Performing: Terra Toma, Throwback, Street To The Ocean, Kill The Lycan
Where: Vienna / Szene / Austria
When: 6 Nov 2021
Published: 11.11.2021
Upcoming events: Metalnight Outbreak Szene Vienna Vol.8
For its sixth edition — right in the thick of the Covid peak in November 2021 — “Rock The Night” brought Terra Toma, Throwback, Street To The Ocean, and Kill the Lycan to a completely sold-out Szene in Vienna. Four Austrian acts. A mini festival evening held twice a year, dialed in squarely for fans of modern metalcore.
Those of you who were out at gigs will vividly remember the night of 5 Nov 2021 and its late hours. If you happened to be at any concert venue anywhere in Slovenia that evening, you probably noticed a sudden shift in the mood of the staff around ten o’clock — every last one of them, from the bar staff to the sound engineers, the promoter, the coat-check girls, the lot. That was the night the Slovenian government dropped its charming little measure known as a full concert blackout. Yet barely 400 km northwest of, say, Ljubljana, the picture looked entirely different the very next day — 6 Nov 2021. That evening, the Szene in Vienna was packed wall to wall, every ticket gone. Masks weren’t even mandatory.
Seven in the evening. Terra Toma hit the stage first, tasked with warming up a crowd that was hungry and thirsty for live music. Some kind of experimental musical combine, four guys throwing a fairly cryptic mix at the audience to get the blood pumping. The band has been active since 2007 and has three albums out, but over the first half-hour they sowed a fair amount of chaos in the room — shrieking vocals, jumping between post-metal, doom metal, industrial, and electronics. A performance that left the crowd somewhat reserved.
Next up were Throwback from Lower Austria. The band plays a blend of hardcore and beatdown, dropped their debut studio album “Value Of Freedom” in 2020, and at the time of our visit were just days away from releasing the follow-up “Vicious Instinct”, announced for New Year’s Eve 2021. Their clear stylistic focus translated into a noticeably tighter level of cohesion — consistent execution, a compact and solid shredding of two guitars — and the crowd rewarded that graft and commitment with the first proper mosh pit of the night.
Street To The Ocean took the stage with a revamped lineup. These guys are genuine metalcore veterans, active since 2014, with serious road miles under their belts — their career has seen them share stages with the likes of Betraying The Martyrs, Motionless In White, Bury Tomorrow, and Kingdom Of Giants. All eyes were on new vocalist Robby Fernandez, who had joined the band just days before this Vienna show. Long-time singer Daniel Watzinger had left for personal reasons.
There was quite a bit of skepticism going into the Street To The Ocean set about how the guys would pull it off with a brand-new vocalist, but the band dispelled every doubt right from the opening note with jaw-dropping tightness. A technically flawless performance that actually confirmed the band had, if anything, gained firepower and voltage with their new singer. The very first song, Taken Liberty from the debut album “Misguided”, put the spotlight squarely on energetic bassist Daniel Sebesto, who absolutely bombed the crowd into a frenzy. The chain reaction of mosh pits quickly pulled in the rest of the band: Matthias Eder (drums), Lukas Thaller (guitar), and Manuel Herold (guitar).
This Street To The Ocean set was special in every sense. With the new member on board, they tweaked the setlist a bit, and they also premiered one brand-new original track — so fresh they hadn’t even settled on a name for it yet. By the penultimate song, Farewell, the band had whipped the crowd into such a frenzy that no washing machine spin cycle at full speed could have matched the velocity of those mosh pits. The band closed out a thoroughly exhilarating performance with Heartstab.
To crown the festival finale, the stage went to more hometown heroes from Vienna — Kill The Lycan. The band started their career in 2010, and by 2018, once the lineup had stabilized, Kill The Lycan had grown into a seriously formidable force — especially live. Kill the Lycan draw inspiration from The Ghost Inside, Architects, and Killswitch Engage, but manage to bring a healthy dose of variety to their songwriting even within the metalcore genre.
Live, the band operates like an unpredictable firecracker. Vocalist Chris Breetzi radiates such raw, primal energy on stage that his movements look like something out of a yoga session. Just watching how he carries himself up there, you quickly clock that this band literally lives for their music on that stage too. And Kill The Lycan are very good at transferring that life fuel to their audience. The crowd’s response bordered on outright fanaticism — and it built with every single track. You can tell Chris and the rest of them have been at this a while, because they execute it all with near-Japanese precision, a well-thought-out performance, and a show people don’t forget in a hurry. True to form for their gigs, the vocalist went on an extended expedition through the venue floor, with the crowd carrying him on their hands (crowdsurfing).
Kill The Lycan played two acoustic songs as an encore. Even that didn’t stop the fired-up crowd — who had, after all, come to tear it up to Austrian metalcore. The audience stayed every bit as invested during those moments when Kill The Lycan shifted to the softer notes. Outstanding energy from an incredibly likable little festival. An evening faithfully dedicated to the modern impulses of the metalcore genre — and it couldn’t have gone better.
Street to the Ocean setlist:
1. Intro
2. Taken Liberty
3. Salvation
4. Misguided
5. Never Again
6. NEW SONG
7. Farewell
8. Heartstab
Author: Denis Paradiž
Photos: Denis Paradiž
Thanks to: Szene Wien (Markus), Street To The Ocean, Kill The Lycan
