Written by:	Abattoir
Published:	February 28, 2019

Round 07 : Aversions Crown, Psycroptic, Hollow World, Hadal Maw (13.02.2019 - Ljubljana/Slovenia) --> Venue: Orto Bar (hall)

CONCERT REVIEW:

An all-in Australian death metal package was up on the bill this time. Aversions Crown and Psycroptic as co-headliners on this trek, Hollow World and Hadal Maw as support acts. All four bands were also presenting a first-time live experience for me. The venue (located in our main city) was quite poorly filled, maybe a little less than half of the full capacity, which means that around 100 people gathered to witness this gig.

I'll combine briefly the performance review of both support bands, Hadal Maw and Hollow World. Both Melbourne-based bands prepared a 30-minute long set, with predominantly tech death (Hadal Maw) and melodeath (Hollow World) sounds being presented to the crowd. Hadal Maw kind of struggled with the overall setting of the sound; the vocalist looked like some kind of prison-break psycho, without any strong vocal abilities, to be honest. Generally, it was one of those bands that certainly would never see me standing there again till the end of the set. On the other hand, Hollow World showed much more performance capacity and technical abilities with their more melodic approach. The band had also tapped Origin vocalist Jason Keyser just a couple of days before this gig to replace Ben Roberts (who had to leave the group in the middle of this tour due to unforeseen circumstances). Definitely an improvement with a more brutal outcome, as expected. So, yeah, Hollow World showed themselves in a brighter light then their predecessors.

Next on the stage were Psycroptic, the first of the two main acts of the evening. Psycroptic can be mentioned as the most experienced group/line-up from all appearing performers, having seven full-length albums under their belt, with their latest one - As The Kingdom Drowns - being promoted on this European trek. Personally, I rarely swim into the waters of the tech death scene and have never been tempted by this genre that much. However, as I've said many times, personal music taste and favoritism toward certain subgenres don't play a key role in attending live shows for me (with rare exceptions). Psycroptic managed to pull off a technical and complete, harmonized performance, with great precision, solos flying all over my ears, and for sure with a higher level of haste and extremity overall. The feeling of "fear" (which it really wasn't) that their level of performance would decrease at any point through the entire set was out of the question. Outcome: Psycroptic "won" this time.




But the night was not over, of course. The last noise-bringers of the night, Aversions Crown, showed up. The Brisbane-based quintet basically builds a wall of straight deathcore sound. I must admit, it was massive. Two 8-string shredding guitars, heavy pounding, intense drumming (very likable), with lots of breakdowns during the songs/set. And that was actually the main attraction and bait for the crowd, devoted to headbanging, neckbreaking, and hair flowing all over the place. Yet Aversions Crown cannot offer complex, multi-layered music, nor can they stretch in terms of creativity; lots of songs stayed in their core sounds and went through the same pattern. The limitations of deathcore. For me, it was intriguing and satisfying from the beginning, but soon after it became predictable.

The final outcome from down under: (under) average Hadal Maw, passable Hollow World, victorious Psycroptic, and part-time interesting Aversions Crown.

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Round 08 : Obscura, Fallujah, Allegaeon, First Fragment (23.02.2019 - Salzburg/Austria) --> Venue: Rockhouse

CONCERT REVIEW:

This time I was heading out for my longest trip (up to now), to one of the most well-known cities in Austria: Salzburg. Salzburg is approximately 400 km away, and it took me around 3h 45min to get there without any kind of problems on the road. The finish line was the venue, called Rockhouse. The performers of this gig were four groups with kind of a close range of musical subgenre directions. The opening act was Canada-based outfit First Fragment, followed by two American bands, Allegaeon and Fallujah, while the conclusion belonged to the headliners from Germany, Obscura. This gig was also their final on this trek.

First Fragment's performance passed by quickly. Not in the sense that their set was only 30 minutes long, which was the same as Allegaeon's, but meaning that it went through without any significant influence, to be honest, at least for me. Sometimes I get the feeling that the lack of expectations and excitement for the appearance of lesser-known bands (to me or anyone else for that matter), especially opening ones (with many to follow), is unjustified and without any concrete argument. Nevertheless, it's nothing unusual.

Allegaeon came up next to the stage. The beginning already brought a more intense and pumped-up performance compared to their predeccessors. I was actually looking forward to this band the most out of all appearing this evening. Giving a bit more melody to their tech death sound or vice versa, it just sounds better and suits my aural senses better, if I emphasize the comparison to other bands, that mainly stick to the line of technical/progressive death metal. Allegaeon did achieve their purpose and warmed up the crowd significantly for the upcoming bands.




California-based metallers Fallujah marched onto the scene next. Fallujah did lift the bar of intensity and sovereignty even higher. They possess more progressive influence to their death metal sound, with more dynamic and rhythmically shifting tracks; they triggered the majority of the crowd instantly. Throughout the whole 45-minute set they managed to hold the quality of performance at a very high level. Personally, their music does not benefit my needs, but it was awe-inspring observing the response of the whole place, together with the super-engaged Fallujah on the stage.

German quartet Obscura were up on the stage last, performing as the headliners of this tour. It was a heavy task for them to overcome their predecessors. Obscura is known for consistency throughout its career of creating and releasing new albums/music. They've become an established metal band, which has also been confirmed with their latest full-length effort, Diluvium. It accounted for a fair share of the tracks on the set list (along with the Akróasis album). As expected, with the beginning of their performance, all those empty corners of the place had been filled. Obscura are far from being just "another" technical death metal band around. As we were able to witness, their execution on the stage - from complex, diverse guitar work, a strong bass sound, and compact drums (bringing their own of course) - was almost close to perfection. It might be strange to comment, but it seemed that they were playing with such simplicity. Obscura smashed everyone, everyone performing before them. And with that being said, they justified the role of a headliner this night.

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Round 09 : Sunnata, Weedpecker (28.02.2019 - Zagreb/Croatia) --> Venue: Klub Mocvara

CONCERT PREFACE:

This time, touring Europe and visiting Zagreb, will be a double psychedelic/stoner/doom excitement from Warsaw (Poland) - Sunnata and Weedpecker. Over the last couple of years, there have been quite a few Polish bands emerging out of this subgenre combo, producing and offering strong vibes. And Sunnata and Weedpeckerare definitely not exceptions in this case. Both groups will also be presenting new albums on this tour, playing some new tunes for us. It will also be the first live encounter with both bands for me.

Entrance fee: 7?



Round 10 : Shadow Universe, Monstrumental (01.03.2019 - Ljubljana/Slovenia) --> Venue: Orto Bar (hall)

CONCERT PREFACE:

After the first two all-Slovenian events that I attended in January, it's time for another chance to improve the whole picture. This time I'll witness to post-rock project Shadow Universe. Suprising or not, this will actually be their premiere live performance. The band released a very solid second instrumental album, Speaking For Clouds, in September 2018. Post-rock is my thing, so I hope to get some exceptional, out-of-this-world vibes in return. The second Slovenian band appearing, and also the opening one, will be Monstrumental. The multigenre, nonmetal trio is unknown to me, so I can hardly say anything special about it. They released their 30-minute-long debut in January. More to be said in the review.

Entrance fee: 8?