Nasty Abyss: Left to Die & Vaktal, 22.09.2025., Zagreb, CRO

Similar to the event when Possessed graced us with their presence and raped our ears a few years ago, this is also one of those gigs that you will see probably only this time in our small country of small cultural relevancy. Probably only this time we will see a band whose members were one way or the other played or connected with Chuck Schuldiner, widely known as the Godfather of Death metal. The term that good ol Chuck was never really comfortable with, but facts are facts and Death by Metal is Death by Metal.

This band is called Left to Die, consisting with guitarist Rick Rozz and bassist Terry Butler both formerly of Death, with Matt Harvey (Gruesome, Exhumed) on vocals/guitar and Gus Rios (Gruesome) on drums. Just to see those guys is a joy on itself.

The venue for this sonic piece of death metal history is Boogaloo which for us locals became the usual place for this kind of bigger events brought to us by the maniacs from Nasty Abyss, kudos to them because if they don’t exist I will probably be out of this job.

The local support band for the was an impressively talented group of youngsters named Vaktal; formed in 2020. What’s is need to be mentioned here that these 4 young fellows are the most talented guys in the genre in the wider local metal scene. Their music will make Death´s The Sound of Perseverance sound like AC/DC; which has it up sides and downsides. When it kicks in, you have all four instruments hitting on all cylinders with each going its own way creating this chaotic presentation of space and other abstract themes that you could find in their lyrics.

When the downside hits, well, imagine bass or acoustic solo of such longevity that you can take a bathroom break, check your e-mails and try to hit on the waitress for the third time before they decide to move with the song. Some riffs and parts are awesome but still feels that the band are having some growing pains in how to fit all the parts and make in consistent with one another. Nevertheless, the response of the audience of (which pretty much filled up the venue) was great during their approximately 45 minutes of stage time.

Vaktal setlist:

Kepler 186f
Ignition of Ferrous Monoliths
Quantum Anchor
“The Engineer”
(Mountains of) Iapetus
Eclipse of a Gas Giant

The sound on the venue was great, at least in the first three rows, whoever the sound guy was for two bands of the night a big kudos to him.

The band of the night, gave us a history lesson in death metal which is a cardinal sin to forget. After a brief line-check, Left to Die started with Infernal Death, the first track off the Scream Bloody Gore. As you well know, or at least assumed, Left to Die honors Death´s early years which themes covered horror and gore. So we got material from Scream Bloody Gore and Leprosy with some deep cuts added in-between in the packed venue. The older part of the audience known every decibel of the songs, pretty much headbanged on every track with yours truly, my neck is still fucked up by the way. Moshpits were a constant especially on tracks like Mutilation, Scream Bloody Gore and Open Casket. The ambience was something else in the first rows, you can really tell that these are Death fans among you and we are here for the same reason.

The guys from Left to Die did a formidable job in honoring Chucks early sonic days with a special mention to Matt Harvey on lead guitar and vocals; he really captured Chucks vocals and solos.

Speaking of solos, this probably my favorite part of the whole night. Proving even in its most ferocious era Chuck even then had sense of effective melodies and Matt did absolute justice to them. On every solo I thought „Holy shit, this is Chuck“.

The band was in good spirits and reveled in our enthusiasm, even joking on our constant song bargains, of course the title Pull the Plug was the loudest and fashionably we got our wish at the end of the setlist. They played 14 tracks but there was energy in the crowd that they could have played Scream Bloody Gore and Leprosy back to back.

As Matt said near the end of the show: “Chuck Schuldiner is alive in Zagreb, Croatia”.