PAIN on a Triumphant Return, Delivering a Career-Spanning Hit Set at Ljubljana’s Cvetličarna (2023)
Artists: Ryujin (ex-Gyze) / Eleine / Ensiferum / PAIN
Date: Tuesday, October 24, 2023
Location: Ljubljana / Cvetličarna / Slovenia
PAIN in Slovenia! Yeah! What started as an innocent hobby for the legendary producer and mastermind behind Swedish death metallers Hypocrisy — the one and only Peter Tägtgren — a mere experiment in fusing the DNA of ’80s electronic music, techno, and industrial with heavy metal, ended up being a commercial success no one saw coming. After six years away, Tägtgren hit the road again for a fresh European tour billed as “I Am” (on tour), bringing along an interesting crew. The special guests are Finnish epic folk metallers Ensiferum, who bring their own enviable army of die-hard fans to the table from the get-go, while support duties go to Japanese samurai power/melodic death metallers Ryujin (recently renamed from Gyze) and Swedish symphonic power metallers Eleine. A seriously stacked lineup, all told.
And here we are again, back at Ljubljana’s Cvetličarna after what feels like forever. And it’s raining. Pouring like it’s Judgment Day. Much like back at the end of this past August, when cult American rockers Blue Öyster Cult played at Kranjčeva 20 — more specifically in the VPK MediaPark hall. Doors open at seven in the evening! The front rows are already packed with an impressive crowd waiting for the up-and-coming Japanese samurai metallers Ryujin to hit the stage. The band has actually been around since 2009 — and this is already their third name. They started out as Suicide Heaven for two years, then rebranded as Gyze, racking up four studio albums and three EPs. This year, Gyze became Ryujin and announced a self-titled debut under the new name — “Ryujin” — set to drop in mid-January 2024 via Napalm Records. The band operates as a quartet, though they took the Ljubljana stage in a slightly adjusted lineup. Vocalist and lead guitarist Ryoji Shinamoto was there, as was bassist Aruta Watanabe, but Ryoji’s brother Shujhi Shinamoto was absent from behind the kit, and I never managed to track down who’s handling rhythm guitar for Ryujin on this run. Regardless. Ryoji was absolutely in command. He showed off some serious guitar wizardry and convincingly alternated between clean vocals and growls. And you can tell this isn’t his first rodeo — he worked the crowd without a moment’s hesitation. Agile bassist Aruta (decked out in battle colours, red hair tied up in a topknot) owned his share of the stage too. All in all, a tight, well-drilled performance of samurai metal. The guys even wear samurai garb, and the music regularly drifts into territory drawing from traditional Japanese melodies — though at its core this is power metal. At moments, blisteringly fast. Ryoji, as mentioned, is an exceptional guitarist, and he delivered a few technically jaw-dropping virtuoso lessons during the set. The band’s style also leans on occasional neo-classical touches, best showcased in the epic march Raijin & Fujin, which brought a thoroughly enjoyable set to a close. The one minor gripe? The guitar tone. It wasn’t clear enough. A shame. But that’s not on the band. Ryujin’s touring drummer for this run is Simon McKay, who has previously worked with The Agonist and also plays live drums for Inhuman Condition.
Eleine sit in the symphonic power metal camp, but on the darker end of that spectrum. At the heart of the quintet is, of course, vocalist Madeleine Liljestam, from whom the band takes its name. In nine years of activity, the band has put out four studio albums, the latest being “We Shall Remain”, dropped in mid-July of this year. Eleine have cut their teeth on the road alongside the likes of W.A.S.P., Arch Enemy, Moonspell, Sonata Arctica, and Myrath. Both guitarists play seven-string guitars in pursuit of a heavier, darker sonic picture. Unfortunately, the sound during Eleine’s set was also poorly calibrated — the guitars weren’t as defined as you’d want, and the solos suffered for it too. The band didn’t let it faze them. Madeleine’s charisma, superb vocal performance, and subtle crowd-baiting made her the undisputed focal point, and the band pulled the set off with full marks across the board. The 40-minute setlist was oriented around the current album “We Shall Remain”, from which a fired-up band delivered five of the eight songs. As mentioned — Madeleine is the key to this band!
Ensiferum! If you could still move around the Cvetličarna floor reasonably well during the Ryujin and Eleine sets, the place became absolutely rammed just before the Finnish folk metal legends took the stage. Packed solid. Everywhere. Front and back. The hall went from spacious to sardine-tin in no time. That’s all the proof you need that Ensiferum have, through years of perseverance, built up a solid fanbase that follows them faithfully — out on the road included. Ensiferum’s arrival instantly lifted the whole event to a noticeably higher level. Helped in no small part by the significantly better sound they enjoyed during their set, and by the undeniable devotion of their fans, who at moments literally carried the band on their wings with their fanatical command of every lyric. The band took up PAIN’s invitation to join the “I Am” tour to promote the still-current album “Thalassic”, though vocalist and guitarist Petri Lindroos dropped a hint during the second half of the set that the band is heading straight into the studio after this tour to record a new album. That threw further fuel onto the already blazing crowd response. Naturally, Ensiferum — that battle-hardened metal fortress held together by charismatic bassist Sami Hinkaa and vocalist/guitarist Petri Londroos — built the intensity minute by minute. The dynamics and atmosphere kept climbing, peaking in the final stretch when the band launched into their polka-vodka metal banger Lai Lai Hei and crowned the show with the crowd-pleasing staple Two Of Spades. The sound held up well too. You could tell Petri’s growls were fading slightly as the show went on, but the band handled it with no less routine — Sami stepped up more and more in the later part of the set, and the band frequently handed the vocal duties straight over to the crowd.
And PAIN, of course! PAIN are a curious thing. You either love them or you hate them. There’s no middle ground. So it made perfect sense that among the crowd that evening were plenty of people who also listen to the likes of Ministry and Marilyn Manson — Rammstein naturally included. But hold on. PAIN are their own story, with their own fanbase. And it was immediately clear what everyone had come to Cvetličarna for that evening. Their dose of PAIN. First things first, though. Tägtgren is an incredibly busy man. Constantly. Just take the Lindemann project, where he joined forces with the iconic Rammstein frontman Till Lindemann. It’s from that very project that Tägtgren drew the musicians who make up the quartet for the “I Am” tour: his son Sebastian Tägtgren on drums, bassist Jonathan Olsson on bass, and guitarist Sebastian Svalland.
With PAIN, Tägtgren used this tour primarily as a kind of reaffirmation. Hence naming it “I Am” — it seems he intends to put more creative focus back into PAIN in the years ahead. The setlist was built on a career-spanning greatest-hits principle — packed with fan favourites, and spiced up with two new singles, Revolution and Party In My Head. Both singles have already landed well with audiences and hint that PAIN are gearing up to record a new album. The last one — “Coming Home” — came out in 2016, which is testament to just how much Tägtgren’s attention has been pulled in other musical directions in recent years (beyond Lindemann and Hypocrisy, his production work keeps him more than busy).
Enough preamble! Let’s get into the show. There were none of the mosh pits, crowd-rolling, and general carnage that had defined the Ensiferum set. Thick fog you could cut with a knife — exactly what’s needed to set a proper industrial, dark, rhythmically hypnotic backdrop. The breaks between songs were cleverly filled with fun animations that drove home the message of each track. Career hits all round — including Call Me, backed by a full projection of the video featuring Joakim Brodén (Sabaton) as a guest vocalist. The band pulled a proper stunt. They kicked into the song, then deliberately fell apart at the chorus — a scripted trainwreck that brought everything to a halt. The moment PAIN stopped, Joakim Brodén appeared on screen and off they went. A cheeky bit of theatre that landed perfectly.
Tägtgren is an insanely charismatic stage presence. A superb performer who knows how to hypnotize, to draw you in. The man radiates magnetism. Despite the show leaning heavily on samples — which caused the sound quality to fluctuate throughout — his sheer presence is more than enough. The crowd loved it. Cvetličarna lit up completely, breathing as one with Peter. And it could have gone on all night. The combination of guitar riffs and pounding rhythm underpinned by samples pulls you into a trance, a kind of blissful dissociation. And through all of it, the real party — the switch-off that PAIN came to deliver. The crowd left well and truly satisfied.
Over the years PAIN have woven a hefty dose of sharp, knowing humour into their live shows, and you can tell Tägtgren has picked up a good deal of stagecraft from hanging around with Till Lindemann in recent years. Goes without saying that he was dressed as a lavishly painted zombie, draped in hanging, rotting rags. It simply comes with the territory at a PAIN show.
This event at Ljubljana’s Cvetličarna was pulled off brilliantly. Across the board. The turnout was fantastic, and that fed positively into the bands’ moods — most notably reflected in the Ensiferum and PAIN sets. Apart from the weather, absolutely nothing went wrong this time — and nothing did!
One more thing. If you’ve been coming to shows at Kranjčeva 20 by car lately, expect trouble getting home if you parked in the paid lot in front of the venue. Not because parking is expensive — the problem is that people in the queue can’t reach the barrier within 15 minutes of paying at the machine. Which means the moment the first car (even one that has paid) pulls up to the barrier 16 or more minutes after paying, it creates absolute chaos in the car park. The fix is simple enough in theory — whether it’ll actually happen is another matter, because, sad as it is, this is just the way things are in Slovenia. All it would take is lifting the barrier permanently and bringing in attendants to collect the fee the moment people pull in. People would gladly pay more than the going rate just to leave in peace after a show. Especially if they’ve driven over from Italy, Austria, or Croatia. The rage and grumbling in the car park went on well into the night after the PAIN show, same as always.
Author: Edita Klemen & Aleš Podbrežnik
Photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
Ryujin:
1. Last Insanity
2. Eastern Spirits
3. Samurai Metal
4. Dragon Calling
5. Raijin & Fujin
Eleine:
1. Enemies
2. Never Forget
3. We Are Legion
4. War Das Alles
5. Blood in Their Eyes
6. Ava of Death
7. We Shall Remain
8. Death Incarnate
Ensiferum:
1. Andromeda
2. In My Sword I Trust
3. Run From the Crushing Tide
4. For Sirens
5. Twilight Tavern
6. Heathen Horde
7. One Man Army
8. Lai Lai Hei
9. Two of Spades
PAIN:
1. Let Me Out
2. End of the Line
3. Nailed to the Ground
4. The Great Pretender
5. Call Me
6. Walking on Glass
7. Revolution
8. Zombie Slam
9. Suicide Machine
10. Monkey Business
11. Coming Home
12. Have a Drink on Me
13. Same Old Song
14. It’s Only Them
15. Bye/Die
16. Gimme Shelter
—encore—
17. Party in My Head
18. I’m Going In
19. Shut Your Mouth
