Performers: Classified, Mist, Helstar
Location: Ljubljana, Orto bar, Slovenia
Date: May 15, 2014
If you had nowhere to be last Thursday, maybe it’s really time to think about retiring from gigs. In Kranj, Sarcasm were thrashing as part of Youth Week, Dickless Tracy were dishing out brutality at Gala hala, and over at Orto bar the legendary Texan heavy/power/speed metallers Helstar returned to Slovenian stages after four years, this time with a new studio album, This Wicked Nest.
First to kick off this genre-spanning evening were the thrashers Classified from Medvode, once again beefed up with Alex Škofljanec (Negligence) behind the drums. The Medvode crew didn’t hold back one bit and buried the crowd in aggressive Bay Area thrash, massive riffs and a jolting, tectonically shaking rhythm section. You can tell Classified have been racking up the gig mileage: they look more and more confident on stage and they’re excellent both instrumentally and vocally. Sadly, though, their own material stays in the realm of “already heard” and not exactly earth-shattering thrash, a style that is currently dying in installments, with only the occasional flash of life.
Then the Ljubljana doom ladies Mist drifted into Orto bar like a mist, bringing slower, more seductive and more ominous tones. They’re busy spreading their name across Europe (there’s even a prestigious slot at the cult Hammer of Doom festival in Germany coming up soon!). Just like their colleagues from Medvode, Mist show the effects of the ever-ticking stage-mileage counter, because the girls blend into the stage a little more each time. Nina’s vocals get more convincing all the time, and with the support of her bandmates she easily slips into a ritual trance, backed by slowly rolling yet convincing riffs and Neža’s properly grooving bass. Their own material has already settled in with the crowd, especially Phobia and The Living Dead from the demo, and the extremely faithful and suitably stoned rendition of the Pentragram classic Relentless wins people over every time. If there’s anything to nitpick about Mist, it’s a touch of shyness, which will surely vanish with gigs on stages around Europe. It’s also hard not to look forward to the full-length debut the girls are planning for around the end of this year.
Ever since their comeback, Helstar have been somewhat obsessed with horns and skulls (the main motif on their album covers since the “come-back” album The King of Hell), and the Texans greeted the Slovenian crowd once again in exactly that style. James RIvera, practically an honorary Slovenian by now, climbed on stage to the crushing sounds of Fall of Dominion wearing a horned skull mask, glaring right off the cover of the new album This Wicked Nest. On this tour the legendary Helstar aren’t just marking a new album, they’re also celebrating the thirtieth anniversary of their cult debut Burning Star. Fittingly, a good chunk of the set was painted in the colors of the burning star (Toward the Unknown, Leather And Lust, Dracula’s Castle, Witch’s Eye, Burning Star), and once again every single second of the show was devoted to top-notch playing. Drummer Mikey pounded the skins like a true Tormentor, and the guitar duo of Barragan/Trevino once again delivered brilliant guitar work that was a feast for both ears and eyes. Ripping riffs and brilliantly composed solo duels came flying from all sides. The only thing missing, maybe, was a song or two more from the classic era of Remnants of War-A Distant Thunder-Nosferatu, where this virtue of Helstar hit its absolute peak and wrote the band into history forever. Newer-era Helstar are simply buried a bit deeper than before in a truly hard-hitting, aggressive and brutal (almost) thrash metal assault, and James’s noticeably rawer vocals fit that. Still, he proved with a phenomenal vocal performance why he’s one of the most respected vocal names in metal. And we absolutely can’t forget the Russian bassist Matej, who’s filling in on stage for the ailing Abarca. That Russian, as James and Larry joked, was of course none other than Matej Sušnik (Metalsteel), who also recorded This Wicked Nest with the band. Helstar said goodnight after an hour and a half with the legendary classic Run With the Pack, and even though this gig never came close to the unforgettable madness of Helstar’s first visit to Bazen in Kranj, you know you can count on Helstar for top-notch playing, sickeningly good vocals and dazzling poetry of guitar genius every single time. It was no different tonight, because even after thirty years Helstar still glow like a burning star!
Author: Rok Klemše
Photos: Nina Grad
