It’s Monday, July 25th and we’re halfway through Metaldays 2018. Time flows quickly and despite the heatwave, which depletes our black-clad metalhead energy, we go straight into this third day as well.
We arrive in the area after Sleepers’ Guilt, 1000Mods and Any Given Day already did their job and probably melted under the sun at its peak.
Time for a band that I had the chance to see as support to Iron Maiden in Trieste. I’m talking about Tremonti, the band founded by Alter Bridge’s guitar player, and their super classic, US style heavy metal. The setlist is similar to the show I witnessed before, with songs from their latest effort “A Dying Machine” (2018) but also some older ones as “So You’re Afraid” and “Another Heart“. The show goes on pretty slowly and, after around twenty minutes, it gets boring as the music is not that varied.
Maybe because of the heat, maybe for the reasons above, there isn’t much crowd for the american band.
We move to the third stage, the New Forces one, to see Supreme Carnage: German death metal band which greet the public with explosive energy.
SUPREME CARNAGE
Second stage this time, where our fellow Italians Selvans are performing with their pretty melodic black metal and classic body painting.
SELVANS
Back to the main stage for Rage, the popular German heavy/speed/power metal band founded in 1983 by the current leader Peter “Peavy” Wagner. The setlist draws from the post-1993 material, ranging to recent times with songs from the latest album “Seasons Of The Black“. A performance that proves the good shape of the band even after 35 years of activity.
RAGE
During the quick set change, we see numerous fans with white and red t-shirt and bandanas for the next band, Loudness. Japanese heavy/thrash metal band founded in Osaka in 1981, they’re able to gather quite an enthusiastic response. Honestly, I can’t really understand why: for me, they’re pretty boring and stuck in the Eighties, without any fresh stuff.
LOUDNESS
I take a quick look at the Daily Metal, the official Metaldays magazine, to check the next band. It’s Igorrr, who I’ve never heard about, but judging from the stage set-up I imagine it will be something unmissable: just a dj set and a drumkit. Igorrr were born from the mind of French songwriter Gautier Seurre and their music is hard to describe: a mix of electronics, classical, opera, baroque, death and black. Maybe, put into words, it seems like a huge pot of unrelated stuff, but the result is spectacular.
Along with DJ and drummer, there are an opera singer, who does a great work with screaming and dancing as well, and a black metal singer who looks pretty ghostly, as if it came out from the “King Arthur” movie. The whole thing is accompanied by bizarre and eerie movements from the two singers, as they just smoked something pretty heavy. Maybe, maybe not… but it doesn’t matter.
Well, the anticipation was high and the outcome was even better. Despite the atypical style, probably not only for a metal festival, the audience response was way over our expectations.
A good suggestion for your listenings, even though a live performance is a whole other thing.
IGORRR
The lights go down for Max Cavalera‘s Soulfly, with which the former member of Sepultura plays a mix of nu/groove metal with social themes.
Since 2012, his son Zyon Cavalera has been the band’s drummer and, despite the young age, stood up to his father’s career keeping up with the band and losing some sticks due to excessive excitement.
The show starts with “Frontiers“, from the 2005 album “Dark Ages“, followed by “The Summoning” and Napalm Death’s “You Suffer“. Closing a great performance, after a quick greeting on stage by Cavalera’s younger son, Soulfly say farewell to Slovenia with the classic “Jumpdafuckup” and “Eye For An Eye“, which sets the crowd loose.
SOULFLY
Nervous wait for today’s headliners, Kataklysm from Canada, led by the one and only Maurizio Iacono.
“Like Angels Weeping (The Dark)” explodes in the Tolmin valley, with an incredible blast beat by Oli Beaudoin. The audience is captivated and totally nuts, satisfying Iacono’s request to create the festival’s biggest circle pit, which never stopped until the end of the concert.
In this moment, the singer calls his wife on stage for a nice surprise: he’ll be father soon! A warm applause embraces the couple, dissolving on the notes of a great piece: “In Shadows & Dust“. From now on, it’s downhill: “Crippled & Broken“, “The Black Sheep” and the final “The World Is A Dying Insect“.
Nothing to criticize: definitely one of the best performances of the festival, with perpetual moshpits, crowdsurfing and circle pits unbeatable in size.
KATAKLYSM
Darkness has fallen onto the entire festival, with one band left to perform. We head then to the second stage, where two dead animal bodies are welcoming us (I’m staying a bit far from them in order not to get hit by the smell, and I don’t envy the first rows).
Belphegor arrive on stage wth the usual body painting and blood all over their arms and faces, with mandatory inverted crosses here and there. I don’t have much to say about their performance, a bit flat and dull, and ridicolous as well. For this reason, I leave the festival area just before the end of the show.
BELPHEGOR
