HARDCORE X-MAS 2011
VENDETTA + LAST HOPE + REDOUND + MELEKH + DEATH SQUAD + CUT OFFВ + BRIGHT SIGHT +
PERFECT SKIES

21.11.2011,В *MIXTAPE 5* club, Sofia

words byВ Stefan Topuzov, photo: The Bear

It is just not the holidays without traditions like Christmas trees and decorations, giving and getting gifts, eating too much at a family dinner and of course – no Christmas without Death Squad playing 'Shoulder to Shoulder' with Slayer's 'Raining Blood' stuffed in the middle. (Recently 'World Painted Blood' too but this is the evolution of tradition – just like plastic Christmas trees.)

After 12 consecutive years Bulgaria's annual winter hardcore festival has become an inevitable part of the holiday season. And this year's edition was one of the better ones – probably because of the strong lineup, or the fact that enough people attended, or that Mixtape 5 is one of the more suitable places where the event has been held.

I arrive at the moment Vendetta's Martin Sladkarov steps off the stage to be replaced by original Perfect Skies drummer Bojkata Velev (who had returned from England for the holidays) behind the kit. With him on drums the Sofia based punk-rock band continues its set with a few more songs from its debut album 'Takeoffs & Landings', the last one being my favorite – 'Kings and Jesters'.

Next is the other similar band from Sofia that released an album this year – Bright Sight. Their frontman Stanko Tomov points out that the band is playing with a guest as well – Teodor, who is replacing guitarist Daniel Donchov. And he also sings. Like everyone else in this band. Catchy and energetic punk-rock songs like '2012' and 'Fake World.

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The Greek band I Want You Dead doesn't show up for the show – probably because they remained in their homeland, working some extra time so they can pay the money they owe Germany. This way however the time for the third band that has released an album in 2011 – Cut Off – comes sooner.

They are from the school of heavier hardcore and while the band plays songs like 'Fight or Suffer' and 'Yesterday' the people in front of the stage start moving around. And then when Tanya from Fight to Win takes the stage to do 'Keep Off My Way' with the band everyone is amazed such a pretty girl could scream like that.

The vocal skills of Nikolay 'The Bear' Iliev of Death Squad who does 'United and Strong' with Cut Off however are no surprise.

Death Squad themselves are next and they do the best to spread the moshpit fire that had already been started with their – as I already pointed out – tradition heavy setlist that includes a Terror cover on top of all.

During 'For All Our Brothers' the band is joined on stage by former second vocalist Vasil.

Redound seem to have come for the wrong holiday – the beatdown crew takes the stage dressed as if it was Halloween. Since recently the band has been joined by a second guitar player and live they sound even more crushingly heavy (turns out it was possible).

One of the main events in this year's program – as previously announced – was the performance of Melekh, who had decided to fill in the gap left by vocalist Boris 'Boro' Nikolov by bringing four different singers on stage to sing their songs. After Throat Fisting's Angel Simitchiev, Expectations' Georgi Dimitrov and Redound's Aleksander Petrov sang one or two songs each, former B.F.D.M. singer Mihail 'Velchev' Kimura stole the show by singing 'Seven' Cro-Mags/Leeway style.

Whoever missed this should be deeply sorry.

During C4 the situation is as expected – 'Everyone's up front and everyone sings with us'. Aleksander 'Chikata' Boyadzhiev is honest enough to admit he's saving his breath for Last Hope's performance and he invites the audience to help out with the vocals. And nobody minds singing 'Stand Alone,' 'Bring me Back' or 'No One Can Stop Us.'

Last Hope are as usual crushingly awesome live and manage to get people moving even when they play three brand new songs that noone else but the band themselves has ever heard. But they also perform the inevitable crowd favorites like 'Fuck Police' and 'GFY' before closing their set with two tracks together with Aleksander 'Shuta' Parvanov – 'Lovehate' and 'Together.'

Last are Vendetta that start their set appropriately with 'Lets Greet the End' from their new album 'Separation Times' (a lot of albums came out this year, didn't they?) And then they finish just as appropriately with 'To the Guillotine.' And I'm trying to help myself from writing that this was a perfect end to a show that suited all too well the Bulgarian expression for having a good time – getting decapitated – but the subject of the lyrics of the song is just way too serious. And actually this leads me to what I love the most about Hadcore X-Mass – despite being a holiday event and all, it is still much more of a normal hardcore show than anything else and is completely bullshit-free. Just blood, sweat and broken teeth. The way it is supposed to be. See you next year.