Author: Rok Klemše
Photos: Nina Grad
Venue: Kotlovnica, Kamnik
Concert date: 11.03.2016
We don’t make it out to Kotlovnica in Kamnik all that often, but when we do, it’s always worth the trip. This time a pretty well-attended gig served up something mainly for the ears of death metal fans. Even though the same day saw Up In Smoke going off in Ljubljana and Battle of Bands getting cheered on in Medvode, the debut gig of Kamnik death metal trio Defenestration and veterans Penitenziagite pulled a good fifty people into Kotlovnica, who got served (and served up) a serious dose of death metal.
This time a brand-new Kamnik death metal outfit with a very interesting and timely name, Defenestration, stepped onto a stage for the first time. Defenestration is, after all, the act of throwing someone out of a window, and throughout history it was mostly used to settle scores with political opponents (the most famous defenestration is even from fairly recent history, when in 1948 Czech foreign minister Jan Masaryk was thrown out of a window of the foreign ministry building), and plenty of people could deserve such a flight even today… Anyway, the trio Defenestration is made up of Gašper Vodlan (guitar, vocals), Jan Kregar (bass, vocals) and Vid Jaksetič (drums), and before the gig you couldn’t really make out much about the band from their only released track, Goatfuck, since the recording doesn’t exactly do them any favors. Live, the defenestrators fared much better, winning us over and surprising us with their tight playing, a confident (if slightly too static) performance and a thunderous mix of death and black metal that most closely recalls early Hypocrisy. At their core, Defenestration play simple, raw death metal that leans less on solo flights and technicality and more on mid-tempo death metal, a fat groove, a hard-hitting rhythm section and Jan’s furious, brutal vocals (Condemnation Cristi), while Gašper’s guitar lines bring in a bit of melody here and there. Maybe it could use a bit more variety in the riffs and the songs themselves, but really the only major minus of Defenestration’s live debut was the drummer’s Nightwish shirt, hehe. Judging by what we saw and heard, we’ll gladly get thrown out of windows in the future.
Unlike Defenestration, with Kranj’s Penitenziagite you know exactly what to expect, and that’s nothing less than a death metal tornado. The Kranj death metal dragon has been busily promoting its studio debut Human Galore and racking up gig miles since its release, and it showed more than ever in Kotlovnica. Despite a muddy sound at the start that made it hard to tell the two guitars apart, Penitenziagite proved their devilish tightness and once again confirmed that this is very likely the best death metal in Slovenia right now. In a good hour the guys played Human Galore in full, threw in some older material and unveiled a seriously promising teaser for the new album. After the opening bruiser Origin of Desolation the sound quickly got fixed too, and Penitenziagite, led by Demshy’s brutal and merciless vocals, thundered through killers like Cleansing, Dictation (with Žan’s brilliant solo), Circle of Life, Path Lain In Shadows and others. The foursome were flawless the whole time, and the crushing rhythm section thrilled once again, this time especially thanks to the phenomenally mixed bass of Matič, whose merciless lashing of the strings gave the band even more depth and punch live. And even though the fire of Human Galore hasn’t gone out yet, we’re already eagerly waiting for its successor.
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