The first night of the festival went perfectly with everything on time and with nice sound and huge support of the public. The second night just continued in the same tone.
First on the stage was Chains of suffering, a Croatian thrash metal band. In one thing we can be sure: they are thrashing it right. That was the real thrash every thrash metal lover likes to hear on a concert. The band has tree members but you have a feeling there is six of them when they play. Awesome riffs and nice stage performance attracted the public while out was still daylight. The vocal/bass has a very strong voice and nice communication with the public. He even jokes which always makes the atmosphere better than it already was. The beginnings were strong just like the endings of the songs, the guitar solos were awesome and the transitions were pretty interesting which made the drummer sound even better and more dynamic than it already was. The support of the public was amazing. Overall, it is always nice to see out domestic bands thrashing it good.
Wildhunt was the second to play. The speed thrash heavy metal band from Austria began to play around 10 pm. They sounded loud but good. Looking at their style, that's a pure incarnation of old heavy metal thrash look. And they don't just look like that, they pretty much sound like that. The concert was powerful and sounded theatrically arranged. Four of them sounded like they were some sort of machine., pretty interesting and powerful to hear. The vocal has a strong voice and good communication with the public, the drummer was fast, energised and the solos on both guitars were amazing. The concert was fast, dynamic and sounded the same from the beginning until the end. They had a great support and left a strong impression.
Third on stage was UDS (UNDERDAMPED SYSTEM), a polish groove metal band. They were the ones who needed to keep the evening going and make sure that the public goes nowhere. That's always a tough job. The five of them were what Cold Snap was the night before, genre speaking. But still, they were pretty different, more brutal. They were energised and hard with powerful riffs and very nice transitions on the drums. Some parts played on drums and guitar are pretty complex and confusing, in a positive way. The vocal is amazingly strong. They won the audience on the beginning of their concert and their performance was astounding with a lot of eyes on them during the whole concert. They were very dynamic and the atmosphere became the same. With a very good communication with the public, they were like a trigger of the night, bringing different sounds and music on the stage.
Cruenta Lacrymis started to play around midnight. The Italian melodic black death metal made a sound not everybody likes to hear. But still, they had the public's attention for the whole time. The female vocal is definitely something. She has a powerful and strong growl, which is always interesting to hear coming from a woman, honestly speaking. The podium was full in a second and she left a lot of jaws hanging. The performance was very theatrical, not just because of their looks but also because of the facial expressions and body language. The drummer was pretty amazing which was obvious as the vibrations could be felt throughout the whole room. Overall, a very interesting concert. It left a memorable impression and lots of reactions, mostly without any words.
The last band of the evening, as well of the festival itself, was Armaroth, a psychedelic death metal band from Slovenia. Their 40 minutes concert engaged the public and made the ending of the festival nothing but energised and perfect to see and feel. The vocal has a strong growl and lot of energy. His jumping around and communicating with the public trying to engage them even more, raised the energy on another level and made the atmosphere pumped for the whole time. The drums were nothing but powerful to hear and the music itself was fast and strong. The communication with the public was constant and the podium was pretty full until the end. With their powerful performance during the whole show they left a very good impression and made the end of the festival strong and positive.
Balkan Metal Meeting 2 began and ended in a good, positive and strong vibe. Having in mind that the festival was organised in a small town like Pula and given the fact that is getting harder and harder to organise such things and attract the public to come - the festival organisation made a huge effort and made something that is not so often in Pula these days. And that is something to be proud of. They put a two-day festival together and definitely created a lot of new memories.
We do hope there will be more festivals like this one in the future.
Let's remember, the upcoming Balkan Metal Meeting 3 will be held in Tuzla (BIH) on the 22nd and 23rd of September 2017.
You will find the albums with all the photos from the festival on our official Facebook page. https://www.facebook.com/dipARTicle/
