MetalPit was at Winter Days of Metal, born from the most famous Metaldays, which has become a regular stop for the metalheads all over the world by now. The WDOM, at its second edition, takes place in one of the most enchanting Slovenian places, near Bohinj lake. Due to the heavy snowfalls, we decided to reach the event’s place by train. In just over an hour, leaving from Gorizia’s Transalpine station we went from the pouring rain to a magically whitened landscape. The snow had never stopped falling during the whole festival, which caused the cancellation of Italians Hour Of Penance and Norwegian Endezzma the day after, who couldn’t reach the festival’s place.
For an unforseen difficulty occurred at the very last moment, we couldn’t attend the live shows of the first day, with Arkona as headliner in one of the first dates supporting the new album “Khram” lately released and the Icelandic Skalmold.
THE FESTIVAL LOCATION
The second day’s bill provided in the lineup, among the others, Dropkick Murphys – a band you can’t define purely metal, but who could gather a wide crowd despite the adverse weather conditions – and Gaahls Wyrd, Black Metal band lead by the iconic former singer of Gorgoroth.
The band who opened the show is Infected Chaos, an Austrian Death Metal formation we could already listen to at Metaldays 2017. The very first surprise of the evening were Ritual Day, a Chinese band which proposed some sort of Black with strong traditional influences which gave them the originality that is increasingly missing in today’s bands. At the end of the concert, the news about the cancellation of the Italians Hour Of Penance’s show came; taking advantage of the full hour gap, we decided to go drink a beer in one of the pubs adjacent to the concert area. Having just entered the place, we noticed a well-known face sitting on its own at a small table. Nothing less than Gaahl himself, who leaving the pub tarried for a while with us, proving to be, at least toward the fans, a very nice and kind person.
But time runs fast and the evening’s headliners were already approaching the stage, the aforementioned Dropkick Murphys. During the first song “The Lonesome Boatman” already, the crowd went mad with the singer Al Barr and the other members of the band who interacted in a very physical way with the public. The concert continued without a moment to rest, with classic songs of the band, but betting a lot on the last album above all. The show ends with one of their most famous songs, “I’m Shipping Up To Boston”. A quick set change and the most anticipated – from Yours truly – moment of the evening came, with Gaahls Wyrd getting on stage. The Norwegians’ exhibition lasted a little more than a hour, before leaving the place to the last band of the evening, Grailknights, a German combo inspired to superheroes. The proposed genre is a classical Power Metal, with the addition of surreal sketches on the edge of tragicomic. The audience appreciated the show a lot, impersonating in turn many superheroes, dancing and singing to the notes of the Teutonic band.
The third day starts with Novacrow, a band from Liverpool with horror influences, musically way more rock than metal. The singer Kitty Staunton and the other members, during the forty available minutes, could manage the stage very well. Then comes the turn of the Viking Metal band Immorgon, coming from Barcelona, warming up the public with their armors and their melodic death style. As stated above, also the exhibition of the Norwegian Endezzma has been cancelled due to some issues reaching the festival, and the WDOM goes on with Ahab. The band, who takes inspiration from the oceanic themes with their self-described Nautik Doom style, creates a magically depressive atmosphere. The spartan and basic scenography (just to not call it inexistent) is compensated with the high musical technique of the German band. And finally comes Asphyx’s moment. The band played a varied setlist: after the tris “Candiru”, “Division Brandenburg” and “Wardroid”, taken from the last work out in 2016, Martin Van Drunen and his mates moved to more classical lines with songs taken from the first albums. The mandatory “The Rack”, “Vermin”, the eponymous “Asphyx (Forgotten War)”, ending with the powerful“MS Bismarck”. After this Death Metal lesson, the festival approaches its conclusion: the last band to get on stage is Milking The Goatmachine who, with their bare and raw Grind and the characteristic goat masks, closed this second edition of WDOM with a bang.
Now it’s time to sum up this winter festival. We have to consider that organizing an event like this one during the months of January/February isn’t easy at all, since only a few bands are on tour during this period and to be able to put an interesting lineup together could become a problem. The weather didn’t help the people to reach the concert as well. Nevertheless, having still some space left for more people to come, the crowd flow was good and the organization was impeccable. The third edition has already been confirmed, even though we don’t know the exact dates yet. I won’t miss the next WDOM and if you also want to spend some days of vacation on the snow and meanwhile attend some concert with your favourite music, you shouldn’t miss it. Spending the days in the various SPAs and pools available in town or skiing at the Vogel’s stations or, like me, to beach yourself in the bar eating and drinking delicious beer at a very cheap price, in one of the most beautiful places in Slovenia, ending the day in the sign of Heavy Metal, is an unmissable experience.
Translation by Fernanda Serufilli
