Author: Rok Klemše
Location: Ljubečna, Celje
Concert date: 13.08.2009
Attendance: 0
Ah, how lovely it is to wake up when breakfast is half-price beer and First Strike drag you out of bed at ten in the morning, in a morning fog that would’ve suited some black metal band way better. Since their mix of hard rock and more modern metal with Siddharta-style vocals didn’t win me over, I went off to brush my teeth and clean myself up for the set by Sevnica grinders Septic Scum. They stepped in for the Austrian band Carignan, who had dropped out, and the replacement was undoubtedly way more than just great. The guys happily grinded their way into noon, and the combo of wrecking blast beats, grind-sharpened guitars and, on top of it all, two seriously good growling vocalists was reason enough for a few more people to gather in front of the stage. One last question for Septic Scum, the one we’ve been pestering them with since day one: when’s the album coming out?!
Time for lunch, and with a glass of bubbly (the hop kind) a varied à la carte gourmet selection hit the spot, led by the head chef’s specialty: oven-baked chicken cubes with Arabic spices, crunchy bread and a selection of the finest vegetables. Um… sorry for my lapse, but no joke, the kebab was excellent despite the slightly higher price, you wrestled with it for a good half hour, and even Gordon Ramsay would have gone quiet over it. I digested it happily during the set by Rijeka metallers The Scourge, who with an energetic blast of excellent death/thrash metal made sure we didn’t get lazy after the meal but got moving in the moshpit and even a wall of death. The guys have been racking up lots of gig mileage lately, which shows above all in how tight they are; at moments the only thing that bugs me is how static the band members are. But all is forgotten when a passing guitar passage hits you from one side, with the fantastic interweaving riffs of both guitars, and from the other you get two dynamic vocals traded between guitarist Matjaž and bassist Jernej. The Scourge played a nice chunk of songs from their freshly released demo and, for the send-off, threw in some Pantera.
Keller, straight out of the cellars of the Primorska coast and onto the stage, delivered a thrash massacre in the truest sense of the word. “The German Style!” Something along the lines of Kreator and early Exodus with a big dose of their own aggression, Keller are a pure thrasher blast. First and foremost that’s down to the rhythm section, with Vasko on bass, whose fingers race along the neck like tanks across Kursk, and Vinko behind the kit, as destructive as the artillery at Stalingrad. Then there are the two cranked-up guitars playing dynamic, varied thrash riffs that cut like freshly sharpened bayonets. The result can only be mosh, mosh and a little more mosh! The guys get tighter from gig to gig, and even technical problems don’t stop them when Martin bellows out one of the songs that are becoming Slovenian thrash classics. Keller Command!
Tasmanian devils Psycroptic were the first bigger international name of Friday afternoon. As if on cue, just as the wild Aussies took the stage, the sky opened up, and since we metalheads are made of sugar, only a handful of the biggest diehards stuck it out in front of the stage. On their latest record, (Ob)Servant, Psycroptic proved that technicality and melody can be mixed brilliantly, and under the command of energetic vocalist Jason the guys confidently burned through a good half hour of hellish technical metal. Your eyes easily land on another great brotherly metal duo, guitarist Joe and drummer Dave Haley. The latter especially proved why he’s one of the bigger names behind the kit, as the drums took a proper beating under David’s merciless blows, which just kept coming and coming. Psycroptic are without a doubt one of the more intense live experiences, looking something like that moment in Looney Tunes when the poor coyote (yet again) gets caught by a badly set trap meant for the Road Runner. KA-BOOM!!!
Every festival has to have a low point, and by most people’s reckoning it was the Italians (who else…) Theatres Des Vampires who provided it. Despite the band’s confidence, and they were lively and in a good mood, average and clichéd gothic metal with vampire themes didn’t thrill many heads, and most people (at least of the male population) probably watched the band because of singer Sonya Scarlet, who flirted successfully with the crowd. Sonya and her vampire gang spent most of their time on the current album Anima Noir, and the quasi-vampire image with leather and chains was clearly rounded off by Sonya pouring blood over herself. Even though the gothic band is average and boring, you have to admit Sonya owns the stage. Still, I really wonder how many people (proper metalheads, hehe) would gather in front of the stage if a vocalist with an equally average voice and the curves of Jon Oliva were standing in Sonya’s place…
A blast of more substantial metal came from death/grinders Misery Index and then the kings (King of All Kings!) of death metal, Hate Eternal. You can often catch the Americans on European stages, since they tour diligently and relentlessly, but Hate Eternal always disappoint with awful live sound. I honestly don’t know whether the guys are simply studio musicians or whether they have a completely incompetent sound guy whose ears have never seen a cotton swab up close. In that case Rutan could give them a good cleaning with one of the sharper edges of his guitar, hehe. Well, this time our Yoldi took care of the excellent sound, and Hate Eternal showed what death metal is all about! Wrecking blast beats, demonic solos and Rutan’s brutal vocals, which I reckon Beelzebub himself possesses during the show, since a growl like that can’t be squeezed out of human vocal cords, proved that Hate Eternal aren’t scrap material live either. Hail Erik Rutan, The Bringer of Storms!
Then the lights dimmed and we waited impatiently for one of the most anticipated acts of the Paranoid Open Air 2009 festival. None other than Mr. Blaze Bayley honored us with a visit, clearly the former lead voice of Iron Maiden, who after leaving the Maiden camp carried on with a successful solo career and recently released his fourth excellent record, The Man Who Would Not Die. Blaze pointed us straight to that album when he flew onstage with the first verses of its title track. And holy shit, what a show Blaze put on! Vocally he shines more than ever, singing every single song even better and above all with more feeling than on the albums. It was obvious Blaze was in a strange mood, and his more than obvious anger helped make for an even more merciless, uncompromising and energetic performance. With a rejuvenated lineup that’s fantastically tight, and two guitarists on seven-string guitars just deep enough for Blaze’s phenomenal bass-baritone, Bayley took us on a quick tour through all four albums and, clearly, lingered longest on the latest one. Which is nothing wrong at all, since it’s one of the best of Blaze’s solo career, as songs like Smile Back at Death, Samurai and especially Robot, with its spectacular chorus “I am, I hear, I see, I feel, I think therefore I am!”, more than proved. Of course there was no skipping classics like Leap of Faith, Ten Seconds and Tenth Dimension, though Blaze did disappoint a little, since he didn’t give us an anthem like Stare at the Sun, and took us back to his Maiden era only with Man On the Edge. I definitely wouldn’t have said no to another song or two, since that barely-an-hour flew by way too fast, and Blaze vanished from the stage as fiery as he’d flown onto it. Still, after Candlemass’ headlining set on Thursday, Blaze Bayley lived up to the headliner billing and more than decently “closed out” Friday night.
Since we metalheads are night birds, sleep was of course not an option, and the goodnight kiss came from homegrown black metallers Naberius. The guys proved once again that they were born for the stage and that black metal suits the Kranj/Ljubljana crew like a glove. The band’s excellent tightness and epic black metal anthems from the fantastic debut Rebirth of the Blackened Cult, above all the phenomenal Legacy of Winter, were a great send-off into the next day of the festival.
Photos:
Miha Mally (Blaze Bayley, Naberius)
Rok Klemše (The Scourge, Keller, Psycroptic, Theatres Des Vampires, Hate Eternal, Blaze Bayley)
Setlist
10:00-10:40 FIRST STRIKE*
10:55-11:35 BAREHANDED
11:50-12:30 SEPTIC SCUM
12:45-13:25 THE SCOURGE
13:40-14:20 BLOODFEAST
14:35-15:15 HOTTY MKKNOTTY
15:30-16:10 KELLER
16:25-17:05 PSYCROPTIC
17:25-18:10 BENEATH THE MASSACRE
18:30-19:15 THEATRES DES VAMPIRES
19:40-20:40 MISERY INDEX
21:10-22:20 HATE ETERNAL
22:50-00:00 BLAZE BAYLEY
00:20-01:00 NABERIUS
Photo Gallery
