Author: Rok Klemše
Venue: Orto Bar / Ljubljana / Slovenia
Concert date: 27.04.2008
Attendance: 70
Ticket price: 5.00€
This year’s Ortofest had a bit more shredding on the menu for metal ears. Dirty Skunks already kicked off the metal part of the fest nicely with a sold-out show featuring three Slovenian legends, Thrash ‘Till Grob – Železobeton, Sarcasm and Interceptor. After metal souls had dodged the concert hall like the devil dodges the cross for two weeks, it was time for the upstairs of Orto to turn mostly black again, the hottest shade of this season’s fashion… or something like that. Anyway, right before the May Day čevapčiči feast up on Rožnik, local progressive crew Prospect took over Orto.
Prospect recently dropped their third studio album Chronicles of Men, and with its balanced mix of thrash, heavy and progressive metal it’s a big step up from the previous record, Moments. Prospect already presented Chronicles of Men at Mediapark, and they’ve been gigging hard and racking up the miles ever since, so it was time to stop by Ljubljana’s mecca of metal, rock and anything that doesn’t stink of accordions and flashing ample cleavage in place of actual “music”. The Ljubljana band hit the stage at ten in the evening, and the first minutes of the show looked pretty sad, with barely a tenth of the crowd in the hall, though thankfully things got at least somewhat better by the end. The Orto hall ended up about half full, and even those fifty or so people seemed pretty subdued and static. What can you do, the approaching holidays take their toll. Still, Prospect gave it everything on stage, no different than if they’d been playing for a crowd of several hundred. The audience loosened up after a few shots too. No wonder, since Chronicles of Men sounds even better live than on the album. Roman managed to gather a really fired-up, young crew of excellent instrumentalists around him, who have successfully made Prospect younger, fresher and more energized. The core of the band is still its mastermind, guitarist and backing vocalist Roman Fileš, joined on second guitar by another old metal tomcat, Igor Nardin of Noctiferia. With two guitars, Prospect sound even fuller and more convincing.
Credit goes above all to the great rhythm section, rounded out with fantastic groove by bassist Urban Medič (ex-Ophidian), while Dejan Pakiž took care of the lovely keyboard lines. And last but not least, there’s the band’s lead throat Robi Grdič, who sang the wrecking balls off the new album phenomenally, and Prospect lined them up one after another – Mystic&Illusion, My Numbers, My Personal Demons and the rest really come alive in a new light live. Prospect presented Chronicles of Men at Orto more than excellently, and for the finale they added an extremely well-played Judas Priest classic, The Ripper, where Robi especially shone on vocals, plus an instrumental from the previous record, Orient Express.
Prospect nicely spiced up the approaching holidays at Orto. The only minus is the set being too short, since there was no opening act and the guys wrapped up their work in about an hour. They could have thrown in a track or two from their debut #1 and the measure would have been more than full. But they deserve a rest too, and on top of everything, Chronicles of Men kills live.
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