Written by:	Abattoir
Published:	June 14, 2024

ANGELUS APATRIDA, BATTLECREEK – Live In Ljubljana (04.04.2024)

I’ve been chasing to see Angelus Apatrida live for quite a while now. The last time I missed them was last year in November, when they were touring across Europe together with Death Angel and Sacred Reich (pretty cool package). Luckily for me, the Spaniards have been touring quite a lot recently. This time, they were doing a handful of headlining shows with support from German thrashers Battlecreek. The latter might not be particularly known around the thrash metal scene, despite being active for 20 year, but nevertheless they made a strong stand on stage and presented themselves as a solid warm-up act - nothing overwhelming though.

This show took place in a small venue, with maximal capacity of around 100 people. And even this was, to my surprise, not even close to being fulfilled. After all, Angelus Apatrida are not just some regular European thrash metal band. This put a dampener on the evening, yet, on the other hand, there can also be an upside to low attendance in smaller venues; I easily stationed myself very close to the stage, enjoying all the noise and sweat in full. As I predicted and hoped for, Angelus Apatrida put on a joyful thrash metal party throughout their entire set, combining songs from five different albums. Really cool and energetic band.





FINNTROLL, METSATÖLL, SUOTANA – Live In Zagreb (14.04.2024)

While March was packed with death and black metal bands all over the place, April veered towards the other side of the metal crossroads. After seeing Angelus Apatrida a couple of days earlier in our main city, it was time to return across the border to Zagreb, to a very likeable venue - Vintage Industrial Bar - where I haven’t been for quite a while. On the menu, the following package from the northern part of Europe: Finntroll, Metsatöll and Suotana.

The Finnish melodic black/death metal formation Suotana hit the stage first. They mainly concentrated on material from their latest 2023 record, Ounas I, which is their first long player in five years, and a very decent musical output. This album was also the reason that, prior to this event, I was kind of excited to see Suotana live on stage for the very first time. Although their set was short as expected, they left a very strong impression as the openers of this evening, and I would definitely love to hear/see more from them next time.




The second act of the night were the long-standing Estonian folk metal band Metsatöll. Normally, I would not care much about seeing them live; however, I made a commitment to myself to include more genre-diversified events into my concert attending list, which can be rewarding sometimes. It's not that I don't like folk metal by default, it's just not on the priority list compared with many other (sub)genres that I prefer. Metsatöll executed a 60-minute long set decently. Despite not particularly enjoying someone's music, you can sometimes stumble upon some positive moments during their show, and one thing that was quite special to me during their gig was the performance of their multi-instrumentalist (Lauri Ounapuu), who plays several different folk instruments. Damn, the guy was changing those in between, as well as during the songs, like crazy. You could barely follow him. What can I say, a really talented and skilled musician.




The headliners Finntroll is the band that needs no special introduction within the world of (folk) metal music. In their 25+ years-long career, they became known as creators of high-quality music on a constant basis, therefore cementing themselves as one of the most significant and influential bands in (extreme) folk metal. With this, it was time to check them out in live action. While they did not have any new material to present on this trek, they were able to perform tracks from (almost) their entire discography (the exception was their debut full-length). To encapsulate briefly… Finntroll's live appearance surely was an upgrade compared to their predecessors. A strong sound and the band’s assertive performance from the very first beat stimulated a fair dose of adrenaline among the crowd, giving an additional momentum to the whole show. Finntroll did fulfil my expectations; therefore I can affirm the successful conclusion of the evening.





GODSPEED YOU! BLACK EMPEROR – Live In Ljubljana (26.04.2024)

Saving the best for the end right? Well, that was about to be found out.

What would an unsecure April be without some exquisite wandering through mesmerizing landscapes, providing an emotional ambience. The Canadian post-rock maestros Godspeed You! Black Emperor were here to entertain us with their alluring experimental approach, including concomitant orchestral elements. The band that is celebrating 30 years of existence is also known to create an indispensable unique visual experience with accompanying film collages, which consequently disclose even more cohesiveness and dynamics through their transcending performance. And if you have eight experienced musicians on the stage – three guitarists (one also on keys occasionally), bassist, double-bass player, violinist, and two drummers/percussionists – there is so much to comprehend from all these instruments. To make these compositions sound as they do in the end with this band - extraordinary and astounding - these pieces must fit on all right places.




As a post-rock enthusiast, I would definitely love to see more bands live from this field. Unfortunately, with some exceptions (Mono, God Is An Astronaut, This Will Destroy You and, in recent years, also GY!BE), there are few groups that are making or would be able to make a touring run in Europe. There are certain organized events and festivals, such as Portals and Beyond The Redshift festivals in UK, Roadburn Festival in The Netherlands or Dunk!Fest in Belgium, that feature a fair portion of post-rock acts on their line-ups, and which I could, hopefully sometime soon, attend. So, there was real appreciation for having the opportunity to see a post-rock band live. Godspeed You! Black Emperor, well done!