Author: Rok Klemše
Photos: Nina Grad
Venue: Orto bar, Ljubljana
Concert date: 19.12.2013
If there’s no snow, then at least let there be bora in Ljubljana, said the two bands from the coast, Almost Rage and Incarnated! At the traditional Thursday Kadilnica of Death night, a seriously heavy death/thrash bora blew in from the coast, and this time it was even more worth catching, because it saw Koper thrash metallers Almost Rage officially wave goodbye to the concert stage.
It was a slightly curious call to let Almost Rage hit the stage first, since they got going way back in 2005, back then still as The Fifth Season. Three years later they renamed themselves Almost Rage, and three years after that they put out their loooong-awaited debut studio album Almost There.. For quite a while the Koper boys stayed active live mostly in their own neck of the woods, until they finally climbed over the Vrhnika hill too, and sadly played their farewell show in Orto last Thursday. It’s nice that the guys are parting on friendly terms, but it’s a real shame they’re heading off into early retirement. A shame mostly because Almost Rage were a pretty unique thrash metal band, not completely stuck in Bay Area or tectonic thrash waters, but running a rather distinctive style of its own, full of fat groove and crushing mid-tempo. A little over two years ago (if I’m not mistaken) the band was beefed up by guitarist Bojan Sinkovič (ex-Root ‘a Balluta), who helped take the band up another notch. Almost Rage captured their vision of thrash brilliantly on the debut, but this time they surprisingly announced their farewell show. Still, the guys didn’t approach the goodbye with any hurt feelings or self-pity, and played the Orto bar show at full throttle. We can thank the excellent sound for making Almost Rage thunderous and mighty, and their devilish tightness for the outstanding stage energy. That’s best embodied by the stoic yet masterful presence of Edi »Ejaq« Ujovič, who reliably delivered thick bass lines and a wonderfully delivered half-growled vocal. On his left and right, Iztok Bajc and Bojan Sinkovič confidently handled the sawing, wowing everyone with their huge energy and fantastic playing, with Bojan in particular showing off his skills slaloming through solos on the strings. Behind the trio up front, Igor Marasovič pounded the skins without mercy, visibly enjoying himself and strongly resembling Lars Ulrich with his grimaces. Except he plays the drums way better, hehe. The songs The Dark Side, Immortal Thoughts and Scars in Desert, already familiar from the debut, got the necks properly moving, while the newer tracks only confirmed that we’re going to miss Almost Rage. Maybe the closing, farewell song Rise Again was meaningful after all?
To finish off, the old guard handed the stage to the young, up-and-coming force of the local metal scene, their fellow Coast dwellers Incarnated, who are slowly but surely and convincingly conquering stages at home. Once you see them live, it’s quickly clear why. Incarnated build their musical bora on thrash that at times comes close to Nevermore, and death metal whose melody and punch recall At the Gates, and then they successfully top it off with a generous helping of technical complexity, which brings them closer to more modern acts like Gojira, Arsis and Revocation. The guys took the stage as confidently and convincingly as a band with many years of experience and fired off a truly stunning set, full of fiery guitar pyrotechnics and really dynamic, undulating metal. The solo excursions of the fantastic guitar duo Marko Kocjančič/Andrej Rot were breathtaking, sweeping and shredding up and down the necks of their axes as effortlessly as if they weren’t firing off lightning-fast note runs but playing Paw Patrol. The rhythm section lagged slightly behind the explosive guitar fireworks, but held down a reliable foundation with its pounding, just as reliably as Aleš Prinčič warmed up the crowd and abused the mic at the same time. The frontman’s stage experience from his days in Hiram and Root ‘a Balluta shows, because he knows how to completely command the stage, and he’s convincing with a brutal, varied and dynamic vocal performance too – one moment he barks like Tomas Lindgren, the next he growls like Frank Mullen, and then he’s aggressive like Joe Duplantier. The vocal duet with Ejaq in the song Wrath turned out like a proper tornado! Judging by what we saw and heard, Incarnated hold huge promise for the future, so there’s no need to fear that the coastal metal bora will lose its force anytime soon.
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