NIGMAR, heavy thrash death metal band from Zagreb, has been playing since 2017. The band is also preparing an album or to be more precise: even two are on the way. Their performance was great, energetic and fun, as expected of the band in their genre. Nigmar succeed in boiling up the atmosphere for the main stars of the evening.
This night once again proved that very often the bass players are the most interesting and charismatic ones, as both bands had such an individual among them. Just to clarify, I’m not discussing physical appearance but rather the energy transfer and an impression that they hold interesting and nice personalities. Performance from Julijana Matković from Nigmar definitely persuaded me to closely follow the entire concert and postpone stops to the bar out of respect for female musicians in Metal.
COLD SNAP was on fire!
COLD SNAP is a five member metal band formed in Varaždin in 2003. In spite of a break, the band remains firm and strong at the position of a best croatian metal band. Their career is a really impressive one, as the band has done more than 450 shows around Europe during various tours with other bands but also had very successful gigs during the most renowned metal festivals, Wacken open air, Metaldays and many more.
Their great performance during Metaldays 2022 was also somewhat of a turning point in the band’s career, as the band introduced the „new old“ members, as brothers Nino Friščić and Leo Friščić returned to the band. New and fresh blood rose up the level of energy and boosted live performances. Those kinds of gigs represent one of the main reasons the band maintained credibility and respect from the audience.
Of course, we don’t have to waste words in describing the charisma of Jan Kerekeš which „holds all four corners of the stage in place“ and successfully combines all inputs from every individual band member into masterpieces.
Other band members also contribute with their youthful explosiveness and experience.
It was tangible that the concert was done with extreme passion and excitement. It could be felt and clearly seen and that is one of the strongest advantages of Cold Snap. The band is determined not to just work off concerts; they came, conquered and left scorched earth behind!
Their performance was definitely on fire!
Central part of the concert included two excellent songs “Black Diamond” and “Serenity”, which were the highlights of the evening. This time, the magnificent “Distance” was performed at the end of the concert, but luckily an encore followed which lifted everyone one up, especially the great performance of „Bongo Bong“!
It’s impossible to differentiate all the highlights as there were many, but performances of „Fallen Angels“ and „Nothing“ were also pure gold.
The band showed full maturity, excellent musical performance skills but also beautifil Jans stage charisma which successfully fired up the atmosphere to the boil making their concert one of the best in Croatia this year.
What is the meaning of art?
„Art is a wound turned into light.“- Georges Braque
It’s a known fact that Cold Snap maintained a very high level of criteria regarding production, video and music vise. Their three LP albums were all produced by the famous Danish producer Tue Madsen, who worked with bands such as Meshuggah, The Black Dahlia Murder, Dark Tranquillity, Behemoth and many more.
Furthermore, in 2020 Cold Snap released their new EP ”Aether” preceded by a short movie consisting of two separate songs connected through a visual narrative depicting the downfall of one love:
The audio-visual effect of this masterpiece followed by intense and highly brutal lyrics threw me off my feet!
The live performance last night reminded me of the beauty of the song „Serenity“, which I loved at first sight. It’s a highly relatable story describing anatomy of the death of love. At one point it became too painful to go through the entire song because of realisations that my own wounds have not healed at all. I just buried all of my darkest emotions and experiences, hoping they won’t explode. But they always do and a life saving move is to find a way to deal with it all. One of the most beautiful ones is through art. Many of us don’t have the time or other resources to go into therapy (art therapy, psychotherapy or other) and we find that art expression gives our lives a higher meaning and makes unbearable- once again: bearable.
The most important added value the band has to offer is the ability to transfer pure and raw emotion, that sometimes become the central part of every second of our lives which determines our every move.
„Black Diamond“ and „Serenity“ are very strong songs that paint us a very clear picture of very strong emotional reactions in which we find that: behind anger hides extreme pain. The power of Cold Snap is that they create songs that make us move, think and react. They describe the power of unresolved emotions, trauma, anger and offer a safe place, consolation and an opportunity to think things through once again, but now: from another angle.
With all that being said, Cold Snap definitely has very high potential for even greater international success and we sincerely hope that will happen as soon as possible.
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