location: Tolmin, MINK, Slovenia
date: Friday, 30.11.2018
performers: Valvera, Minotauro
The last Friday of November this year rolled around, which was also the very last day of the month. In Tolmin, the capital of Northern Primorska, it was reserved for metal. Tolmin is famous for one of the most impressive metal festivals in Europe, but the rest of the year, at least as far as metal goes, it turns into a fairly quiet town. Well, a small place, really. It’s by no means dead when it comes to gigs, it’s just that metal shows are rarer than you’d like. Anyway, one of those days finally came around, and we spent it on the classic Kovačija–MC Mink route and back. On their first European tour, Brazilian thrash metal revivalists Valvera from Sao Paulo stopped in Tolmin. They were touring their second studio album, »Back To Hell«, which came out last year. The quartet has been around since 2010, with a lineup of Glauber Barreto (vocals, guitar), Rodrigo Torres (guitar), Jesiel Lagoin (bass) and Vini Rossignolo (drums).
It’s practically a tradition at Mink that showtimes are set very late. About twenty minutes to ten, nothing was happening at the venue yet, so we had to cross the intersection to the neighboring Kovačija for a pint of Bernard lager. An hour or so ticks by, and then a bunch of buddies come stumbling back over that same traffic-light intersection from the Mink side to Kovačija, saying the first band has been playing for about twenty minutes already. Whoa. Finally. Quick dash down the long staircase of Mink into the basement and the venue.
There stood Minotauro, an Italian-Slovenian power metal sextet with a firm foundation in symphonic arrangements. I hadn’t had the chance to watch Minotauro “properly” live yet. Okay, years ago at Metaldays festival, but a club show is a whole different beast. A brand new story. The band radiated great, cheerful vibes. The guitars were clearly audible, and the tandem of Roko and Nik Smajlagič on guitars worked perfectly. The band can be proud of both studio albums, which boast enviable songwriting and the bombast of symphonic power metal melodiousness and catchiness. The structures are fairly complex and the guys have to follow each other closely to keep the flow and tightness going through the whole concert setlist. Vocalist Rudi Breginc impressed a few times with his wide vocal range. He can go really high and you could feel he could explode even higher and let loose vocally even more. The sound was solid. Solid for the listener, that is. The band wouldn’t quite agree with me there, since there were quite a few glances exchanged between members who obviously couldn’t hear each other all that well on stage. The keyboards got the short end of the stick in the mix, at times not loud enough, and Rudi could have been nudged up a notch in the mix too. Otherwise, a very nice show, tailor-made especially for die-hard fans of proper Euro power metal. The band presented both studio albums (»Master of the Sea« (2013), »Apocayptic Sense« (2017)), and for the finale they let loose a bit more, tackling the Deep Purple classic Burn with total confidence, with Nik dramatically dropping to his knees and bending backwards Randy Rhoads style at the end.
Valvera is a band cut from entirely different cloth. From the other side of the planet, and of course coming from a different musical background too. Valvera are Brazilian thrash metal revivalists. Unlike Minotauro, who played for 90 minutes, the Brazilians cut their set down to just 45 minutes. But they played those 45 minutes as wildly as humanly possible. Passionate, unbridled and at full power. They hacked through song after song, and their music showed no small amount of inspiration from the legacy of German Teutonic thrash (Kreator, Destruction). Definitely with a sense of musicality, plus tasty modulations, which also conjured up the greatness of good old school Bay Area thrash. Superb use of the stage, constant running from one end of the stage to the other, standing shoulder to shoulder with both guitarists and the bassist, and an old school outfit with high-tops and ripped skin-tight jeans. Non-stop stage dynamics and outstanding playing at the same time. Soloing in every possible position and pose, and it was hard to spot any serious mistake in the performance. Excellent tightness as a unit. The band really performed with a full swing and unleashed enormous amounts of energy while playing. A storm at MINK, in other words. The only shame is that once again there were hardly any people. The count hovered between 20 and 30 attendees, which sounds scary. Such a pity. Valvera are an excellent crew and this night they definitely deserved more attention. A band that thoroughly churned up the air currents of MINK and cleaned out the ear canals of the few “knuckleheads” among us who truly enjoyed their stage wildness with all our heart and soul.
author: Aleš Podbrežnik
photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
