Metaldays is truly an experience and an experience that I recommend all heavy metal maniacs to experience in their lifetime. The first thing that has to be mentioned is the setting which is the beautiful town of Tolmin in the Soca valley in Slovenia. It’s difficult to describe how stunning the scenery is but the town is surrounded by mountains some of which are snow peaked. The festival site itself contains fields, forestry and also has the Soca river running through it which you can swim in (but beware the water is cold!).
The festival runs for five days Monday to Friday across three stages so there are an astounding amount of bands to see. The Newcomers stage runs for seven days with some bonus bands on the preceding Saturday and Sunday. The bands don’t start until later in the day giving you plenty of time to explore the town, get supplies from the nearby supermarket, swim in the river or simply relax in the sun.
My party arrived at the festival on the Sunday afternoon and after grabbing our wristbands plus some supplies from the supermarket we had the daunting task of setting up camp during a thunderstorm. It was hard not be in awe at the lightning striking the surrounding mountains but at the same time you did not want to be outside in it especially when the rain came falling down. With the campsite all set up and a few drinks down our necks it was time to explore the festival site, get some food and sample a few drinks from the various bars dotted around the festival site.
The site itself is fairly expansive and due to a lack of signage it was very easy to get lost as I did when the night plunged the site into darkness, I only managed to catch one band on the Newcomers stage and that was Dutch symphonic death metallers Bleeding Gods who despite playing on the smallest stage at the festival brought enormous stage presence and an enormous crowd. I only managed to catch the last two songs of their set so cannot provide a score for their performance. With the festival starting good and proper the following day an early night was had ready for the next five days of metal…
Monday 23rd July
After the rainy Sunday evening the sun came out for Monday morning and thankfully stayed for the remainder of the festival. Following a refreshing morning swim and some food it was time to grab a beverage and head over to the Ian Fraser Lemmy Kilminster stage to watch some bands. Starting the day off for me was the magnificent VUUR (8). I am a massive fan of Anneke Van Giersbergen and the only times I have seen her perform live have been alongside Devin Townsend so it was a joy for me to see her perform her own material live. The majority of the set was taken from VUUR’s sole album In This Moment We Are Free - Cities with songs such as Time - Rotterdam and Days Go By - London sounding magnificent. We were also treated to a brilliant cover of Strange Machines by The Gathering. Throughout the whole set Anneke sounded phenomenal and the band played fantastically.
Next up were Jinjer (8) who are a band I have reviewed an album previously and didn’t impress me very much. Live though it is a different matter as Jinjer put in an incredible performance with their fusion of metalcore, death metal and progressive metal. Highlights from their set included Words Of Wisdom, I Speak Astronomy and Pisces. Frontwoman Tatiana Schmailyuk absolutely commands the stage with her incredibly versatile vocals. Her range is absolutely incredible.
It was time for one of my most anticipated sets of the week by one of my favourite bands the mighty Leprous (8). I have had the pleasure of seeing Leprous perform live multiple times and they never disappoint being one of the finest live acts I have seen. This was no exception with a set covering their last three albums including Bonneville, Stuck, From The Flame, The Price, The Flood and Foe. Frontman Einar Solberg sounded as mesmerising as always and the whole band put in a exceptionally tight performance despite seeming to be suffering in the strong Slovenian sun. There are more songs I would have liked to have heard but the band unfortunately only had a short time on stage.
The next band I managed to see was Carpathian Forest (4) playing on the Bosko Bursac stage. I was very much anticipating this set having never seen Carpathian Forest perform live but wish I hadn’t bothered as the band were clearly drunk as shit especially frontman Nattefrost who could barely get a coherent word out. The band were appallingly sloppy and were just frankly an embarrassment and a huge disappointment. I headed back over to the main stage to catch the majority of Eluveitie (8) who I should have watched from the start as they were magnificent. It had been a while since I had last seen Eluveitie live and the first time since their dramatic lineup change. It has to be said that getting Fabienne Emi as the new singer is a brilliant move as her voice is absolutely incredible. The band performed a great set including songs such as Thousandfold, Quoth The Raven, The Call Of The Mountains before closing with fan favourite Inis Mona.
Headlining the first night were the mighty Behemoth (9) who brought their full show to Metaldays complete with pyrotechnics and theatricality. We were treated to a fantastic set which delved into the Behemoth back catalogue with opener Ov Fire And The Void setting the scene. Plenty of fire and smoke engulfed the stage as the crowd fervently responded to Behemoth classics such as Demigod, Conquer All, Alas Lord Is Upon Me, Blow Your Trumpets Gabriel, Decade Of Therion, Slaves Shall Serve, Chant For Eschaton 2000 and O Father O Satan O Sun. We were treated to two special songs as well the first being a brand new one entitled Wolves Of Siberia which shows great promise for the new album plus a cover of The Cure’s A Forest where the band were joined on stage by Shining frontman Niklas Kvarforth. Behemoth showed themselves to be worthy headliners and brought the first night of the festival to a very satisfying close.
Tuesday 24th July
The second full day of the festival involved a lot more running in between stages. Due to the cancellation by Lords Of Black the first band of the day I managed to see was Italian doom merchants Caronte (7) whose huge crushing sound threatened to level the second stage. I had not previously heard any Caronte but was suitably impressed by their performance.
Another band who I am not very familiar with was Pallbearer (8) who played an absolute beauty of a set of emotionally charged doom metal had me absolutely mesmerised and rooted to the spot for its entire duration.
It was over to the main stage for the next band Battle Beast (9) who seriously brought the party to Metaldays. Battle Beast inject a big wedge of pop music into their power metal sound and the audience reacted very positively partying away to tunes such as Straight Through The Heart, Bringer Of Pain, Bastard Sons Of Odin, Black Ninja and Touch In The Night. The band have tremendous energy on stage running around but none more so than frontwoman Noora Louhimo who runs and jumps around the stage yet still manages to sing flawlessly with her powerhouse vocals sounding absolutely incredible.
Back over to the second stage for something more on the violent side of things and suitably delivered by Rotten Sound (8) who played a blistering set of HM-2 charged grind with savage riffs, devastating blastbeats and plenty of groove which is what separates Rotten Sound from the majority of grindcore acts and in my opinion makes them better. It was my first time seeing Rotten Sound live and they definitely did not disappoint.
After a swift walk back to the main stage I managed to catch the last half of Coroner (8) who gave Metaldays a much needed thrashing. Thrash was one genre fairly lacking on the Metaldays lineup so it was nice to see one of the few thrash bands on the bill put in a suitably savage performance and full of classics from their back catalogue such as Masked Jackal, Grin, Reborn Through Hate and Die By My Hand.
I remained at the main stage to catch Ensiferum (8) who managed to absolutely pack out the field with their epic brand of folk metal. There was a definite party atmosphere throughout their hour set ably helped by the fact that most people had been drinking for several hours. It was very much a greatest hits set with songs such as For Those About To Fight For Metal, Twilight Tavern, Token Of Time, Lai Lai Hei and Iron going down an absolute storm with the crowd.
It was finally time for the nights headliners and possibly my most anticipated set of the entire festival. A band I had been listening to for around 15 years and had never had the chance to see live - the German heavy metal legends Accept (10). They played an absolutely flawless set which was definitely worth the 15 year wait with a perfect sound, note perfect performance and a setlist containing all the classics new and old. It’s testament to Accept that their latter day material is just as strong as their classic 80’s material and the set was a nice balance between the two with modern day classics such as Die By The Sword, Pandemic, Stalingrad and Teutonic Terror sitting comfortably alongside Restless And Wild, Princess Of The Dawn, Metal Heart, Balls To The Wall and I’m A Rebel. The entire set was an absolute joy to watch from start to finish.
It was back over to the second stage for the final set of the day which was a fiery performance from Watain (8). With all the flames the second stage looked like an inferno which was very suitable for the savagery of Watain’s set with songs off their fantastic new album Trident Wolf Eclipse sitting alongside older numbers such as Devil’s Blood, Malfeitor and Waters Of Ain.
Wednesday 25th July
Day three of Metaldays and although tiredness was starting to set in there was no rest for the wicked. First band of the day was 1000mods (8) who although playing early in the day absolutely commanded the main stage with their groovy stoner rock tunes. Not a band I am very familiar with but one I would 100% watch on stage again in the future.
The next band I watched was over on the second stage and that was old school death metallers Gruesome (7) who played a solid yet fairly unremarkable set of Death inspired death metal. The set was a mix of new songs such as Inhumane and A Waste Of Life played alongside older ones like Dimensions Of Horror and Savage Land. The band brought their set to a close with an awesome cover of Death’s Pull The Plug. A good set but just missing the wow factor.
Next up on the second stage were Swiss black metallers Schammasch (7) who were suitably impressive but their brand of avant-garde metal was difficult to get into and more suited a dark and gloomy stage indoors rather than an outdoor stage in the forest in glorious sunshine.
It was over to the main stage for one of the most crazy and unusual acts of the weekend and that was French genre defying project Igorrr (9). Igorrr incorporate an insane amount of different genres into their sound mixing extreme metal, dubstep, breakcore, classical and French baroque amongst other things. The majority of the instrumentation was pre-recorded and mixed and triggered by Igorrr himself who was backed up on stage by a live drummer and two live vocalists - Laurent Lunoir who handles the extreme vocals and the jaw droppingly awesome Laure Le Prunenec who handles the classical vocals. With all the different genres on display and smashed together in psychotic style Igorrr are a massive head fuck of a band but the on stage performance was simply sublime and truly memorable.
Next up on the main stage were Soulfly (7) who performed their groove thrash attack to a huge crowd. Kicking things off with the ferocious Frontlines the band ploughed through staples from their back catalogue such as Prophecy, Blood Fire War Hate, Rise Of The Fallen and Back To The Primitive. New song The Summoning sat well with the audience and showed promise for the new album.
It was finally time for the nights headliners and possibly my most anticipated set of the entire festival. A band I had been listening to for around 15 years and had never had the chance to see live - the German heavy metal legends Accept (10). They played an absolutely flawless set which was definitely worth the 15 year wait with a perfect sound, note perfect performance and a setlist containing all the classics new and old. It’s testament to Accept that their latter day material is just as strong as their classic 80’s material and the set was a nice balance between the two with modern day classics such as Die By The Sword, Pandemic, Stalingrad and Teutonic Terror sitting comfortably alongside Restless And Wild, Princess Of The Dawn, Metal Heart, Balls To The Wall and I’m A Rebel. The entire set was an absolute joy to watch from start to finish.
It was back over to the second stage for the final set of the day which was a fiery performance from Watain (8). With all the flames the second stage looked like an inferno which was very suitable for the savagery of Watain’s set with songs off their fantastic new album Trident Wolf Eclipse sitting alongside older numbers such as Devil’s Blood, Malfeitor and Waters Of Ain.
Wednesday 25th July
Day three of Metaldays and although tiredness was starting to set in there was no rest for the wicked. First band of the day was 1000mods (8) who although playing early in the day absolutely commanded the main stage with their groovy stoner rock tunes. Not a band I am very familiar with but one I would 100% watch on stage again in the future.
The next band I watched was over on the second stage and that was old school death metallers Gruesome (7) who played a solid yet fairly unremarkable set of Death inspired death metal. The set was a mix of new songs such as Inhumane and A Waste Of Life played alongside older ones like Dimensions Of Horror and Savage Land. The band brought their set to a close with an awesome cover of Death’s Pull The Plug. A good set but just missing the wow factor.
Next up on the second stage were Swiss black metallers Schammasch (7) who were suitably impressive but their brand of avant-garde metal was difficult to get into and more suited a dark and gloomy stage indoors rather than an outdoor stage in the forest in glorious sunshine.
It was over to the main stage for one of the most crazy and unusual acts of the weekend and that was French genre defying project Igorrr (9). Igorrr incorporate an insane amount of different genres into their sound mixing extreme metal, dubstep, breakcore, classical and French baroque amongst other things. The majority of the instrumentation was pre-recorded and mixed and triggered by Igorrr himself who was backed up on stage by a live drummer and two live vocalists - Laurent Lunoir who handles the extreme vocals and the jaw droppingly awesome Laure Le Prunenec who handles the classical vocals. With all the different genres on display and smashed together in psychotic style Igorrr are a massive head fuck of a band but the on stage performance was simply sublime and truly memorable.
Next up on the main stage were Soulfly (7) who performed their groove thrash attack to a huge crowd. Kicking things off with the ferocious Frontlines the band ploughed through staples from their back catalogue such as Prophecy, Blood Fire War Hate, Rise Of The Fallen and Back To The Primitive. New song The Summoning sat well with the audience and showed promise for the new album.
Headlining the main stage this evening were Canadian death metal masters Kataklysm (9). Kataklysm are a band who have never gained a massive following in the UK usually playing small clubs whenever they tour but over in mainland Europe it is a whole different story as Kataklysm had one of the largest and most enthusiastic audiences of the entire festival. It was fantastic to see Kataklysm command such a large crowd and play easily the finest set I’ve ever seen them play.
The band had huge circle pits, walls of death and crowd surfers galore to accompany crushing death metal anthems such as Like Angels Weeping (The Dark), As I Slither, Push The Venom, In Shadows & Dust and Crippled & Broken, Songs off new album Meditations such as Guillotine and Narcissist also went down a storm with the fervent metal hungry crowd. Kataklysm played easily one of the best sets of the entire festival and proved they are more than worthy to fill a headlining slot.
It was back over to the second stage for the final band of the day Austrian blackened death metal horde Belphegor (6) who brought the day to a bit of a disappointing end. The band had the longest intro tape which tested the patience of a lot of the crowd and when the band hit the stage the band sounded flat and lifeless. Too much was played off latest album Totenritual which whilst a good album fans were hoping for more from the back catalogue. Things did pick up when older songs such as Hell’s Ambassador - Belphegor, Stigma Diabolicum and Lucifer Incestus but the band seemed to be uninterested and just going through the motions.
Thursday 26th July
I had started feeling unwell from the Thursday onwards so unfortunately didn’t get to the stages as early as I would have liked. I managed to get to the second stage to catch the end of the set by death metal pioneers Master but didn’t see enough to justify scoring the band. I remained at the second stage to catch another of the festival highlights which was New Zealand’s Alien Weaponry (9). This band has been making big waves of late due to their young age plus their unique incorporation of the Te Reo Māori language into their music. The hype though seems more than justified as the band put on an absolutely jaw dropping performance. The music is a mix of groove and thrash metal and whilst fairly simplistic it is devastatingly effective and it is impossible to resist the urge to bang your head along. The Te Reo Māori language mixed with aggressive metal riffs is such a winning combination and it really pumps and psyches you up. Alien Weaponry left the stage leaving an audience hungry for more.
I stuck around at the second stage to catch a band who have been on the line up of many festivals I have attended but have always clashed with someone else so this time it was time to give Wiegedood (8) a chance. Black metal is a difficult genre to get right at festivals due to so much of it being based on atmosphere but despite performing in a sunny forested area Wiegedood managed to perform a brilliant set and also maintain the atmosphere of a black metal show. Highlight for me was the fantastic title track of their latest album De Doden Hebben Het Goed III.
It was time for some good old classic rock ably provided by the fantastic Black Star Riders (8) who performed an energetic and particularly loud set. The band played a nice mix of songs from their three albums including All Hell Breaks Loose, Heavy Fire, Soldierstown and Bound For Glory. Of course having a certain Scott Gorman in your ranks you get the obligatory Thin Lizzy covers with Jailbreak and The Boys Are Back In Town going down a storm with the festival crowd.
The main stage arena was filling up nicely in anticipation of the nights headliners which meant that Hatebreed (7) played to a very sizeable audience. Hatebreed are one of those bands I find fairly monotonous on their albums but live are absolutely brilliant. It could be I was getting tired or the fact I wasn’t feeling 100% but I didn’t enjoy Hatebreed as much as I have previously. Another factor could be this was the longest set I have seen them play and an hour of fairly repetitive hardcore may have tested by patience. The band played a great set taking songs from their entire back catalogue including As Diehard As They Come, Live For This, Last Breath, Tear It Down, I Will Be Heard and Destroy Everything. It was a good set but I think I was feeling too burnt out to appreciate it plus I was saving my energy for the headliners…
Headlining the main stage and the main headliner of the whole festival were the legendary Judas Priest (10). The arena was absolutely jam packed for the metal gods and the excitement in the air was electric as Black Sabbath’s War Pigs came blasting out of the speakers. What followed was a fantastic set with a bit of something for everyone - a nice mix of new material, Judas Priest set staples plus a few more obscure ones for the hardcore Priest fans. The band kicked off with the title track from stunning new album Firepower and followed it with an all you can eat platter of heavy metal deliciousness including Grinder, Sinner, Lightning Strike, Bloodstone, Saints In Hell, Turbo Lover, Freewheel Burning, Hell Bent For Leather before the main set was brought to a close with the crushing ferocity of Painkiller.
The band returned for an encore of material off the classic British Steel album with Metal Gods, Breaking The Law and Living After Midnight prompting a huge singalong from the audience. The band performed brilliantly with Richie Faulkner performing fretboard pyrotechnics whilst Andy Sneap did a more than admirable job standing in for Glen Tipton. The metal god himself Rob Halford despite being 67 years old sounded absolutely incredible with his voice sounding like a man less than half his age. Judas Priest showed exactly why they are legends bringing the main stage to a close in epic fashion. The only drawback is I enjoyed it so much that it seemed over way too quickly.
Friday 27th July
Unfortunately I felt even more unwell on the Friday morning and it didn’t improve throughout the day so I didn’t end up seeing a single band instead wallowing in misery and self pity in the campsite. There wasn’t loads I really wanted to see on the final day but I did miss sets by the likes of Demonical, Goatwhore, Darkened Nocturn Slaughtercult, Primordial, Municipal Waste and Cannibal Corpse.
Overall despite a disappointingly ill end to the festival I fully enjoyed my Metaldays experience and highly recommend it to anyone. It’s like having a holiday and attending a festival in one. I for one will definitely be returning in 2019 in improved health and enjoying the full experience.
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