ZAGREB DEATH GIG – An evening of uncompromising death metal
On November 7, Zagreb’s PriMarius craft brewery hosted four bands as part of another edition of the Zagreb Death Gig series, organized by Manifest crnila. The concert offered an interesting combination of bands, ranging from the domestic underground scene to the American school of extreme metal.
The evening opened with IN DAKHMA, whose blend of raw aggression, shifting rhythms, and dark melodic passages exemplifies the vitality of the domestic death metal scene. Featuring songs from their album He Who Sows the Ground, they demonstrated an impressive level of creativity, essential for developing their own distinctive sound, while instrumental tightness and vocal brutality rounded off their performance.
REIFICATION continued the evening in a somewhat different, more progressive direction, demonstrating how crust punk influences can be successfully transformed into a complex death metal expression, which, in their case, also carries a deeper philosophical dimension reflected in their lyrics and the themes they explore. Their approach is characterized by dissonant riffs, unpredictable rhythmic shifts, and contrasts between brutal passages and atmospheric interludes, all of which were particularly evident in their performance of “Dreary.”
NOROTH then brought the unmistakable Seattle school of heavy, filthy, and relentless death metal, relying on massive guitar structures and slower, almost suffocating walls of sound. Drawing primarily on material from their album Sacrificial Solace, the band demonstrated their ability to build tension and maintain interest without unnecessary technical showmanship. They proved how diverse influences can be successfully combined while maintaining a consistent level of intensity and expressiveness. Their performance was a raw manifestation of what uncompromising death metal should sound like!
The highlight of the evening belonged to veterans DRAWN AND QUARTERED. Their longstanding contribution to American underground death metal once again confirmed that authenticity and consistency are qualities audiences genuinely recognize and appreciate. Built around deep vocals, merciless guitar riffs, and uncompromising rhythmic aggression, their sound embodies the darkest side of death metal, while newer material from their album Lord of Two Horns provides a natural continuation of their musical legacy. Drawn and Quartered possess a magical ability to keep even those metalheads who would not necessarily consider death metal their favourite genre completely glued to the stage. It is difficult to single out just one highlight of their performance, as numerous songs left us thoroughly impressed, particularly “Kill For My Master,” “Return of the Black Death,” and “Hail Infernal Darkness”!
Manifest crnila deserves praise for the organization and for bringing together a lineup that was stylistically compatible while offering enough diversity to keep things interesting. The performers, in turn, lived up to the audience’s expectations with their performances. Despite their different approaches to the genre, all four bands contributed to a highly successful and exciting evening, demonstrating that death metal still has plenty of room for creative diversity and the occasional surprise. An important part of the evening’s success was the excellent audience turnout, which included a considerable number of younger metal fans.
Photographs from the private archive
