"We were last here five or six years ago, it was a lovely performance. There were a lot of other bands, too, and the audience was amazing. There’s no bigger compliment than returning so many years later to a sold-out festival. We look forward to returning on stage, so that we can give our fans a good show,” told Michael Poulsen, Volbeat’s frontman, to MMC five hours before the performance in a fairly quiet voice.
The guitars played by Poulsen and the new addition to the group – a former member of Antrax – Rob Caggiano just warmed up when Poulsen started his sixth song by singing: "Well, I've heard that the devil's walking around." Heaven nor Hell, a song from the band’s 4th studio album(before Caggiano’s arrival), Beyond Hell/Above Heave, that won fans across the pond, turned out to be the last Volbeat’s song at this year MetalDays, where the Danish soft metal band returned after its 2008 performance. This time Poulsen completely unexpectedly walked off the stage before the chorus. One of the organisers, Boban Milunović, stepped before the crowd that chanted the band’s name and apologised, explaining the frontman was having trouble with his vocal cords.
Evening for ‘softer’ souls
“Tolmin isn’t that good for us, since they’re more into ’soft’ metal. Give us noise!” shouted Martin van Drunen, the frontman of theDutchdeath/doom metal band Asphyx, on the smaller stage a few minutes before Volbeat’s performance on the big stage. The Dutch band presented its 2012 album Deathhammer and the space under the small stage, a ten minute walk from the main stage, was packed full. Progressive riffs and the concept of war themes left many visitors with the impression that they’re witnessing “the soldier who’s been left behind”. A unique, hellish energy that radiates through the vocal as well as the guitar sound and makes random passers-by stop, too.
Slovenians in the minority
“MetalDays have built a very strong scene in Slovenia, but the festival is simply so big that the number of visitors that buy the weekly ticket is lower. Some Slovenians come for a day, others for three – since they live here. It’s hard to say they’re among the top (t/n: in terms of the number of visitors by nationality), which is unusual but it’s been like this for years now,” explains Roman Fileš, one of the festival organisers, for MMC. Although the festival sold out a week before the start, the organisers reserved 300 tickets for visitors from Slovenia. And on Wednesday evening new buyers of 3-day tickets showed up at the entrance.
Ticket prices range from EUR 145 euros (weekly tickets for fans, a festival T-shirt included) to EUR 45 for the daily ticket. The 3-day ticket costs EUR 109. “Music always comes first in metal. Everything else comes second.. When people hear about the good programme, we start selling tickets,” explains Fileš how the organising team goes about attracting visitors. He stresses that festival needs renowned names such as Volbeat, Megadeth, Children of Bodom etc. “They’re foreigners. They won’t drive for thousands of kilometres for small-scale bands. People are first and foremost attracted by the groups,” he emphasizes.
Daytime party at the beach
Indeed, the festival, which takes place by the confluence of two rivers, is a meeting point of various nations these days. This linguistic variety can be noticed in the daytime when visitors sunbathe at the beach or tread into the water, be it metal giants or more light-weight female lovers of metal. Visitors who like to spend their days by the Soča river in a more active manner can rent equipment for white-water rafting, whereas the less adventurous ones can enjoy the cuisine. In addition to the classic offer, this year the menu includes Indian and the increasingly popular vegan cuisine.
The space for camping is packed to the last capacity this year, while the concert space under the two stages can still accommodate a greater number of visitors. This year’s festival has welcomed 12,000 visitors so far. However, there are still two days left. And by popular opinion this year’s most wanted performance at Tolmin has yet to take place – Megadeth.
Klavdija Kopina, MMC; photo: Sandi Fišer; translated by K. Z.
<img alt="Volbeat" src="https://img.rtvcdn.si/_up/upload/2014/07/24/65129633_ov7a4950_show.jpg" subtitle="MMC RTV SLO/Sandi Fišer|Volbeat"
