Photos: Sebastijan Videc
Venue: Gala Hala/Ljubljana
Concert date: 16.12.2013
Ticket price: 25€
In the winter months we often get dull, cold weather and foggy nights that are practically made for black metal shows. Scandinavians get that kind of atmosphere a lot too. It’s where the best black metal masterpieces come from, and they sound best on exactly the kind of night Monday was. If every fan of the genre thinks deep down about how black metal bands perform live, and compares sets at summer festivals with those in dark halls in a wintry setting, they’ll surely pick the latter. This time, though, the night at Gala Hala wasn’t devoted entirely to black metal, since we got some death and thrash metal melodies too. With five bands on the bill it almost smelled like a festival, so things kicked off as early as seven and ran right on schedule the whole way. The stars of the night were Marduk, who on the »Panzer Division Marduk 2013« tour are joined by fellow Swedish death metallers Grave, their countrymen Death-Wolf and Valkyrja, and Norwegians Critical Solution.
The honor of opening went to Critical Solution, who fired off the first projectile. They’re a young band who served up a half-hour set of thrash/heavy metal tunes. It was more than obvious that their singer/guitarist is a huge James Hetfield (Metallica) fan, because he came across on stage like a proper frontman and pretty much a carbon copy of James himself. The songs flowed smoothly, nicely packed with punchy thrash rhythms and solos that were played excellently. They also threw in a cover of Evil (Mercyful Fate), which woke up the people in the hall a little. All in all, their performance was professional and convincing despite the empty hall, which is par for the course for opening slots.
Valkyrja were on second, and also the first black metal band of the night. After an intro they hit us with fast black metal. The first three songs were fairly short and quick, so you couldn’t really tell them apart. Screaming vocals, the same lines on both guitars and »blastbeat« drums slowly gave the impression that Valkyrja were a below-average outfit. The songs that followed proved that impression wrong. There were plenty of melodic rhythms in them, working in harmony with the vocals. Thanks to a slower tempo, one of the songs stood out in particular and ended up sounding like a black metal ballad. The hall was fuller than for the opener and there were more heads banging in the crowd, so Valkyrja got into it too, took their show up a level and wrapped it up like pros.
Death – Wolf struck in the third battle line of the tank division. Musically they’re quite different from the first two, since besides the dominant death metal you can hear punk/rock rhythms in their songs. I noticed a huge difference in the sound itself, which was heavier and louder, and the whole crowd in the hall succumbed to it. The hall was packed to nearly every corner, and the first four rows were literally eating out of Death Wolf’s hands. The show went smoothly and tight, with no long-winded speeches from the vocalist and no endless, pointless guitar solos. Considering that the band has been around since 2000 and its mastermind is bassist Morgan (guitarist and heart of Marduk), it’s more than clear we’re dealing with professional musicians. Death Wolf’s set was truly excellent, and the crowd backed it up with a mosh pit, no less.
A bit after nine, things got serious. The intro kicked in, and a Grave banner hung in the background. Ola Lindgren and co. stepped on stage. It’s interesting that Swedish death metal heavyweights Grave play as one of Marduk’s support acts, considering they’ve been around for more than twenty years and have a ton of mileage behind them. The hall was literally bursting at the seams, and if Gala Hala hadn’t been renovated this year, I’m sure plaster would’ve started falling from the ceiling and old bricks would’ve come flying off the walls and buried us. Grave buried us instead, with a sound a notch heavier than Death Wolf’s, and I honestly don’t know how I could describe their set any better than with the word phenomenal. In short, everything ran like clockwork. The guitar tone was clean, the drums didn’t boom or sound over-triggered, and Ola, as a real frontman, tied the show together brilliantly and egged on the crazed crowd between songs. Grave rightfully reign over the death metal scene, and I think for many in attendance they were the highlight of the night.
After Grave left, we heard a longer intro in the background, which also accompanied the »roadies« as they prepared instruments and other gear for the main event, and only ended when the band walked out. Time for the final reckoning and the final panzer attack. On this tour Marduk first play the whole album Panzer Division Marduk (released in 1999) and then Those of the Unlight, in honor of the album’s twentieth anniversary. Every true Marduk fan knows that Panzer Division Marduk is their fastest album, with eight songs racing by in a good twenty-eight minutes. The first part of their set was no different. The songs flew by one after another, in the same order as on the album. Here I’d especially point out that Mortus occasionally faltered vocally and went quiet, since he couldn’t keep up with the speed and swallowed bits of lyrics more than once. The Panzer part of the set was played well instrumentally, but wasn’t the most convincing vocally. After Fist Fucking God’s Planet the guys left the stage for a moment and came back with the second part of the set, made up of songs from Those of the Unlight. Overall the second part went much better, as Mortus held up better vocally too. The songs from Those of the Unlight also differ structurally from the Panzer ones, since they even calm down a bit in places. The classic Wolves provides a bit of contrast as well.
All in all, the night at Metelkova was more than excellent, and I think everyone found something for their ears.
Setlist
MARDUK:
Set 1- Panzer Divison Marduk:
1. Panzer Divison Marduk
2. Baptism By Fire
3. Christraping Black Metal
4. Scorched Earth
5. Beast of Prey
6. Blooddawn
7. 502
8. Fistfucking God’s Planet
Set 2 – Those of The Unlight:
1. Darkness Breeds Immortality
2. Those of The Unlight
3. Wolves
4. On Darkened Wings
5. Burn My Coffin
6. A Sculpture of the Night
7. Echoes From The Past
8. Stone Stands It’s Silent Vigil
Photo Gallery
