Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Photos: Nina Grad
Location: Zagreb / Pogon Jedinstvo / Croatia
Concert date: 15.10.2012
Attendance: 400
Ticket price: 170.00 HRK
The first notable metal event of this fall brought an unusual combo to our parts: two bands about as far apart musically as the magnetic poles of the Earth’s axis. On one side, doom metal legends and in many ways one of the most influential metal bands around, Paradise Lost, in their new role as tour headliners, and on the other, cerebral Swedish-American progressives Soen, who got the job of supporting the English metal veterans.
The ritual of analytical self-indulgence from our beloved online magazine along the always-fraternal Ljubljana-Zagreb axis isn’t exactly rare in the gig offerings of recent years. When it’s two names this interesting, it’s no doubt worth skipping the ice cream in Portorož and, after catching the show in Ljubljana, driving out for another round. To Zagreb, that is.
The show was supposed to go down at the Boogaloo club, a venue we’ve gotten well used to over the years, but it got moved to a new location, the Pogon hall, which sits on the grounds of the former »Jedinstvo« factory on Savski nasip, right where the Močvara club is. The minimalist space can’t compete with the »splendor« of Ljubljana’s CUK Kino Šiška, where both bands enjoyed the stage the day before, but that remark is basically beside the point. The main yardstick for a venue is its acoustics. And Pogon, active for two years now, proved on our first visit that on this front it can be more than trusted. The reason for the venue change most likely lies in the rental costs.
Just like in Ljubljana, the legendary Croatian dark rock / post punk act Phantasmagoria took the stage a little before eight. They’re a relic of a band, formed back when post punk was hugely popular in the late eighties. A band built on punk elements is basically incompatible as an opener for Paradise Lost, and yet it’s not entirely so. Both Paradise Lost and Phantasmagoria have a gothic element, and the energy occasionally draws a very thin, painless parallel in atmospheric content, especially if you’re looking for a link to the gothic era of Paradise Lost, which kicks off with the album One Second.
Phantasmagoria is a quintet that will hit its 25th anniversary next year. Arriving on the scene, it quickly gained cult status among the bands of the alternative rock underground of the late, great Yugoslavia. The war in the Balkans later messed up their plans quite a bit, but despite the unfortunate fact that Phantasmagoria never managed to release a single studio album in all that time, they’ve never stopped playing live. The years of extravagance, excess and provocation are more or less behind Tomi and company. Tomi left the hats inherited from Fields Of Nephilim and the dark Ray Bans of Andrew Eldritch (The Sisters Of Mercy) at home, but Phantasmagoria still keep up a polished stage look and a gothic-darker persona that tells you right away that a genie has jumped out of the bottle, trapped in time. There were originals Broken Mirror, Isoleted, In The Middle Of Nowhere, Land Of Fantasy, Alex, plus a sped-up, furious cover of cult Macedonian alternative band Mizar, titled Djevojka od Bronca.,… The typical post punk use of retro eighties synth backdrops, a wound-up, rattling and prominent bass line that actually steals the lead from the guitars, and of course Tomi’s deep, thunderous singing! All very tight and very convincing in delivery. Very good sound for a support act. You can tell the band has a lovely era of rock behind it. Phantasmagoria got a bit more of a response from the crowd in Zagreb than they did at their show in Ljubljana the day before.
Soen hit the stage a little past nine. The band’s core figures are Opeth drummer Martin Lopez and one of the best bassists in metal, Steve DiGiorgio, who again didn’t make it onto the tour, but the band found more than a decent replacement for him (sadly I couldn’t dig up the name anywhere). Led by a charismatic frontman, Swede Joel Ekelöf, with guitarist Kim Platbazdis in charge of the riff wall, it’s a new cerebral progressive outfit with an icy-cold, melancholic atmosphere. The vocal and melodic lines Joel picks, knowingly or not, pull toward Tool, and the whole thing can occasionally smell of the arrangement ideas of newer Opeth. With the debut » Cognitive« the band isn’t reinventing the wheel. But it’s definitely a fact that Soen’s music played live is much fuller and hits even harder than the studio original. Joel’s stage choreography alone (surely rehearsed in advance) sucks in the listener and hooks them, while it’s a real pleasure to watch what the rhythm section is up to. The latter is the foundation that brings the band’s musical interest, while the guitar is definitely the weakest link in the whole thing.
The sound for Soen wasn’t ideal, not as clear as in Ljubljana, and the band showed a bit of insecurity too, as Kim and the band’s touring keyboardist (couldn’t dig up his name either) didn’t back Joel with vocal harmonies, so those parts, especially in the quiet passages, didn’t come across as intensely as in Ljubljana. Soen are a band with big potential, but to reach for more authenticity in the future, they’ll need to add something to the music, something that moves the band away from sounding like Tool. Maybe a proper guitarist who’s a master of sonic manipulation, as well as more varied and layered guitar playing. It would be interesting to find out one day what we’re missing out on, not being able to enjoy the stage wizardry on fretless bass of the most serene guru of bass playing, Steve DiGiorgio.
Paradise Lost delivered their standard show, as expected. Standard for the last few years, that is, since we can no longer get around the fact that Nick Holmes is vocally worn down. Not only can he not hold the growl, which condemns fans to a band that doesn’t play material from the first two studio albums, he can’t handle the higher registers anymore either when using his standard falsetto, his clean vocal. The setlists in Ljubljana and Zagreb were identical
Especially since the band’s return to its old tracks with the last three albums, each a quality step up from the one before, the band builds its repertoire of classics mainly from Icon, Draconian Times, Shades Of God, plus One Second, and Erased from »Symbol Of Life«, mixing in songs from the latest releases, with an emphasis on the current studio album. After the opening shrapnel, the instant surprise of the »Icon« classic Widow, there was nobody left in the hall whose goosebumps weren’t stirred into an excited state, and the great new track Honesty In Death kept that going, showing right away that the new album had already caught on with the crowd. The melodic Erased from »Symbol Of Life«, which hints that Paradise Lost use pre-recorded keyboard tracks at shows, sucked the even more intensely present crowd into that doomy atmosphere, and they joined in generously, singing the verses.
The band’s sound was excellent. You had to stand in front of the »clusters« of both sets of monitors, no matter where. Left, right, or in the middle. The guitar sound created that primal, massive, gloomy, resonant, doomy experience typical of the band, which earned them the status of one of the most striking and special bands in the history of metal. The solos, guitar embellishments, even harmonies (there weren’t many, admittedly, say in the new, super-excellent In This We Dwell) all came through great and distinct, the booming bass too, and the drums were tuned to just the right level. This band plays live at a truly top level, no doubt about it.
The problem is Nick Holmes. With all due respect, the singer’s miles on the road, and all he’s given Paradise Lost in his musical career, you could easily turn a blind eye and a deaf ear, because the guy just no longer reaches that enviable vocal level at which he could sing all the songs normally like he used to. It would all be okay if Nick behaved normally on stage. At least in Zagreb.
In Ljubljana the day before, he came across normal on stage. Less talkative, sure, but at least constructive, approachable and unpretentious. None of that held for his performance in Zagreb. Already during Erased he missed a verse, and from there it was only downhill for Nick. After Erased he visibly got furious and simply vanished from the stage. Why, nobody knew. Soon after, during the break, a tech ran onstage and swapped out MacKintosh’s wireless guitar system, which had evidently died. MacKintosh’s seven-string soon roared back to life, ready for the only »Draconian Times« classic of the night, Enchantment; Holmes returns to the stage, the show goes on, and during Enchantment a tech turns up for a few moments to tape down the setlist. Maybe that’s what enraged Holmes. Devil knows.
That Holmes took the stage this time as a »prima donna« was hinted at from the very start of the show, when he gestured with a finger and a glare at the lighting guy at the opposite end of the hall to switch off the front lights. The guy got it fast and obliged. So Holmes couldn’t hold out until the solo, to step a few paces back toward the drum riser and let MacKintosh take the central position on stage, who from there on led the solo on guitar. Only a handful of seconds separated Holmes from that point. But his ego just had to play the fussy clown. The light play is part of a well-rehearsed choreography, set according to the demands of the particular tour, and the reason for the whole theater around the lights that Holmes later kept up on stage throughout the show lies somewhere else. Unless it’s a self-awareness complex: that he can’t decently sing the material anymore and so compensates for his weak spot by diverting attention this way. During the show the singer repeatedly swung the mic stand around wildly and held it in the air as if he wanted to smack someone with it, and a few times he also slammed it hard into the stage floor.
His communication with the crowd wasn’t respectful toward the fans either. »C’mon!!! Clap your hands, if you don’t give a fuck!!!!« and comments like that don’t belong in the arsenal of a healthy band-fan relationship. Luckily the crowd took all this ego theater from the singer as a form of sarcasm, otherwise they’d surely have lynched Holmes already. With Croatian temperament, it’s just not healthy to play games at gigs.
Every normal person who was in the Pogon Jedinstvo hall that day probably whispered to themselves: »If I sang that badly, I’d quit the band and recommend a replacement for me to my buddies!« I honestly don’t know what the relations in the band are like, but in any other band this big, Holmes’ chair would’ve been wobbling for real by now. If you just think of MacKintosh’s toxic growl in his band Vallenfyre, you truly marvel at all the perfection and musical maturity of this excellent guitarist, that he’s tolerated this disturbing flaw in vocal interpretation in Paradise Lost for years. At the show there wasn’t a single song where Holmes didn’t leave part of the verses to the crowd to help him out while the singer saves his strength (and shuts up!).
So it’s not the instrumental side of the crew’s performance, let alone the bold setlist. Those two clicked together really beautifully. The problem is Holmes and his whims. This time his behavior set off negative emotions in the hall, which is why this report is more lenient and less pragmatic than it otherwise would be. The difference between the Ljubljana and Zagreb shows is minimal but weighty. In Ljubljana Holmes reined in his ego, in Zagreb he didn’t. The band played both shows with confidence, and Holmes acted in Zagreb like the princess and the pea. After Just Say Words (»One Second«, 1997), he just yelled a curt »Thank you!!!« and stormed off the stage. MacKintosh looked for him on stage for a few more moments, probably unable to believe himself what was going on with the singer. The rest of Paradise Lost, led by the approachable Greg and Aaron, bid their fans in Zagreb a dignified farewell.
Like I said. It would all be okay, even the fact that Holmes’ vocal range no longer allows an optimal rendition of the Paradise Lost classics, if the guy had shown a different approach and character on stage. As it is, the show left a bitter feeling that Paradise Lost are pulling our leg, if only ever so lightly. Also in that a band that will turn just 25 plays only an hour and a good twenty minutes. That’s almost the level of the burnt-out W.A.S.P., who in their half-baked live output are today propped up on stage by pre-recorded tracks anyway. Whatever. In the future Paradise Lost will probably be visited only by the most die-hard fans and all the remaining metal lovers who appreciate the band but never managed to catch them live on stage.
These half-measure realizations push to the fore all the more after Paradise Lost functioned much better and more convincingly at this year’s summer festivals. According to the first RockLine metal expert and first metal guru, our dear and highly esteemed colleague and friend Rok Klemše, Holmes in Belgrade at the end of June this year (RockLine report HERE) seemed to have noticeably improved his vocal stage approach, and Paradise Lost also confirmed their performing power with a hugely convincing set at this year’s Metal Camp, one of the best of this year’s edition (RockLine report HERE). Too bad this fall tour in support of the album »Tragic Idol« doesn’t live up to the band’s summer form.
Setlist
SOEN:
1. Fraktal
1. Fraccions
3. Delenda
4. Oscillation
5. Last Light
6. Canvas
7. Salvia
8. Slithering
PARADISE LOST:
1. Widow
2. Honesty In Death
3. Erased
4. Enchantment
5. Soul Courageus
6. In This We Dwell
7. Praise Lamented Shade
8.Pitty the Sadness
9. As I Die
10. One Second
11. Tragic Idol
12. The Enemy
—encore—
13. Embers Fire
14. Fear Of Impending Hell
15. Faith Divides Us – Death Unites Us
16. Say Just Words
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