After weeks of keeping my ears clean, I finally got a chance to fill them with some good old noise pollution. It was a typical Friday afternoon when I realized that two Italian metal bands are coming to Osijek. It didn’t took me long to grab the camera and go file another Metal Jacket Magazine report. When I stepped into “Randevu/Danđn bar” (Rendezvous/Dungeon bar), a small hideout for the local metalheads, I instantly felt like I’m at home. The innkeeper (let’s call him that way) was baking “langošice” (google it), music was playing from the stereo, and a few but brave men were drinking beer and exchanging thoughts. A few beers later, there was an announcement that the first of the two Italian bands was ready to play, so we moved our asses down to the basement.
The quartet Niamh, consisting of Mike, Tom, Mateja, and Bellix, started to play an interesting mix of alternative rock/metal and metalcore which had a new and rather unique touch, especially when contrasted to bands that usually stop by to play in Osijek. At the beginning of the set, it seemed like the singer was fighting to catch the correct intonation but that was no surprise since he has a specific high clean vocal style which is hard to control without a proper monitoring system on the stage. As time passed by, he succeeded to find the way to lay down his voice on those downtuned guitar and bass tones, so the energy started to rise with every passing second. It’s hard to pinpoint Niamh’s style to a specific genre and just keep them there, especially since their Facebook page states that their influences range from Beatles to Cannibal Corpse. Their modern sound fits the visual hardcore image perfectly, and yet you can feel something deeper than just raw riffing or pounding when they perform. People listening to them in the basement were thrilled and I think Niamh did a pretty nice job opening the musical part of the evening.
Next there was a short pause between the bands, so we went upstairs thinking it would be cool to hear something more old-school in the next act. Since we didn’t listen to their material before the show, it was a lucky guess.
We heard a Motorhead sounding instrumental coming from downstairs, so we rushed to see what was going on. There we saw two guys on guitar, a guy on drums, and a girl with a bass guitar, all of them ready to tear this small metal habitat down. After a brief introduction to the probably smallest crowd they ever performed for, Burn The Ocean from Genova, Italy started to pour melodic and heavy riffs accompanied with two perfectly trained and harmonized vocals. With elements of grunge, metal, hard rock, and also a bit modern sound, it was a perfect musical cocktail for our thirsty ears. With a typical Italian temperament and jokes aimed at the drummer between the songs, they managed to make the people laugh as well. Besides their own material, which is astonishing and very promising for the years to come, they played a set of well-known cover songs from bands such as Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, and Nirvana – but in the Burn The Ocean kind of way. I have seen many underground bands, but these guys (and a girl) reached my top three without a single doubt. If you have a chance to see them live, do that. I assure you the words above are completely true, similar to those of the announcer for Tenacious D’s Master Exploder, and as their debut album says, I “Come Clean” when I say them.
This evening or better yet this night, was once again a good move and a great treat brought to us by the Rock Tour Agency crew who truly work their asses off to bring seriously amazing bands to this little town. So, if any home-staying but complaining metalhead from Osijek is reading this – Don’t be a dick and come support the bands!
