Gig Report: Dopethrone set Belgrade on Fire!

Fuck yes! Yesterday, I went to see Canadian stoner metal legends, Dopethrone, with the Serbian stoner/sludge metal band, Northen Revival, as a supporting act at Elektropionir. Shoutout to Resetor who added me and Bojana (photographer) to their guest list.  For those of you who don’t know anything about them, Northern Revival is a stoner/sludge metal band from Novi Sad. The band has 1 studio album and 2 EP-s: Mouth Full of Dirt EP (2015), full lenght studio album Life Surviving Tips (2016) and the latest EP Electric Power Supply, released on January 3rd via Librarion Records. As soon as the band started playing, you could definitely hear how well rehearsed the guys are. And as always, they delivered a hell of a show. This night, the band played some of their new material such as Electric Power Supply. And from what I’ve heard, the songs kick some major ass when played live.  The band’s new singer Slobodan has a really powerful voice. He kinda reminds me as a mix of Phil Anselmo’s Down Era + Alice in Chains. And yeah, the guy can sing well, but he can also deliver some in-your-face growls as well.  Regarding the music, Northern Revival’s riffs range from stoner rock to some heavier, doomy stuff. They even bring some post rock elements to the table as well. They managed to animate the crowd who surely enjoyed their performance.  

Now, the main act of this night was freakin’ Dopethrone.  The band released 5 studio albums: Dopesmoke (2009), Dark Foil (2011), III (2012), Hochelaga (2015) & Transcanadian Anger (2018). The band got its name from the infamous Electric Wizard album of the same name.  They went on stage and started with DRONE feedback. I mean, that’s some of the loudest concert intros I’ve ever witnessed (and I’ve been to quite a few!). You can just hear this wall of noise bursting to your ears for a couple of minutes. DUUUUUUUUMMMMMMMMMMMMMM. It was so loud I had to go back, otherwise, my ears would have been raped really badly…. What stroke me hard is the way these guys sound live. I mean, they are a stoner metal band, but they are definitely strongly influenced by the Canadian death metal scene (and for the record, Dopethrone is from Montreal, Quebec, the epicenter of death/thrash metal world with bands like Voivod, GORGUTS, Cryptopsy, Martyr, Obliveon, Negativa and many others). And when I saw their drummer Shawn in Slayer’s Haunting the Chapel T Shirt, I knew that I would not experience just another, boring & repetitive stoner metal band. And these guys were killing it from the start! The moment the first riffs kicked in, my body was pierced by a wall of sound. The band was so loud you could actually feel every drum beat going through your guts. And Elektropionir is a small venue. I definitely had an impression that the whole building could crumble if the band was a bit louder. Now, the band was giving 100% of themselves on stage.  The drummer’s performance was so energetic! That guy was full of energy from the beginning to the end!  This concert was actually the proving ground for the band’s new singer – Julie Unfortunate. And she delivered some groundshaking death growls. She was pissed off about his mic sound not being loud enough, and that was fixed by the monitor guy in the middle of the set. And despite that technical issue, you could tell that Dopethrone’s new singer fits the band perfectly.  However, the band’s bass player and guitarist are playing the growler roles as well and when these guys start yelling in your face at the same time, you get the essence of what is called DOPETHRONE. When it comes to the guitar, Vincent Houde’s playing was brilliant! And I really loved the way he played every solo with one particular effect. I’m not quite familiar with the set the band played last night. However, I must say that they sound way better live than on the studio albums. More power, more energy, more aggression. PURE DOOM! You could tell that the crowd went nuts during their sets, and the mosh pit was rollin’ the whole night along with certain illegal psychedelic substances. I missed a couple of the last songs ‘cause I went to the show with a fever. And to people who skipped this Saturday Special Live, I must say that they’ve missed a lot. And they should eat a bag of dicks!

You can check out the whole gallery here!