Author: Rok Klemše
Location: Gala hala, Ljubljana
Concert date: 13.05.2011
Attendance: 150
Another one in the string of death metal shows that Dirty Skunks keep feeding us so diligently has come and gone, and this sunny Saturday we were all the more eager to catch the royal Hate Eternal, the technical death metal spectacle of Obscura, plus Beneath the Massacre and Japanese death metallers Defiled.
First to thunder onto the stage were the exotic brutal death metallers Defiled, from Japan. Probably precisely because they so rarely play European stages (even though they did play here years ago), they drew a bigger crowd to Gala hala. Usually the first support band plays to itself and its roadies, if it has any, but this time Defiled got a surprisingly solid number of people cheering them on. A happy Defiled relaxedly and confidently presented their vision of brutal death metal, in which, especially in the guitar arrangements, you can clearly hear that the guys wore out their Morbid Angel tapes and records down to the core. Unfortunately, the lack of more thought-out structures and riffs sooner or later leads to repetition, and the songs really did get more and more monotonous; the fairly generic growl didn’t help give the Japanese a more unique musical identity either. But the excellent bassist Haruhisa Takahata impressed, thrashing his bass strings like Godzilla through Tokyo, as did the likable guitarist Yusuke Sumita, the band’s only remaining founding member, who hosted the show in clumsy English (though vocalist Kenji’s English is obviously even worse) and also nicely thanked Slovenia for the financial help after the recent natural and nuclear disaster that struck Japan. For an opening band, Defiled were a pleasant surprise, and even though their take on death metal isn’t something you couldn’t hear from a bunch of similar bands at the seaside, they were far kinder to the ears than the next act.
Because next they transported us to the other side of the globe: Canadian technical death(core) patients Beneath the Massacre. Since they’re no strangers to our stages either, we knew exactly what to expect. Gurgling, monotonous, cookie-cutter deathcore “cookie monster” deep growls, wanking through overly fast solos, and a dick-measuring contest with the most technically convoluted and ultra-complex songs possible. At the expense of listenability, obviously. How the Canadians manage to squeeze out music that’s so completely soulless is almost unbelievable. Their songs are as alike as two peas in a pod, since Beneath the Massacre have yet to hear of things like melody, harmony or a simple riff. In their chaotic music the role of riffs is taken over by seemingly random guitar solos that roll in out of nowhere and play hundreds of notes in a second. You can’t deny the guys their technical polish, since every last one of them is a master of their instrument and knows it inside out, but sadly they forgot to write actual songs while they were at it. Live, the music of Beneath the Massacre unfortunately came across as a pile of random musical patterns thrown together, and for me, as a non-fan of their flavor of technical metal, it was torturous to sit through in front of the stage.
Fortunately, the German outfit Obscura fixed the taste in our mouths with a completely different vision of technical death metal. The Germans made a big splash with the album Cosmogenesis (2009), which paid tribute in the best possible way to the pioneers of technical death metal: Death, Atheist and Cynic. They didn’t rest on their well-deserved recognition, though, and quickly recorded a new record, Omnivium, which came out recently. On it the guys (even more) shook off the shackles of their idols and developed a much more their-own, recognizable sound. Obscura used the tour with Hate Eternal to present the new album and greeted us with an acoustic intro into the song Septuagint, but there was still plenty of time left to plunge us into the classics from the previous record. The fantastic guitar duo of Muenzner/Kummerer showed off their vast knowledge and mastery of the guitar strings from start to finish. With breathtaking guitar lines that even Chuck Schuldiner wouldn’t be ashamed of, you want to slink off to the nearest corner with your guitar in shame. The technical polish of the German four-piece is incredible, but unlike Beneath the Massacre, Obscura put the arrangement and song structure first, not showing off their instrument skills. So the melodic and infectious guitar patterns whisk you away to other worlds in no time, while the insanely good rhythm section nails you to the ground at the same time: Hannes Grossmann, one of the better drummers of the younger generation, and a bassist with an abnormal way of pulling on bass strings. The guy (whose name I unfortunately don’t know), who for some reason unknown to me was filling in for the band’s regular bassist Jeroen Paul Thesseling, doubtless played his part excellently, but at moments I still missed the sound of Thesseling’s fretless bass. Kummerer, as frontman, hosted the show brilliantly and established a genuine connection with the audience, while also delivering a raw yet clear and intelligible growl. Sadly, thanks to the weaker sound system, the clean vocal lines were hard to hear. Classics from Cosmogenesis, like The Anticosmic Overload and especially the “Death-esque” Incarnated, shook necks without mercy, while the new songs Vortex Omnivium and Ocean Gateways proved that Obscura are sailing in the right direction and there’s nothing to fear for this band’s future! “Nude ecstasy!”
Finally, we got to the brutal Hate Eternal, who with their freshly released new record, Phoenix Amongst the Ashes, proved they’re far from ready for the scrap heap. Hate Eternal marched out under the leadership of Erik “the bringer of storms” Rutan like a phoenix from the ashes and hurled us into an hour of stormy death metal. The band, which is proverbially known for its dreadful live sound (despite Rutan being one of the most respected producers in extreme metal), surprised right from the start this time with a very solid sound, which was (if my ears weren’t deceiving me) by far the band’s best live sound in recent years. The drums thundered like cannons on the Soča front under the hands and feet of Jade Simonetto, the guitar lines sliced into eardrums like the mad Herbert West (Re-Animator), and Rutan and Hrubovcak snarled like a pack of rabid boars. It was a joy to see the burning passion with which Rutan attacks the guitar strings and how they then groan apocalyptically, though Rutan also looks like he’s gone mad on stage. You can hardly imagine a angrier Rutan, but this time his onstage rage exceeded even his usual norms. Despite the good sound out front, Rutan was obviously not happy with the sound on stage, and you wouldn’t have wanted to be in the sound engineer’s shoes, as he got a good number of murderous looks (meanwhile Rutan was surely muttering some Cannibal Corpse song title in his head, ). It all escalated to the point where the last few songs and the closing wrecker King of All Kings were sung exclusively by bassist Hrubovcak. Still, Rutan professionally finished his job to the end, and despite the (yet again) sound problems, Hate Eternal are always a pleasure to hear and see.
Photos: Nina Grad
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