Author: Rok Klemše
Photos: Nina Grad
Venue: Gala Hala
Concert date: 30.09.2012
The fall concert season is in full swing, and the first month of autumn has already brought a good number of gigs (Immolation/Marduk, Nasum, etc.). On the last day of September we got the return of the legendary British thrashers Onslaught, and, after a long time, a thrash metal show at the renovated, freshened-up Channel Zero. If my memory serves me right, the last thrash gig at this club was the phenomenal show by Danish legends Artillery back in September 2009, which still holds a special place in my memory. Judging by that night, last Sunday promised another great thrash party.
On The Full Force tour, Onslaught are joined by Germany’s Cripper and the Dutch crew Izegrim, who were also the first on stage. The Dutch death/thrash outfit is led by the Amazon warrior Marloes, who, besides the battle cries, also digs into the bass strings. The girl and the guys ran through their three albums in a good half hour and served up thrash-minded guitars, while Marloes added a hint of death metal to the mix with her growling. But really only a hint, because at heart Izegrim are a thrash metal band that makes heavy use of harmonic guitar passages and melodic embellishments, which puts them very close to Sweden’s Arch Enemy. And it’s not just the female vocalist that makes the comparison fair, because Izegrim really do sound like a »poor man’s Arch Enemy.« Mostly for lack of better and more varied riffs, the Dutch start to sound repetitive and one-dimensional after a few songs. Even Marloes’ fiery encouragement couldn’t get the sparse crowd moving in any serious way, but credit where it’s due: Izegrim delivered a solid, energetic performance of fairly average material.
The quality curve then shot sharply upward with the arrival of the German thrash band led by the angry-voiced Britta Görtz. Cripper were thus the second band of the night fronted by the “gentler” sex. Why the quotation marks? Because Britta kicks the ass of plenty of male vocalists in the same genre, and for fun she’d eat three quarters of the slick-haired cookie monster singers. With every studio release Cripper show clear progress. This year’s Antagonist is the band’s best record so far, and all that heavy gigging is paying off big time too. The guys and Britta launched into their set like an Apollo rocket and played three quarters of an hour of stormy, fiery, aggressive thrash that, at times, mostly thanks to the excellent groovy riffs, recalled the giants Exodus. All that touring shows: on stage they look fused with it, the tightness is perfect, and over it all hovers Britta’s raw barking, which is brutal yet completely intelligible. During General Routine, Britta slapped a general’s cap on her head, then jumped into the crowd and ruthlessly shoved it toward the front rows. Cripper had already warmed the crowd up properly and set the stage for the headliners, though I can’t shake the feeling that they remind me a lot of their German thrash colleagues Dew-Scented. Which can of course only be a good thing!
»Use the Force« said Onslaught, and they decided that on this tour they’d play the cult album The Force (1986) in full for the very first time. In my opinion, along with Xentrix – For Whose Advantage and Sabbat – Dreamweaver, it marks the peak of thrash from the British Isles. Onslaught last played here in 2009 at Paranoid Open Air, which singer Sy Keeler apparently forgot, remembering only their show at Metalcamp 2008. This time the gig was all the more tempting because you could hear the Force of British thrash in its entirety. Original drummer Steve Grice left Onslaught last year, but the guys quickly bolstered the lineup with Michael Hourihan (Desecration, ex-Extreme Noise Terror), who made sure the lonely Sunday-night Metelkova shook for real. Onslaught began by caressing our eardrums with two crushers each from Killing Peace (2007) and Sounds of Violence (2011), and then Let There Be Death announced the trip back to 1986. The veterans proved that the years haven’t touched them: Sy screamed like his life depended on it, and original guitarist Nige Rockett served up riffs with his left hand that, after twenty-five years, still sound fresh and deadly. The band launched into The Force with energy and got a packed Channel Zero moving, while the crowd devoured the classics with great joy and joined Keeler in roaring through the thrash anthems Metal Forces, Contract in Blood and Thrash ’til the Death. Diabolical riffs flew from every direction, the solos were excellent too, and the aggressive, seething vocals of the fantastic frontman Sy Keeler wrapped it up with Power From Hell, followed in the encore by two bombs, Angels of Death and Thermonuclear Devastation. 666% Pure Thrash!
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