Day two kicked off with the less extreme sounds of Belgian speed/heavy metallers Speed Queen, who made the trip to Tolminator all the way from Belgium and — like the true road warriors they are (both their EPs have a road theme: King of the Road and Still on the Road) — had well and truly earned their crowd. There were decent numbers in front of the small stage despite the early hour, and the sun had done a solid job drying things out after Tuesday’s rain. Speed Queen delivered a seriously fun start to day two, packed with heavy/thrash/speed riffs and the sky-high vocals of an energetic frontman; going by what we saw and heard, their eighties-rooted approach clearly draws heavy inspiration from fellow Belgians Evil Invaders.
A very different and decidedly more extreme presentation came from Nova Gorica death ‘n’ rollers Hellcrawler, who worship at the altar of Swedish death metal, HM-2 pedals, and their own post-apocalyptic mythology — which I’d wager drew at least some inspiration from King’s The Dark Tower (which itself borrowed plenty from Leone’s spaghetti westerns). Hellcrawler hit in the early afternoon like a desert sandstorm, and I’m hoping the reason for their relatively rare live appearances is a new album in the works — because after the 2016 release of Sandstorm Chronicles, we’ve been waiting with scorched, radiation-blistered, wide-open arms.
Austrian Fearancy kept things in death metal territory, but Maltese outfit Hemplifier (the wordplay doesn’t really need spelling out) made a sharp sonic U-turn and presented their vision of almost entirely instrumental stoner metal. It didn’t stray in any obvious way from the genre’s established playbook — green tinges and all — but the Maltese boys were a welcome change of pace on the day’s lineup.
Next up were more local heroes, Morost, who delivered a proper shot of progressive and melodic death metal and managed to pull a solid crowd in front of the stage — along with some ominous dark clouds overhead. Thankfully the weather held, and despite the obviously complex rhythms and frequent unexpected twists, the crowd was visibly loving it, even though Morost ran into some technical snags along the way.
The small stage wrapped up with Dutch post-black metallers Terzij De Horde, though I unfortunately caught too little of their set to give an honest verdict. More to say, then, about the first act on the main stage: Czech outfit Stellvris, fronted by the charismatic singer Nicol, who proved herself a true vocal chameleon — equally at home with clean singing and harsh vocals, and particularly commanding in the screaming department. Stellvris served up textbook metalcore with a few djent touches, plenty of breakdowns, and even the odd bass drop. Their high-energy approach clearly won over the crowd on hand — not something I’d personally stake my hand in the fire for when it comes to their musical approach, but there’s no question that Nicol’s, ahem, impressive lung capacity is a major live asset.
Nothing could have prepared the crowd for the madness that followed. Austrian — or more precisely, Tyrolean — thrash/crossover outfit Insanity Alert hit Tolminator like a tornado and dragged everyone into a full-blown thrash frenzy, with moshing and all-round “good friendly violent fun” showing absolutely no signs of stopping. Frontman Heavy Kevy had the audience eating out of his hand, with a constant stream of wisecracks, terrible jokes, and piss-taking at metal stereotypes flying from the stage. Musically, Insanity Alert aren’t exactly reinventing the wheel — bands like D.R.I., Municipal Waste, and S.O.D. already said everything there is to say stylistically — but their one-, two-, three-minutes-tops thrash-punk blasts burrowed into your skull like Cronenbergian body snatchers and turned the crowd into a drooling, unthinking hive-brain entity for a solid hour (meant in the best possible way — All Mosh/No Brain), dutifully obeying every command for mosh pits and circle pits that Heavy Kevy fired from the stage, including ones written on cardboard signs: “Fuck This Shit,” “Let’s Circle Pit,” and so on. The madness peaked with the closing track Run to the Pit — naturally a rework of the Maiden classic Run to the Hills.
After that high-octane thrash dose, post-black metallers Ellende had a genuinely tough job convincing people to stick around — one they unfortunately didn’t manage, and I used their set as an opportunity to refuel with a veggie kebab and a beer. Then, refreshed, I headed back to the stage for a trip through history — over a hundred years back, to when the hills around Tolmin thundered with cannon fire and artillery salvos during one of the bloodiest chapters in human history. German black metallers Kanonenfieber are a memorial and a warning for the carnage of World War One; their entirely German lyrics are drawn from primary documents and soldiers’ letters. On stage, Kanonenfieber build a genuine atmosphere with barbed wire, sandbags, uniforms, expressionless black masks, and recorded speeches of Kaiser Wilhelm II — all of it underpinned by top-tier black metal elevated by melodic passages and death metal elements throughout. The incredible atmosphere was cranked up even further by an approaching thunderstorm with lightning and thunder, and Kanonenfieber will go down as one of the highlights of this year’s Tolminator.
Probably the most internationally active band on the local roster, Within Destruction unfortunately drew the short straw and played right through a heavy downpour that thinned the crowd considerably. It’s great to see how far the band has come since their debut From the Depths, released over a decade ago. Operating as a trio these days, Within Destruction handled their set professionally and confidently despite the sparse turnout — here’s hoping for better weather next time.
It’s been a long, long time since I last saw them, and this time around I was reminded all over again of why that is. Their troll-black folk metal simply isn’t for my ears — I find it hard going — but I gave them a fair chance to change my mind anyway. They didn’t. Neither did their fanbase, who staged a quasi-rowing session (read: sitting on the floor and paddling an imaginary boat), which has long since become standard practice at Finntroll and similarly inclined bands. Maybe I’m just getting old, grumpy, cranky, and infirm — who knows.
Day two wrapped up in style with Norwegian black metal veterans bringing the plague to Tolminator. 1349 is, of course, the year the Black Death arrived in Norway and — much like elsewhere in Europe — wiped out two-thirds of the population. Fittingly, 1349 sound dark and evil, as a black metal band should. But fatigue and the weather had clearly taken their toll, and just like Norway in 1349, the crowd was decimated. Since black metal in the vein of Gorgoroth and Dark Funeral isn’t exactly my cup of (black) tea, I soon joined them.
Words: Rok Klemše
Photos: Sebastijan Videc
