Ελληνικά
January 10th was a great Sunday evening for Acid Death and their friends. The legendary prog / death metal band from Athens, on the occasion of releasing their magnificent new effort “Hall of Mirrors”, but mostly because of their 5-year reunion anniversary, planned a wonderful metal night at Kyttaro Club to celebrate the aforementioned events.
Shorty after 19:00, the first act, Caelestia, went up on stage, quite early on schedule, although the crowd attendance was satisfactory. Even though their sound gave away their demanding style, the band managed to deliver in the best possible way its special and interesting extreme / prog / symphonic hybrid. If anything else, the band was tightly tied together and consists of very good musicians and despite the somewhat difficult conditions, they managed to earn our applause. I’m sure in a next gig, where they’ll have a central role, they’ll be terrific.
The crowd in the venue started to grow in numbers and the next band to hit the stage was a “veteran”, yet a fully excited one; Soulskinner. Consisted of historic members, with presence in other great bands of the Greek extreme scene (Septicemia, Thou Art Lord etc), the band managed to easily win the crowd’s applause with its traditional death/black style. The sound during their performance was more or less good, while the band’s performance was of high level. Soulskinner haven’t actually invented the wheel, neither their music is incredibly innovative, however, when this style of music is delivered to you by musicians that have been around for that long, then the result will be definitely good.
The surprise of the evening for me came with the next band, Aherusia. Even though the Cretan traditional musical instrument, the lyre, was absent from this gig, all 3 guitars worked out fine. If anything, it’s a band that can be described in one word: character. A small spoon of folk representing the Greek tradition, a little bit of epicness and an inch of black metal make Aherusia a very interesting musical hybrid, consisting of very good musicians and a great frontman, who really impressed me with his vocal abilities, the moments when he didn’t interpret the tracks with those harsh vocals. Passionate epic melodies, martial rhythms and riffs, beautifully embroidered guitars and a completely complex – free performance. The group was fierce, kept its head high and faced with humor and confidence the on-stage strikes of bad luck. Two problems with the guitars and the fall of the third, wasn’t enough to prevent Aherusia from being fully effective. Nice performance, nice band!
Time had just passed 22:00 when the headliners of the night, Acid Death, went up on stage amidst waves of applause. The members seemed impatient for the gig to start, something proven by their powerful entrance and their will to destroy everything in sight! Having as an ally a generally good sound and above all having a great mood, the band delivered a great and fulfilling appearance after staying on stage for nearly 1.5 hours. They practically covered all their albums, while their performance was literally on a professional level, with amazing efficiency, as it’s required by their special – sound spectrum. Many guests appeared on stage, especially those who participated in “Hall Of Mirrors”, thus contributing to an even more comprehensive performance of tracks from that album. Icing on the cake was the appearance of the first guitarist of the band Themis Katsimihas in the timeless “hit” the band “Apathy Murders Hope”, but also the necessary tribute to late Lemmy covering Motorhead’s “Orgasmatron”.
Overall, it was a great and passionate performance by Acid Death that will remain unforgettable to themselves, but also, to the friends of the band, and will also give them the necessary impetus to annihilate everything during their mini Italian tour in February, along with the “spiritual fathers”, Coroner!
Summarizing, in general we witnessed a very nice celebration of the Greek metal scene, with 4 worthy bands, with satisfactory attendance, with proper and honest organization, proving that when you have such a great scene at hand, in fact you don’t have the need to wait for foreign groups to come to have fun. Next to your door, in troubled Greece, there are so many bands waiting for your support. Thankfully, there are a few people who actually show their support. Let’s pray for the numbers to grow!
