Ελληνικά
Last Updated on 05:11 PM by Giorgos Tsekas
english version written by George Carahito
greek version by Witchkiller
2 months ago when I saw the announcement for this gig I asked my partner in crime Mr.Witchkiller if he would jump on a plane,fly to Italy, see Gehennah and then fly back to Greece all in a 24 hour trip. The answer came a couple milliseconds later “I’m in”. So here we are in Rome in Closer Club which is a small underground venue but perfect for this kind of gigs. Since we got there really early we had the chance to have a long talk with Vittorio, the frontman of Baphomet’s Blood about all kinds of things, a real great guy who really possesses the heavy metal fire.
Only a couple steps away from us, four guys from Sweden where relaxing before they hit stage. We were really nervous and shaking before going over to talk to them (you don’t get to speak to one of your favorite bands for the last 20 years, everyday),only to find out that they are the greatest guys you’ll ever meet in the whole metal scene. Period. Really easy going, so down to earth with a great sense of humor. Vesper opened the gig and they warmed the people that kept coming in, with their Thrash/Black material. Necromancer carried on from there making the consuming of beer, whiskey and any other liquid substances real easy. Don’t forget their name, these guys have a lot to say in the future.
Now it was time for Baphomet’s Blood. With a very good and tight rhythm section and a great sound, they delivered a setlist that contained songs like “Metal Damnation”, “Army Of The Night” and “Italian Steel” and they really shook the place up. The cherry on their blasphemous speed metal cake was a cover of “Overkill” (what do you mean what Overkill??) that ended their performance in the best possible way.
Short break, AC/DC’s Dirty deeds on the speakers and Gehennah appeared on stage. Before even Stringburner played the first note of Metal police, the place was on fire. You want to know about their performance? Well fuck metal, fuck punk and fuck you too!
On stage Gehennah sound like every band should sound like but no one is even close to that.You’ll get their songs played ten times better than the studio, you’ll get a frontman kicking you in the balls,you’ll get a drummer that makes the metronome sound wrong and playing with the power of a jackhammer (while headbanging AND WEARING COWBOY BOOTS AND DENIM JEANS FOR FUCKS SAKE, not “shorts”, athletic shoes and all that fag stuff whimpy drummers do), you’ll get that bass punching you in the face,you’ll get that bad ass guitar grabbing you by the throat and mapping you all over the floor!
You want to know about their setlist?From “Hardrocker” to their latest “Metal Police”,you had it all.”Bulldozer”, “Hellstorm”(dedicated to us two-thank you for this one!),”Decibel Rebel”,”Carve Up Your Face And Shove It Up Your Ass”,covers from The Dwarves and GG Allin,”Bitch With A Bulletbelt”, “Piss off,I’m Drinking”, “Crime Career”, “Six Pack Queen”, “Under The Table Again”, “Four Knuckle Facelift”, “Hellhole Bar”. The crowd was totally in a frenzy. You had people crawling drunk on stage and drink the bands booze, broken microphone stands, bar seats thrown on stage, bottles laying around, people stagediving, moshing (we even saw some ladies mixing in the front row mosh!),fighting,all these under the sounds of a band that really is the epitome of a live band.
If they played 5-6 more songs no one would complain but i guess everyone would be dead by then. The show ended leaving 160 people with a smile on their face and us wondering what the hell was that we just saw. Thanks to all the people we met there,the bands,the people from the club,especially Simone from Iron Dogs Productions who did his best and made our dream come true. If ever Gehennah is in your town,don’t think twice about watching their gig. Just go and discover the band that’s really a flag for metal since the 90’s.
“We’ll shove that keyboard down your throat
Throw you in the river to see if you float
Break both your knees and make you crawl
So everyone can see who’s the fucking law”
-Metal Police-
