Helstar Summon The King of Hell to Bazen, With a Little Help from Rager and Dawn Patrol! (2009)

Author: Rok Klemše

Location: Kranj, Izbruhov kulturni bazen
Concert date: 30.05.2009
Attendance: 150
Ticket price: 15€

On top of the string of great gigs we’ve had here over the past year, a few months ago came one more announcement: the cult, legendary Texan power/speed metallers Helstar were going to shake the foundations of Kranj’s Izbruhov kulturni bazen. Over their career the Texans put out several albums that will always go down as some of the best the genre has to offer, from the debut Burning Star all the way to the fresh The King of Hell. Helstar put their hometown of Houston on the metal map, but sadly split up too soon, shortly after the poorly received Multiples of Black. During the hiatus the Helstar name lived on mostly thanks to vocalist James Rivera, who sang in countless bands and kept trying to pull off Helstar reunions in various lineups ever since. The 20th anniversary of the cult record Remnants of War was the perfect excuse to get the band back together, this time for real, the full lineup. The guys recorded a fantastic “come back” record and hit the road on a tour that also brought them to Kranj. Loch Vostok were supposed to tour with them too, but their bus, which doubled as Helstar’s transport, had already given up on them in Sweden. And Helstar once again proved a lesson in perseverance: they rented a van and set off to cover half of Europe in it. Loch Vostok were replaced by Rager.

As I walked into Bazen, speed/thrash metal outfit Rager had just started bleeding for the gods in a great rendition of the Agent Steel cover Bleed for the Godz. The guys got the chance to play as Helstar’s openers right before a creative break, and a solid, confident set like this will surely give them strength to keep creating. The obligatory part of Rager’s set was of course the whole EP Eat Metal, which the crowd has already embraced and fallen for, and which helps Bucot out generously on the choruses of crushers like Spoils of War and Ritual of Death. Besides their varied, dynamic original material, Rager can also boast carefully chosen covers – we got the anthem Heavy Metal Breakdown by Germany’s Grave Digger and, to close, an Iron Maiden classic, Iron Maiden of course. Rager show big progress with every gig, the band keeps getting tighter and is quickly getting used to bigger stages like Bazen’s. The rhythm section is bombastic and just “simple” enough in that old-school metal way. Gilian fills the space masterfully with his guitar, so you hardly notice the missing second guitar, except on Iron Maiden. And Buco remains, in the style of a Sean Kilian (Vio-lence) or Paul Bucoff (Exodus; R.I.P.), thrashily, endearingly hopeless as a vocalist. He could really have learned the lyrics by heart by now without cheat sheets, hehe. So grab the biggest spoon from mom’s silver cutlery and scoop up a heaping spoonful of Rager metal, packed with iron! Yum, yum.

Another excellent choice of opener for the Texan legends was the one and only Dawn Patrol. Both the girl and guys on stage and the crowd, which loyally followed one of the best frontmen we’ve got, Aleš, warmed up Bazen (which was being cooled by some nasty spring rain) more than enough for Helstar. Aleš’s energy on stage remains unmatched, and the chatty Primorska native tops his confident command of the stage and banter between songs with a fantastic vocal performance. Dawn Patrol shook original tracks out of their sleeves one after another (um… as far as that’s possible with T-shirts, hehe), songs that have quickly become real classics of Slovenian heavy metal. Dark Side of Society, Fortress and Rockstar Ate My Hamster, even though we’ve heard them countless times, stay fresh and crushing, and your head just can’t stay put when the four instrumentalists launch into the newer tracks Ghost and Alcoholic. With their colorful riffs and infectious solos, Iztok and Jan are surely one of the best guitar duos around (Helstar praised them more than warmly too!), the rhythm section rocks thanks to Ana on bass and the excellent Strigot, who has already slotted fully into the band and taken over the drums like it’s nothing. Dawn Patrol are and remain one of the best live experiences at home, and I can only end it one way. We want an album!
And then we finally got a hefty dose of Texas fuckin’ metal with the legendary Helstar. The Texans had just put out The King of Hell, which was received extremely well by critics and fans alike. Of course Helstar proudly presented the fresh release on this tour, and so they kicked off their set with the album’s title track, The King of Hell. The crowd lost it as soon as Larry Barragnan (guitar), Rob Trevino (guitar), Jerry Abarca (bass) and Russell DeLeon (drums) marched onstage one by one and started summoning the devil with an instrumental intro. He didn’t keep us waiting long, and down the stairs onto the stage came the great vocalist, “the king of hell” in person, James Rivera, a demon mask pulled over his face, and the madness began. “Bow down to the King of Hell!” Helstar sounded reborn, as if time had stood still for them since Remnants of War came out (whose 20th anniversary the current Helstar lineup is celebrating, together with drummer DeLeon, who played with the band on Multiples of Black). The Barragnan/Trevino guitar duo staged speed races up and down their fretboards like it was nothing, killer riffs and supersonic solos dropped as if there was a bet on, the rhythm section flattened everything in its path like a hurricane, and bassist Abarca, despite some minor technical problems, jumped around the stage like a twenty-year-old brat rather than a man in his forties. Commanding it all was the unforgettable James Rivera, who has been one of the most recognizable faces in metal for a good quarter century. Besides Helstar, Rivera has lent his voice to a small sea of bands, from Destiny’s End, Seven Witches and Distant Thunder to Flotsam and Jetsam, and he’s probably the one most responsible for the full Helstar reunion. Oh, and before I forget, Rivera is just as murderous vocally as he was at the start of his career. Whether it’s the super-high Pain Will Be Thy Name, the occasional growls, or the melodic, epic mid-range, Rivera proves he’s one of the best-preserved frontmen out there right now. Not to mention his charisma is out of reach and proves the stage is his home. Helstar truly opened the gates of hell in Bazen, the crowd was mixing it up and moshing non-stop, and Helstar couldn’t praise our audience enough, even writing in their “tour report” that the Kranj gig was way ahead of every other show on the tour. The Texan giants of heavy/power/speed metal took us through their discography in a good hour and three quarters, naturally giving the most attention to the current album, but they didn’t forget the burning, eternal classics like Burning Star, the anthems Run With the Pack and Suicidal Nightmare, Nosferatu sharpened its teeth and sank them into our necks with the epic Harker’s Tale and Baptized in Blood, and the big surprise was the magical Winds of War from the overlooked record A Distant Thunder. Sadly they skipped the band’s weakest record entirely, though still an excellent release, Multiples of Black, but they proved they’re one of those rare bands that give a ton to their fans. And they came back out, and again, and again, and to finish it all off they played the spectacular Angel of Death, specially for the Kranj gig, since they hadn’t played that classic in quite a while.

There’s no need to stress that Helstar are masters of their trade. Bazen came alive again with them in that “old-school” 80s vibe, and Helstar played without a doubt one of the best gigs on our turf in a long time. Gigs like this are all we can wish for, and given all the superlatives Helstar showered on Slovenia, we can probably hope and count on a star burning here again in the future!

Photos: Robi Lipej

Setlist

HELSTAR: 1. The King of Hell 2. The Plague Called Man 3. The King is Dead 4. Evil Reign 5. Burning Star 6. Pain Will Be Thy Name 7. Harker’s Tale 8. Dracula’s Castle 9. Suicidal Nightmare 10. Winds of War 11. Wicked Disposition 12. Garden of Temptation -encore- 13. Run With the Pack 14. Baptized in Blood -encore- 15. Angel of Death

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