Written by:	Abattoir
Published:	January 22, 2025

SATAN– Zagreb @ Klub Močvara, Croatia (17.09.2024)

What better way to begin this autumn journey than with some proper heavy metal in the vein of the almighty Satan. The legendary British ensemble were on their march across Europe, promoting their newly released studio album Songs In Crimson. Well, the promotion of the latter was not really a focus, as they were playing “only” two songs from it. Before Satan took over the stage, the American heavy metal collective Haunt had been in charge to warm up the crowd. Yes, these are the guys that put out 10 albums in the last 6 years, without a doubt one of the leaders in this statistical category. I cannot say the same as live performers. They were not bad, far from it. The execution and energy were fine, the connection with the crowd as well. However, it was not something I would be overwhelmed by.

So, the living legends were up next. Starting off strong with “Trial By Fire” and “Blades Of Steel”, songs off their debut 1983 record Court In The Act, Satan were up for serious business. With “tons” of heavy riffs under the fingers of Steve Ramsey and Russ Tippins, powerful and indestructible vocals from the “teacher” Brian Ross (by the way, the man is 71 years old!) is something that will not leave you equanimous. I guess one of the requirements to maintain a high-performance vocal execution is also consuming (almost) an entire bottle of bourbon during the show; well, Brian would know. Despite some technical issues with Russ’ guitar, which actually resulted in him skipping an entire song, and occasional long “speeches” in between tracks by Brian, everything else was on a high level. It’s clear that the experienced musicians are still enjoying creating new music and performing live. Displaying a wide repertoire of talent and almost 2 hours of quality heavy metal was something that could not be missed.




CASTLE – Ljubljana @ Channel Zero, Slovenia (26.09.2024)

Although I’m not particularly inclined towards this type of heavy/doom that Castle performs, I still decided to catch this gig to officially commence the “falling leaves” touring season. Coinciding with the release of their sixth full-length effort Evil Remains, the occult San Francisco-based duo took a trip over the pond for a 3-week-long headline tour of Europe. With no support on this trek, the local bands were those who were in charge of warming up the crowd. On this occasion, Slovene female doom metal group Mist were playing as an opening act, although I decided to skip them on this occasion as I’ve seen them several times in the past.

Castle were performing at one of the smallest venues in our main city, which usually cannot provide an overachieving overall sound output. Unfortunately that could be heard throughout their performance as well. The biggest issue was that I could vaguely hear Elizabeth Blackwell’s vocals, which were basically overrun by the sound of the drums and especially guitars. I’m actually fond of her distinctive vocals; however, despite all the effort she put into the execution, her vocal competency could not be fully enjoyed this evening. On the other hand, Mat Davis on guitar and live drummer Andrew Suarez displayed their palette of abilities in a much louder manner. The pre-show potential for enjoying this gig was ultimately higher than the actual experience. Hopefully, I will be able to see them sometime in the near future in some other venue.




CANNIBAL CORPSE – Ljubljana @ Kino Šiška, Slovenia (13.10.2024)

The autumn endeavors soon continued with the visit of a death metal heavyweight, none other than Cannibal Corpse. Bringing along strong support in Municipal Waste, Immolation and Schizophrenia, this event promised explosive vibes throughout the whole evening.

IMMOLATION

After unfortunate traffic issues, I missed the opening band Schizophrenia. No time to regret, as the scheduled was tight. Incantation, Suffocation, and now Immolation: the veteran death metal scene from New York was covered very well this year. Since they were performing at a different location compared to the above-mentioned fellow New Yorkers, at one of our main city’s most popular concert venues, they also had the chance to develop a tight, smashing sound. It was definitely great to see them live again after a few years, although a 45-minute set expectedly went by too fast.

MUNICIPAL WASTE

When you mention the name of the Virginia-based crossover thrashers Municipal Waste and live show together, you instantly think of a crazy-ass intense performance that will boost your adrenaline levels extremely high. It has become a specialty of the band with eccentric vocalist Tony Foresta in the forefront, although at certain points during the gig there were some exaggerations in terms of “having too much fun”, especially from Tony: nothing unusual for him, but a bit too much for my liking. Still, this did not ruin my overall impression of them at this show, it was still a nice addition in between two death metal forces.




CANNIBAL CORPSE

Headliners of the evening, Cannibal Corpse, need no special introduction, just a deep respect for enlightening and uplifting our lives with their obscene death metal representation. This was their first proper touring march across the “old continent” since the release of their last studio album, Chaos Horrific. Unfortunately, due to unforeseeable and well-known events (hurricane Milton in Florida), guitarist Erik Rutan was forced to leave the ranks at the beginning of this trek. Consequently, the Floridians performed throughout the entire tour with only Rob Barrett on guitar. It did leave a mark on their sound for sure. Nonetheless, Cannibal Corpse were not disturbed by this situation, and supremely executed their 90-minute set that covered a wide range of tunes from their extensive discography. Also, a big respect to the First Neck of the metal scene and the centerpiece of the band, the one and only George “Corpsegrinder” Fisher: a synonym to the word headbanger. Of course, I’m not trying to neglect his growling capabilities. Music-wise, I was never much into Cannibal Corpse. For example, I’d always go with Immolation in regards of death metal music production comparisons. Nonetheless, live experiences can be often unpredictable, even when seeing a certain band for multiple times, and can offer unquenchable feelings.




ALCEST – Zagreb @ Boogaloo Club, Croatia (21.10.2024)

From a death/thrash metal rollercoaster, there was soon a transition to calmer waters with a visit from the French ensemble Alcest, who have been paving their way steadily with a series of quality album releases throughout the last two decades, consequently building up a decent reputation within the metal scene. For me, this was the first time seeing them live. This evening served as the overture of an extensive European seven-week-long run, where they were promoting their newest full-length offering Les Chants De L'Aurore. Without any support groups at this event, Alcest started off their performance with three consecutive songs from their latest studio album. Although they did include at least one song from each album they’ve released so far (excluding Shelter), I wouldn’t have minded had there been a song or two more from Écailles De Lune, the album that got me introduced to the band’s music initially, and one that has left a significant mark on me. Being acquainted with their music to a certain degree, I kind of presumed that the best way to enjoy the performance is simply letting your aural senses perceive the soothing hypnotic atmosphere that Alcest are able to provide, and they achieved this in a smooth and humble way, without much talking or stalling in between songs.




MAYBESHEWILL – Zagreb @ Vintage Industrial Bar, Croatia (24.10.2024)

The conclusion of the month October belonged to the British post-rock quartet Maybeshewill. On this occasion, the band performed only a handful of shows in the eastern and south-eastern region of Europe. Therefore I appreciated the opportunity to attend this gig even more, since post-rock has been an integral part of my music listening experience for several years now. Considering the genre they play, their approach is quite intensive, or at least it felt like that in front of the stage. The volume of the drums was a bit excessive for my taste, occasionally disrupting the input/impact of the guitars and bass. Despite the fact that post-tock can often lure you into the alienating mesmerizing world of senses with its characteristic mellow tunes, the guys from Leicester provided a very energetic performance with multiple highly intense parts that are probably more typical of a post-metal direction. Nonetheless, as already mentioned, this was probably more of a “live effect” feeling. All in all, it was a very enjoyable evening.




VOMITORY – Zagreb @ Vintage Industrial Bar, Croatia (03.11.2024)

The concert-packed autumn season continued with some proper old school death metal provided by the Swedish veterans Vomitory. Alongside Grave, Dismember and Unleashed, they form a powerful Swedish death metal scene that has endured for over 35 years. I haven’t be able to see Grave or Dismember so far, but after catching Unleashed a couple of years ago (which was pretty solid), I now got to enjoy Vomitory. This show was not really a part of the ordinary classic tour, but more like an extension of their Latin American trek that they had concluded just a couple of days prior. Next to this event, they’ve also visited Vienna (Austria) and Žilina (Slovakia) to form a short 3-day trip. Before the Swedes took over the stage, the experienced Dutch death metal group Pentacle hyped up the crowd in a satisfactory manner. I'm not really familiar with their work, but they certainly put in a solid effort with their 60-minute set to prepare a terrain for the Swedish quartet that followed.

I actually wasn’t sure till the last moment if I will manage to attend this gig, as I was just coming back home from holidays. However, since Vomitory haven’t been performing close around for years, this was still a great opportunity to catch them live, and boy it paid off. The experienced quartet blast down the walls with destructive and well-balanced power, with an almost ideal mix that helped to achieve a high-quality performance. Regarding the tracks they choose to play, they are still giving a little more emphasis to their latest record from 2023, All Heads Are Gonna Roll, which was their first LP in 12 years. A well-received response among the surprisingly small crowd on this evening gave an additional boost to the overall ambience.




ULCERATE – Zagreb @ Klub Močvara, Croatia (08.11.2024)

If Vomitory put the bar of a death metal performance quite high, the following concert with Ulcerate headlining promised to raise it even higher, or at least my expectations were headed towards that direction. The New Zealanders were touring in support of their highly-praised latest album, Cutting The Throat Of God. Joining them as support on the second part of this extensive European tour were South American black metallers Selbst, who were promoting new material as well, the songs from Despondency Chord Progression. Both releases are well-praised on my “worthwhile albums yearly list”, but still not among the highest spots. Of course it’s not just about the release of their new records, but the value of the entire discographies, and both have done it pretty damn well so far. Nonetheless, what I’ve learned years ago is that this still gives no guarantee for a memorable live show, being one of your favourite bands/albums or not.

Although Selbst were not in the foreground this evening, they properly presented themselves prior the oncoming headliners. The band played songs from all of their three studio albums as well as the debut EP, An Ominous Landscape. On the other hand, Ulcerate mainly focused on their latest record, playing live 5 out of 9 songs. Being known as a group that produces death metal music in a very technically challenging way with complexly structured songs, it certainly rouses an excitement over how they will sound live and look like on the stage. Seeing them as individuals, they truly are very skilled musicians. I admit, I was especially curious to see the work of drummer Jamie Saint Merat. So much is happening behind that drum kit with all of his movements that you can barely follow, exerting tremendous power with jaw-dropping accuracy and speed. Above all, everything is happening in such a simplistic, fairly loose manner from his side. It really looks and sounds outstanding. One of the rare downsides was the excessive noise that could be felt, when you put together all the pieces. Wouldn’t exactly know if that is the consequence of the mix, instrument tuning, maybe the venue itself, which at times can provide this kind of a sound. It impaired a bit the overall impression, but certainly not the experience that I had been looking forward to so much.




EVERGREY – Zagreb @ Klub Močvara, Croatia (04.12.2024)

Due to a lack of passion towards progressive metal/rock in general, bands representing this genre occur infrequently on my live experience menu. Still, one band that caught my attention to see them live are the long-standing and well-respected ensemble Evergrey, who were playing in support of their newly released studio album, Theories Of Emptiness. Since the beginning of September, the Swedish group had played a whopping 60 shows in total all over the European continent; therefore, the odds that they would perform live nearby were quite high. 90 minutes, 15 songs, and a third of setlist comprised of the songs off their latest album is a statistic summary of the Evergrey’s performance. Despite not being in fond of a certain genre, it still doesn’t mean you cannot enjoy the gig, especially if the band is very professional and convincing up on the stage, and Evergrey certainly are one of those acts. With Thomas S Englund, the band’s leader and vocalist, in the forefront, the band didn’t show any sign of weariness despite the fact that they were deep into their autumn touring cycle. I think it’s important to bring this up, because it’s not a given, especially when you attend a fair amount live events. It was also great to see a band-crowd connection during the entire show, which was very intense... in a positive way of course. The main instigator was of course Thomas.




NIET – Brežice, Slovenia (07.12.2024)

The “concert hunt” of 2024 began with attending the event of the legendary Slovene group Laibach in the very closeness of my home. At the same venue, it concluded with the attendance of another veteran act from our homeland that was formed in early 80s, the punk legends Niet. Although having a couple of break-ups and shorter/lengthier periods of inactivity during their career and currently consisting of “only” one original member, in 2024 they were celebrating 40 years since their formation by performing a couple of shows across the country. If anytime, this was definitely the appropriate moment to catch them live for the very first time, and from what I saw and heard this evening, I can say as a guarantee that I should have checked them out sooner. Nonetheless, better now than never. So much energy could be felt throughout their performance, with an amazing response from the crowd with singalongs on certain classic songs. A positive conclusion for concert-attending in the year 2024.