Author: Rok Klemše
Photos: Rok Klemše
Venue: Gala Hala, Metelkova, Ljubljana
Concert date: 10.11.2010
Attendance: 170
Ticket price: 20€/24€
Gala Hala may not be the most prestigious place to play a gig, but in its twenty-year history it has already hosted quite a few names and, above all, a wide range of sounds. This show was like an extremely layered metal cake, and the first in a series of thorough beatdowns belonged to the English death grinders The Rotted, who crawled out of the ashes of the death grind gore band Gorerotted in 2008. Their rather primal mix of grind themes smells more of punk, death’n’roll style death metal than of explicit death metal. This package of noise didn’t rest solely on newer material, on the album Get Dead Or Die Trying and the accompanying covers EP Anarchogram, because The Rotted also dug into the older part of their catalog on stage. The bald-headed trio of vocalist Ben McCrow, drummer Nate Gould and bassist Reverend Trudgill is complemented, or aesthetically counterbalanced, by the long-haired, pigtail-adorned guitarist Tim Carley. He was the least similar to everyone else on stage, but then you can’t expect first-class acoustics in Gala Hala. And let’s face it, the ambience of our Gala Hala was just right for a first-class mental switch-off, soundtracked by tales of zombies, fun-loving sarcasm and nihilistic black humor. Vignettes of zombies, necrophiliacs, festering abscesses and pure adrenaline followed one another, and the action both on stage and below it was anything but indolent. Strictly no bullshit is really the imperative that The Rotted faithfully pull off with their blend of influences from Entombed, Napalm Death, SOIA, Motörhead and the likes of Vader. Babyslice’s vocals (McCrow can lovingly be called Goreskin too) sandpapered the heads of even the most demanding with energetic growls, while many eyes were fixed on Fluffy Offalstench, or rather Tim “Rotted” Carley, who coaxed quite a few first-class, if grimy-sounding, riffs out of his Les Paul copy over the grind foundation. The shit’n’roll had a few highlights, and one of them was definitely the track Stab Me Till I Cum, which, with its punkish grind’n’roll honesty, brought the half-hour set to a more-than-successful close.
After the playful intro it was time for some heavyweight bone-grinding. The Canadian quintet from Montreal, with their brutal alliance of metalcore and deathcore, sounds like someone trying to pet you with a bulldozer. The dynamic, tattooed vocalist Joss Fredette, foot on the monitor, thundered out vocals that Svarun himself would be happy with. The monotone guitar duo of Dom Grimard and Felix Roberge was somewhat more benign. Vince Menard rattled out an outpouring of drum rage, and the constant effort of bassist Sébastien “Seb” Painchaud was downright terrifyingly intrusive. He has so far written onto his CV work with Withdraw, Trails Of Anguish, Vatican (Can) and, whoa, Ion Dissonance. If the crowd doesn’t know all the songs from the albums Aeon Of Suffering or the newcomer Too Many Humans, you can hardly expect singalongs. The Last Felony is actually a rather monotonous explosion of noise that tries to demolish the entire hall with decibels, though you could fault them for generic and pretty predictable breaks. The new generation of Montreal noise dominates with extremes and bets on a fairly simple recipe: pour into a bowl the fast-fingered style of modern death metal, a bit of “groove” and the primal feel of good old death, hope for some receptiveness to black metal atmosphere, and season it all heavily with core and breaks. The Quebec five serve up sonic madness and, without compromise, reach for something that damn well reminds me of, I don’t know, Black Dahlia Murder … Too Many Humans is actually material that could easily earn the label “soundtrack to a worldwide cataclysm”. All in all, the second round of harder-baked enjoyment was nicely served.
The continuation from Arsis sounded softer, more technical and above all more polished. A mix of thrash, technical death in the manner of Chuck Schuldiner, and black metal vocals, or, if that’s not defined enough, Petrozza-style Kreator vocals, plus a pedigree that reaches for power metal, guarantees enjoyment. The Virginia quartet meets every expectation, and the cherry on top of the quite organic bond between returning drummer Mike Van Dyne and reconfirmed bassist Noah Martin is a top-notch guitar duo: the glamorous Legolas, Nick Cordle, and the hoarse but excellent father of the band, James Malone. The songs are balanced and free of needless rambling. Arsis are original, and with finely measured, precise solos they always hit the nail on the head and neatly defy the assumption that you could get your fill of melodic death metal too soon and too much. Proof of that is four outstanding records: after the albums A Celebration Of Guilt from 2004, United In Regret from 2006 and We Are The Nightmare from 2008, Starve For The Devil follows, neatly and pedantically, this year. Technicality, a ton of unbelievable riffs and inventive tempo changes, tasty, short and sweet solos and weighty lyrics give them a stamp that until now only the Swedish phenomenon At The Gates could claim, along with a few other chosen ones inspired by God or hell.
After an hour of musical excess and, at least as far as the music goes, almost rococo aesthetics, it was time to thicken the feelings again and pile up the clouds of darkness. Grave are without doubt one of the oldest death metal bands still active in Sweden, and their timeline reaches back to 1986, when they operated under the name Corpse. Devoted to recording a heap of demos, they gave birth to their full-length debut in the distant year 1991, and Into the Grave remains one of the sturdiest milestones in defining a new era of death metal brutality. The somewhat slower but still devastating crawl of rhythm and greasy guitars approaches the definition of sludge metal or doom, and the hesitant creeping and slowing down of life energy led to less energetic reactions below the stage. Microphones adorned with chains, a skull on the guitar amp as old-school scenery, a darkened stage, and after the intro the opening track You’ll Never See from the now distant year 1992 sets the standard for a high-quality vintage sound. The first man and elder statesman of the now hellish trio, vocalist and guitarist Ola Lindgren, did the job with distinction, and, backed by the fat bass of Tobias Cristiansson and the quality drum destroyer Ronnie Bergerståhl, served up first-class sepulchral morbidity. Most of the songs came from the old part of the catalog, while tracks from the albums Fiendish Regression, As Rapture Comes and Dominion VIII were left out entirely. The millennium-era sound was defended by the track Rise (from the album Back From The Grave) and newer material from the latest release, the brand-new but very much back-to-the-old-sound record Burial Ground. The air was gradually running out, and Obscure Infinity was made to order for dropping into a complete coma. “Slowly the air fades out / and I know that I soon will die / In pain I choke, in fear I will die / A part of my body remains after death / opens the porthole for my eternal rest / Take me away, pull me over the edge / I don’t want want this pain, I just want my death / A slow death by suffocation / turns my dreams to reality / End of my fucking existence / dead for all eternity!” Poetic and fitting with the state of the airless Hall. It was precisely the debut Into The Grave that formed the center of gravity for this outpouring of crypt-dwelling rage, and after the closing track Soulless came a state of complete catharsis and an airing-out of thoughts and emotions, with the promise of something completely different.
“Something completely different!” And it really was, my dears. After the cycle of slow rotting and system collapse came time for a high-octane revival and a shift into higher gears. This time in the form of the undisputed heavyweights of Baltimore deathgrind, Misery index. If Maryland is known mostly for the king of rock Elvis, the new millennium is rather marked by critical musical opposition to the nonchalant dumbing-down of minds in the manner of Bush the younger. This long-awaited moment of measuring the misery index is part of the critique of the complete collapse of values and the hopeless sinking of the world economy. After the opening chords of a short first soundcheck the lights dimmed, and the full sound of the now full lineup blasted out of the speakers. The second guitarist’s duties, after the departure of Sparky Voyles, were brutally filled by Darin Morris, otherwise busy full-time in the band Criminal Element, who parried the remaining three original members quite confidently and sharply. The vocal duo of guitarist Mark Kloeppel and Jason Netherton and the drum salvos of Adam Jarvis got a quality filler on the left side of the stage. The set of well-stuffed songs took us across the whole discography of the Baltimore alliance. There was no shortage of tracks from the first record, Retaliate, or from my favorite, Discordia, and they also filled our ears with the album Traitors and did a good promotional job for the latest one, still smelling of the studio, Heirs To Thievery. The movie of complete grind and wild concert synergy between crowd and performers rolls. Misery serve The Spectator, Heirs To Thievery, Traitors, We Never Come In Peace, the brutal Theocracy, Conquistadores and, at least I think so, Ruling Class Canceled. The will to resist and stand stoically on the sidelines fades for many. The battle lines are tight and we are all winners! The hybrid genome of death metal and HC punk and genuine primal grind recalls Dying Fetus, whose former members are both Netherton and Voyles. And some bold soul would add Suffocation to the list as confirmation of the devastating energy of total giving-it-all. Radical anarchism and left-leaning themes, slightly masked under a cover of corpse imagery, weave together the full range of shortcomings of the modern age, and the salvos of perfectly polished criticism are complemented, thanks also to the latest record, which took a huge step forward. Both in production and in content, tracks like As The Carrion Call, the already mentioned The Spectator, and Plague Of Objects fit nicely into the line of thought of the earlier works. The beauty this time is ground to the end, and in the string of critiques there is no shortage of wonderful reasons for completely demolishing the shaky foundations of a rotten society. Misery Index are a reason for contentment, for when the heads of those guilty for the total collapse of the system start rolling in droves from the execution grounds of today’s invalid society.
Gala Hala shook and roared. The plaster crumbled and the blood raced through our veins damn fast! With loud ringing in aching ears and smiles of satisfaction, crowds of happy chosen ones left the scene of the Ljubljana massacre. Many who were eager to hang out with their heroes of noise got to do so during and after the show, since everyone was full of endorphins and the positive atmosphere that we in Slovenia know how to conjure up. Knowing that this show set a pretty high bar of quality, at least when it comes to extreme music, I can say with certainty that this year it will be hard, or damn rarely, to top it. The concert cake was perfect and crowned with a glaze of shrapnel, grenades and polished revolt. Ljubljana succumbed to hordes of corpses and exhaled gorgeously after death, and in the air you could sense the thunder of intellectually accomplished Antichrists and heretics. But let’s leave God out of it this time. Having received the superlative of superlatives, we could happily tick off yet another phenomenal concert, one you’d be right to regret if you missed it. Steel alliances this good don’t exactly come to our parts very often …
Setlist
THE ROTTED: 1. Drink myself to Death 2. The Howling 3. A Return to Insolence 4. Dawn of the New Error 5. Angel of Meth 6. Only Tools And Corpses (Gorerotted) 7. Stab Me Till I Cum (Gorerotted) 8. Nothin But a Nosebleed THE LAST FELONY: 1. Do Not Defend Me 2. No one Would Notice If You Died 3. Overrated Existence 4. Televisionary 5. Too Many Human 6. …We are Future Housing Developpements For Maggots 7. Quandary GRAVE: 1. You’ll Never See… 2. Turning Black 3. Christi(ns)anity 4. Liberation 5. Semblance in Black 6. Still Hating Life 7. Obscure Infinity 8. Rise 9. Dismembered Mind 10. …And Here I Die… Satisfied 11. Into the Grave 12. Soulless MISERY INDEX: 1. Embracing Extinction 2. Defector 3. The Carrion Call 4. Traitors 5. The Spectator 6. Ruling Class Canceled 7. The Great Depression 8. Retaliate 9. Ghosts of Catalonia 10. You Lose 11. Conquistadores 12 Heirs to Thievery 13. Manufacturing Greed 14. We Never Come in Peace 15. Theocracy
Photo Gallery
