Eternal Flame 🔥
Two Days at Sarajevo’s Metal Festival 🤘
This article is posted on A Sorted Repository with music clips.
The Eternal Flame Metal Festival stands as Sarajevo’s newest foray into the realm of extreme heavy music, emerging from a period of wandering in the wastelands after the heyday of the renowned Yu Metal Festival of the Eighties. Held at the historic venue of yesteryear, the Dom Mladih Youth Center, this year’s event symbolizes a resurrection of Sarajevo’s metal scene. Primarch, the driving force and promoter behind the festival, epitomizes this revival. I spoke with Primarch’s Haris and his genuine passion for metal and commitment to the city’s cultural resurgence was clear. It’s evident that Sarajevo’s metal community is poised for a triumphant return, and I eagerly anticipate future incarnations of this event.
I should add straight off, this was the first time I had heard any of these bands and that of course it is solely my opinion based on one 45-minute performance. The line-up overall was incredibly eclectic and had something for lovers of all degrees of heavy music, from 80s hair metal to the most extreme death metal.
The Bands — Day 1
The event kicked off with Newstory and a 90s nu-Metal vibe, which is not necessarily my cup of tea, but they really did grow on me. I got the feeling of Alice in Chains and Acid Bath on the best parts.
Cornix was next up and I was keen to see them as they hail from Banja Luka, where I am based. They did not disappointment and I felt well represented by their brand of Slayer-influenced old-school thrash. (Though the name hearkens a bit to indestructible kitchenware.)
The third band was also from my neck of the woods, Last Drop from Doboj. They were the heaviest offering yet and also the most polished performance. I’d call the style hardcore. I found later that this band shared members with much of the next day’s Tuzla contingent and clearly all these guys are playing out a ton and have lots of experience.
Gnu, from Sarajevo, surprised me with a hard rock sound that honestly reminded me of Queensryche. Initially I thought it was a bit out of place, but they were wildly popular with the crowd; I grew to appreciate the variety of the festival’s lineup and the willingness to push an audience’s boundaries.
My favorite band of the first day (and possibly overall) was Slovenia’s Ensanguinate. This is more in the vein of what I appreciate most these days, representing an inspired style of blackened death metal with some groove. They even had fox pelts and corpse paint, which was great.
Hateful, an Italian band, got shuffled around to headliners after some transportation difficulty. In light of the fact that they started playing after midnight, I was bemused by their rather picky soundcheck, but their tech-death sound clearly benefited from a certain fastidiousness. They were very good and I was happy to stay until 1AM to watch them play.
That wrapped up Day 1 and I walked back to my rented room incredibly satisfied, but not before stopping off for a post-metal kebab nosh.
The Bands — Day 2
I’ll start with the disclaimer that I didn’t enjoy Day 2 quite as much as Day 1, but that probably can be chalked up to my age. Six hours of sitting or standing on concrete in a smoke-filled room is not something I do much of these days, but metal is metal and we must make sacrifices.
I was totally fascinated by Day 2 openers Paraliza Buđenja. On one hand, they were one of the most interesting and creative acts of the whole festival; on the other hand, they were a sloppy mess and it seemed like each guy on stage was playing in a different band. Mr. Bungle is definitely an influence and their Mike Patton-ish singer has some real star quality. It will be interesting to see how they develop.
Despotic Bullet, first of the day’s Tuzla trifecta, delivered hard-charging hardcore with precision. Like all of their ilk, it was very well done, though the incestuous band-sharing eventually brought a bit of a samey-ness to the Tuzla bands, with slight variations.
Urban Instinkt offered a more melodic twist to the aggressive Tuzla sound.
Primitai, a UK band with a Sarajevo-born lead guitarist, switch it up in a big way coming out with an English Heavy Metal Iron Maiden-esque style, demonstrated with great professionalism and skill and a vocalist with major pipes. I suppose they found their way to the festival by virtue of the guitarist’s background and they were a great addition very popular with the crowd.
Headliners Infest represented Serbia and I was curious to suss the political vibe. Infest’s lead singer seemed to be cognizant of this and acknowledged past history — despite my not understanding 95% of it — he seemed to make repeated heartful pleas of unity to his “brothers and sisters.” Fuck the government and politics, it’s all about heavy metal — that kind of thing. It was nice to see and especially appropriate for an event with a mission to rekindle the Eternal Flame of Sarajevo’s metal community and its place in the wider Balkans. The guy also had some amazing metal faces and the band ripped.
Similar to the previous night, one of the earlier acts got shuffled into the last spot with Tuzla’s Soul Cremation taking the honor. They were definitely the grungiest and most death-metal band from Tuzla, and probably the one I would be most inclined to favor, but I was admittedly pretty exhausted after 2 days and 12 bands.
To conclude, what an amazing festival! I’m so pleased I went and was able to experience an important rebirth for alternative music and culture in Sarajevo. On my way to the bus station the next morning, I was fortunate to pass a poster for the event posted to the wall; I promptly removed it and rolled it up and will be taking it back to the US with me as a souvenir. I’ve had a warm place in my heart for Sarajevo since my first visit in 2002, and this recent time I’ve had in BiH has certainly magnified and clarified those feelings. Not to slight Banja Luka or my amazing students and colleagues here, but I’d live in Sarajevo if I could, if just for the ability to experience these type of events and community without the onerous 5-hour bus ride. Nonetheless, as my tenure in BiH begins to wind down, I reflect on my privilege to have been able to spend time anywhere in the country and be a part of an awesomely authentic metal-loving region. 🤘
