It’s Electric Booking are working hard organizing great underground gigs, so this time they did one in our hometown at Prostor Čakovec. Package included Italian Hellcrash who are on a European tour, and as support there were added Vipera and Kostik from Croatia.

When I came to Prostor, there were some people already there and as the hours and minutes passed by more and more people came, from punks to metalheads and Prostor was decently full when it was time for KOSTIK to step on the stage. These guys are very young, spawn of Zagreb underground and boy, they delivered the goods on stage. They gave us about 40 minutes of old school fast thrash metal, playing their material and also covers by Suicidal Tendencies and a cover which surprised me the most, Letva by almost forgotten punk band from Split, namely SPK. The singer tried to make contact with the crowd but sadly people responded only in the second half of their set and started headbanging and fistpumping in the air. In all, these guys were great reveleation.

VIPERA are no strangers to the pages of this webzine and I never witnessed them live, so I was eager to see the power and energy they delivered from stage. This trio is comprised of Croatian/Slovenian veterans from many underground bands and projects. They gave us about 30 minutes of hellish dirty punk n roll reminding a lot of Motorhead but also having something apocalyptic kinda Mad Max vibe to it, at least for me. These guys are fantastic musicians, especially guitarist Atlija, who is a guitar player par excellence. Stage presence, energy, great songs, VIPERA has it all!

Now, the time has come for headliners, Italian HELLCRASH. Judging by their studio releases they play kinda metal that I like, a mixute of dirty Venom -like punkish metal and old school European thrash metal, with fast songs and great guitar riffs coupled with hidden melodies here and there. These guys are also trio and they had everything on stage, three banners, skulls, candles and some kind of iron fence in front of the drummer who we barely saw. First third of their set was marked with technical issues and this being first show of their European tour, I hope rest of the shows will be without such problems. The sound was also too murky, vocals at moments louder, at moments more silent and guitar was somehow murky too. They gave us about one hour of hellish fast and energetic songs with also couple of covers like Die Hard of mighty Venom and Iron Maiden’s Be Quick Or Be Dead. The crowd enjoyed although technical problems and sound problems kind of lessened the show itself which could be a lot better without these problems.

In all, great start to the Autumn concert season in Prostor Čakovec, see you soon at more gigs here!