Greetings and felicitations, children of technology. It was a Wednesday night on the wrong side of town, where even city buses rarely venture. I suppose it sounds like every venue where the original Carnivore played in the 80s.
Long before Peter Steele discovered his fondness for goth girls and released Bloody Kisses and October Rust under the Type O Negative moniker to attract them onto the bus, there was Carnivore – an unapologetic sonic crossover band that now enjoys cult status.
Like many legacy acts, Carnivore was revived several times, always with Peter at the helm. With Peter sadly no longer with us, the band has been resurrected as Carnivore A.D., featuring original members Marc Piovanetti on guitar and Louie Beateaux on drums. So imagine my surprise when we saw that Carnivore A.D. was coming to Croatia. On my personal list of bands in the category of “There is no way I am ever going to see them live,” they ranked very high.
Yet here we were, freezing in the middle of nowhere, waiting for the doors to open. Dva Osam was an odd choice for the gig – one of the smaller venues in Zagreb – and in my honest opinion, a band of this calibre deserved better. But we will get to Carnivore A.D. in due course. First, we have the obligatory local support acts to review.
The support bands for the event were Collective Rage and Brutala. Collective Rage represent the modern sound of the event. They are a fairly young band from Varaždin who delivered a very solid and tight performance, supported by surprisingly good sound, though there were some rookie mistakes from their front man. Despite his impressive vocal performance, his stage presence and communication with the audience can be quite irritating; behaving as if you are the star of the night and telling us to move every 20 seconds will have the opposite effect. It was annoying enough that some of us moved outside for a smoke break. More music and less bullshit would take you much further.
For the next act, Brutala, I really do not know what to think, but they are definitely another example of how Croatian lyrics do not suit this kind of music, especially when they sound as if they were written by a five-year-old, even for a hardcore band. Similar to the previous band, the performance was solid, but it is obvious from a mile away that this is a band at the beginning of their development, with plenty of areas to improve. Good performance, but for fuck’ sake, hire a lyricist.
With the local bands finished, Carnivore A.D. took the stage for a quick line check. Before discussing their performance, let us address the elephant in the room: despite the name with the obligatory A.D. moniker, this line-up has little to do with the original band, even though that was the case when this version was formed. Nevertheless, just hearing these songs live is good enough for me.
Of the original line-up for this incarnation, only Baron Misuraca (bass, vocals) remains, and frankly, he is the only one who makes it legitimate. It seems as if he was preserved in some cubicle in reserve, just in case Peter Steele did not make it.
Jokes aside, Baron has many projects under his belt: Vasaria, a solo project, Sabinas Rex, and of course Carnivore A.D. The band members came on stage like average Joes, and Baron turned to the full venue and said, “We will be with you in just a moment.” No diva nonsense, just a quick line check and then straight into the set. They earned my respect at that moment.
In retrospect, I really wish their soundcheck had lasted a bit longer, but let us start with the good things. The setlist was excellent; it was a good combination of the first two albums, and they performed flawlessly. Baron’s interaction with the audience was on point, especially when a few drunkards started yelling lyrics from Technophobia – that included me.
The bad thing that ruined their whole performance was the atrocious sound throughout. The band turned the volume up so high, as if they were playing in a venue three times the size of the one they were in. I would like to say that Baron sounds like Peter, but most of the time his vocals were so drowned out or clashing with the guitar that it was borderline white noise.
It is unfortunate because the local bands had a decent sound considering the venue, but it was so loud that it felt like a test for us fans to recognize which song was playing. I really wish I could say that I enjoyed the concert; the performance was on point, and hearing classics like “Jesus Hitler” and “Male Supremacy” was basically scratching them off the bucket list. I just wish they had a better venue, this way we got Carnivore with a vegan sound.
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