Author: Rok Klemše
Photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
Location: Ljubljana / Gala Hala / Slovenia
Concert date: 29.01.2013
Attendance: 200
Ticket price: 22,00€ (presale) / 25,00€ (day of show)
New year, new tours! Looks like we were really good last year, because Metal Santa already emptied his sack in the very first month of the new year (and the insane lineup of gigs and festivals coming up in the next few months proves that sack really is bottomless). For January he cooked up something brutal – Polish death metal machine Vader are back on our stages. And while we swat away countless shows by musical abortions like Korpiklaani the way Metal Santa swats away Saint Nick (»pussy!«), we welcome the Polish veterans every single time with open arms and hair ready to fly.
As always, the support acts come first, and as usual, from worse to better. This time the first on stage were Swiss-Uruguayan crew Fhobi, whom I sadly (or, judging by the reports, not so sadly) didn’t manage to catch. So for me the night kicked off with British outfit Bloodshot Dawn, who released their self-titled debut exactly one year ago. This was their first time playing here, and despite the frontman’s efforts they failed to wake up the still fairly sleepy crowd. That comes down mostly to the hopelessly generic music, which badly lacks an identity of its own. The guys stay in the safe shelter of (melodic) death metal, where every note in your ears brings on that deja vu feeling of having heard it all before. For a moment Bloodshot Dawn sound like a cheaper copy of Fleshgod Apocalypse, and a few riffs are ripped off from Jeff Loomis in plain ugly fashion. The triple vocal attack, which the drummer also chips in on, doesn’t help the Brits get a better result either, so they’re just one more of those many support acts you forget the moment they say goodbye.
Slightly better, but not by much, were American thrashers Bonded By Blood, old acquaintances of our stages. The band, which has swapped quite a few members lately, spent a good half hour mostly presenting their current record The Aftermath, but sadly didn’t leave as good an impression as they did some time ago at Orto Bar. Bonded By Blood are simply one of the more average new-school thrash bands, who don’t reach even the knees of the likes of Warbringer, Havok or Vektor. Even though they managed to warm up the crowd for the first time that night, they offered nothing more than boring thrash. Monotonous, bland tracks just flew past our ears, and only a few lingered. One of them was the title track of the current album, which is different and more interesting mainly thanks to its creepy opening bass line (a bit reminiscent of the iconic Halloween »theme song«). Shame the bassist had technical problems, because he showed the most skill and imagination, while the guitarist served up riffs about as original as the band’s name. So, not at all.
If Bonded By Blood were bloody only in name, Aborted, with their grind/death metal and »gore« lyrics, spilled hectoliters of the stuff all over Gala Hala. The Belgian (well, Belgian only because of frontman and sole remaining original member Sven de Caluwa) outfit is, just like Vader, no stranger to our stages. They last played here in June, right after the release of the current record Global Flatline, but didn’t convince with their Orto show. This time was the retake exam, and Aborted passed it. Not with flying colors, but perfectly satisfactorily. Once again the guys hacked away with crushing death metal marked by a meat grinder of brutal riffs, cannon-fire drumming, twisted grind sections and a versatile vocal that can handle both screaming and aggressive growling, plus some really deep piggy »bre-bre« parts. Sven again grunted like a boar and squealed like Babe, while the band sliced and sawed mercilessly like Leatherface, Mike Myers and Jason rolled into one. Maybe a bit too eagerly this time, as you could clearly hear the drummer rushing ahead of his bandmates more than once. It was all seasoned, once again, with Sven’s twisted, chauvinistic humor, which he serves up shamelessly between songs: »The next song is for all the girls. Because you’re shit. This is Fecal Forgery.« Since the band will be celebrating the anniversary of their cult record Goremageddon in the spring, they played a few more tunes from that album than usual, and even got the crowd going for a »wall of death.« Solid, but Aborted have pulled off more convincing shows in the past.
Aborted managed to wear the crowd out quite a bit, but there was still more than enough energy left for the kings of Polish death metal. Even without the muffled breathing, you could tell he was coming. Vader. The Polish death metal monster, considered one of the oldest European death metal bands, has been on the scene for a good quarter century. That’s why they can afford moves like playing the legendary record Black To the Blind, which also put the band on the world death metal map. The band has been led from the very start by the icon Piotr »Peter« Wiwczarek, who proves with everything he does that he simply doesn’t know how to stop and that his ideas for crushing death metal can’t run dry. This time Vader proved it with the whole of Black to the Blind, from A to Z, which doesn’t show the slightest sign of aging even though it’s over fifteen years old. Peter evidently keeps his eternal youth with godless, Lovecraftian death metal that wrapped us up with its massive sound in Gala Hala like tentacled creatures out of Lovecraft’s sick imagination. The crushing, clear and loud sound pushed all the Poles’ strengths to the front – Peter’s thundering vocals, James Stewart’s earth-shaking drumming and the unforgettably aggressive riffing, which under the fingers of guitarist Spider (Marek Pajak) got a new, fresh look. Spider brought a lot more freshness and variety to a band that had been plagued by Peter’s constant wanking on »pinch« harmonics and abuse of the tremolo bar, and you can hear it perfectly in the shredders from the fantastic record Welcome to the Morbid Reich. Spider also did more than well in Mauser’s role. Peter’s charismatic role as bandleader is visible from miles away; he commands his crew like a great chieftain, and with his roaring vocals, which haven’t weakened one bit, he criticizes religion and war and invites us into worlds of darkness and the occult. Through a top-notch set of iron-clad death metal classics Vader led us all the way to the end with the indispensable This Is the War, and right at the very end with a cover of the Slayer anthem Raining Blood. Given their rich musical legacy the band could easily drop the covers, and despite the excellently played thrash anthem I’d much rather have heard some Vader classic like Cold Demons. Fittingly for the band, it’s best to end with a quote from the immortal character who lent this immortal band its name: “The force is strong with this one.”
Setlist
VADER:
1. Intro
2. Sothis
3. The Wrath
4. Fractal Light
5. Heading for Internal Darkness
6. The Innermost Ambience
7. Carnal
8. True Names
9. Beast Raping
10. Return to the Morbid Reich
11.Revelation of Black Moses
12. Foetus God
13. The Red Passage
14. Distant Dream
15. Come and See My Sacrifice
15. Black to the Blind
16. Dark Age
17. Vision and the Voice
ABORTED:
1. Omega Mortis (intro)
2. Global Flatline
3. Coronary Reconstruction
4. From a Tepid Whiff
5. Expurgation Euphoria
6. Fecal Forgery
7. Vermicular, Obscene, Obese
8. The Origin of Disease
9. Sanguine Verses (…of Extirpation)
10. The Saw and the Carnage Done
BONDED BY BLOOD:
1. I Can’t Hear You
2. Another Disease
3. Immortal Life
4. Crawling in the Shadows
5. The Aftermath
6. Restless Mind
7. Left Behind
Photo Gallery
