The Little Conqueror

DISCLAIMER

Before we properly begin, I should introduce this new “series”. Heavy metal is a global genre, and it always has been. Everything from BLACK SABBATH to KREATOR to SEPULTURA to ALIEN WEAPONRY, metal is music that transcends borders, and that is why I’m starting this series: To spotlight those countries and regions that you don’t typically think of when it comes to heavy metal. So, that means that this series will NOT be covering: The United States, United Kingdom, Germany, any Nordic country (besides Iceland), Brazil, Japan, Australia, or Italy. And a huge thanks to native Slovenian, Robert from BANDIT for a ton of details and for being gracious in our emails.

INTRODUCTION

Slovenia, a country that many probably can’t find on a map, but one who consistently “punches above its weight-class” in the wider metal sphere. Despite a population of barely over 2 million, and a size that would make it one of the smallest US states, Slovenia has been a quiet mainstay in the metal scene since the late 70s and early 80s. The tale of Slovenian metal begins way back in 1979, with ORANGE (Pomaranča in Slovene).

With a 1981 self-titled record sang entirely in Slovene (and also features a fair amount of synths and keys for the time), the band struggled to break big in the West. Notwithstanding the drastically strange political climate of the time. Further records, released under the name ORANGE, and sang in English would attempt to expand the market but to little avail. In terms of sound, they sounded a bit like the NWOBHM of the day, but not British, and their music had a notable progressive tinge to it. Despite this, the band occupies a special place in heavy metal history, being the first Slovenian heavy metal band. *cough* Please repress their albums on CD, thank you *cough*.

Slovenian Metal, from a Slovenian

Robert from Bandit and I sat down (i.e. emailed back and forth) to discuss the metal scene in his home country.

The late 80s and early 90s were a time of great turbulence, and unfortunately violence, in Yugoslavia, and according to Robert this led the metal style to evolve from more traditionally influenced to a much more extreme side of things. Which I’d note is actually in-line with how it went globally. “Thrash metal bands, the first that comes in my mind are INTERCEPTOR and ŽELEZOBETON, and they ruled the scene.”

So, just as METALLICA’s Black Album effectively killed the original thrash sound, and resulted in many a thrash band being in flux to find their new sound, some went more extreme and others turned to groove. Slovenia seemed to follow the former, with ŽELEZOBETON recalling me a bit of DEATH (minus the death growls), but also being stealthily progressive. It’s raw and aggressive. We even see this same shift in the modern day in other countries in strife. Ukraine, for instance, has seen a boom of extreme acts since 2014. Where there is misery, there will always be heavy metal.

“After the year 2000, the scene saw new thrash bands, this time really good ones,” Robert says. Again, I note that this is just as it was everywhere else. “LINTVER, THRAW, and ERUPTION,” he lists as examples.

Robert also says that metal is very strong in his country. In the capital city of Ljubljana, he says “it’s very easy to see big metal bands live”. He even did a calculation for me to show that Slovenia has the highest number of metal bands per population, with roughly 1 band for every 6000 people (compared to 1 band for every 8600 in the US). He also shouts out that there are two big open-air metal festivals in the country each year, including METALDAYS.

And the scene continues to thrive to this day with acts like SKYEYE and VIGILANCE (whom Robert cites as “maybe his favorite band from Slovenia”), as well as some more NWOTHM oriented acts such as METALSTEEL and CHALLENGER (whose one EP release is a total banger, and I’m happy to own on CD).

Conclusion

What I love about Slovenia’s metal scene, is that despite being a tiny country, the diversity throughout the genre is just as varied as the scene in the US or Germany. Which is why I dubbed Slovenia, metal’s “Little Conqueror”. They’re a small nation, but despite that, and conflict in the early 90s, the nation has steadily put out great metal music for over four decades now and shows now signs of letting up. Robert also mentioned that they have some good beer and wine!

This was a fun little experiment for me, as I’m a lover of cultures and people in general. Seeing how metal expands and evolves across the globe is always a treat, and really tickles my nerd bone. Huge thanks to Robert from BANDIT for being so friendly and forthcoming with his answers and band recommendations (Seriously, Pomaranča is absolutely amazing!!). If I ever reach Slovenia, I owe you a beer, Robert!

Robert also sent me this link to a rad documentary about the rise of Slovenian metal in the 80s, it’s a good watch. (English subtitles): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gpawpYf9U9Q

Check out my review of BANDIT “Metal Infantry” here: https://thenwothm.com/2023/10/09/review-bandit-metal-infantry/