when the herald of the inevitable end came crashing in like a meteor: the tour The End of Humanity 2012, with technical death metal lunatics Origin and death metal giants Suffocation.
Before the end, of course, the obligatory support bands had their say too, with Slaughter of Denial as the third opener. First on stage were Canadian technical death metal trio Unbreakable Hatred. We’re more than used to technical and progressive metal bands coming out of Canada (Quo Vadis, Neuraxis, Martyr, Cryptopsy and a whole little ocean of others), so these Canadians weren’t exactly a big surprise either. In just under half an hour they strung together a handful of complex, jagged riffs, growled vocals and fairly original, of course richly overcomplicated drum fills. It all would have been pretty listenable and mind-bending if the (probably deaf) sound guy hadn’t cranked the volume knob up to 11. Staying in the hall for more than a few minutes was downright painful, and on top of that the brutal volume buried the drumming completely.
Finland’s Re-Armed did even worse. They play some kind of mix of death and thrash metal and were presenting their recently released debut Worldwide Hypnotize, but more than anything that mix sounded awkward, unconvincing and muddled. Just like the vocalist with his broken English and the bassist, who looked like he’d been plucked out of some totally different band.
The real death metal slaughterhouse finally kicked off with American technical »out-of-this-world« lunatics Origin. They’re becoming a fixture on Slovenian stages, since you can catch them here every few months, but they’re one of the few bands that are a pleasure to see live every single time. Origin are still touring their current record Entity, and once again they wrapped us in black, otherworldly chaos like the monolith from 2001: A Space Odyssey. From the first notes Origin sent the hall into unstoppable headbanging, and soon into mosh pits that seemed to have no end. The intensity of the show admittedly wasn’t quite as insane as last time, when Origin played alongside Tasmanian devils Psycroptic, but charismatic frontman Jason Keyser made sure the heat kept rising steadily and constantly. Keyser again toyed with the crowd like it was nothing, and they followed his every command and tore up mosh and circle pits with ease. Only with stage diving were they a bit shyer this time. The menacing monster that is Origin descended on Gala Hala with an almost identical setlist to last time, which is the only real minus of this show, as we were once again treated to inhumanly complex tracks full of wild bass lines from Mike Flores (who, judging by what we saw, definitely isn’t from this planet), ungodly fast arpeggio riffs from Paul Ryan and the sick drumming of John Longstreth, who must have been hiding an extra pair of arms and legs somewhere behind the kit. The brutality peaked when Jason, Mike and Paul all growled in perfect sync, all three at once, and Keyser had the crowd going into a circle pit in silence with no effort at all, before throwing himself off the stage at the end. The entity known as Origin once again delivered a top-notch show, and the walls of Gala Hala were dripping with sweat!
Last time death metal excellence Suffocation played here, we were jumping around with joy like a little girl who just got a Hello Kitty lollipop. This time was a bit different. The band’s recent split with phenomenal drummer Mike Smith left an extremely bitter taste. Sure, there are plenty of drummers out there today who can play such technically demanding music, but Smith was the real Suffocation identity and did a lot more than just bang the drums. Even more worrying was the vocalist’s absence this time: Frank »The Tank« Mullen had to skip a tour with his band for the second time because of obligations at home. And if there’s one thing I can’t picture, it’s Suffocation without the unique presence of the unforgettable Mullen. But the band (almost) managed to dispel the doubts with the very first bars of Thrones of Blood. There was certainly no doubt that Suffocation sound earth-shattering like an earthquake, brutal like war and menacing like the horsemen of the apocalypse. Terrance Hobbs again sawed heads off with jagged, crushing riffs like it was nothing, passing them back and forth like a blade with Guy Marhais, while the rhythm section thundered beneath the pronounced bass lines of Derek Boyer and new drummer Dave Culross (ex-Pyrexia, ex-HatePlow, ex-Malevolent Creation, who recorded the EP Despise the Sun with Suffocation), who stepped confidently and successfully into Mike Smith’s shoes. The bigger question was how Bill Robinson would do, the vocalist of American brutal technicians Decrepit Birth (where Boyer plays too). Robinson didn’t set up a barrel on stage and light a fire in it (he did, after all, live voluntarily as a hobo for more than a decade and grew weed to get by; what else), but he did surprise with a serious growl that even Frank The Tank would be proud of. The only downside was that the vocals were mixed so badly you could barely hear him, but he made up for it with excellent banter between songs, and he didn’t forget to pay tribute to Mullen’s famous gesture of chopping the air with his hand. The cherry on top was the excellent setlist, which mostly dipped into the albums Effigy of the Forgotten and Pierced From Within, two records that are, by a wide margin, two of the best death metal albums of all time. Despite a thoroughly shaken-up lineup, Suffocation managed to prove they’re still the kings of death metal, but I’m already looking forward to the tour when Frank Mullen is back on stage with his brothers.
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