Third time this legendary British Metal band stepped on Greek ground and - having in mind the venue hosting the event plus this third (the last four years) visit - I would not expect something extraordinary to occur, anyway. Still, to witness one of the most 'trademark' 80s Metal acts performing live is always nothing less than good news.

I did not have the chance to speed up on catching MIND WIRE SOCIETY's set, hence as soon as I got in On Stage Club and grabbed a plastic glass of (what resulted in being) some bad quality beer it was already ACCELERATOR's resital, that time performing a cover take on QUEENSRYCHE's debut same-titled classic song. Listening to (the rest of) their own stuff, it would be unfair to judge them as a 'bad case' despite the fuzzy sound, poor drums power and un-controlled singer. The young quartet's style is somewhere between HADES, (early) MEGADETH, WATCHTOWER, ARCANE and - to cut a long story short - flirts a lot with the Technical/Speed side of US Metal. Will seek for their next gig; they have some better dynamics, I think, plus the guitars/bass themes were really impressive.

WHEELRUNNER hit the stage and confirmed they were not much of a fitting choice. They did perform really well (I consider these hard rock 'n' rollers to be one of the most 'pro' Greek bands in their live sets) but would not succeed in setting the - not more than 100 faces, at the time - club on fire. In their less solid performance (the semi-amateur sound should be blamed for this, mainly?) they still kicked some ass and - in my opinion - shouldn't take the poor reaction of the crowd that much into consideration. Nonetheless, some enjoyed their 'fire power' high-octane (hard) Rock songlist.

WOLFCRY was next: a rather singular band, on hiatus for the last 2-3 years. It was good to have them back, still I'm not confident on who's in and out of their ranks as we speak. Their blend, mixing dark metallic sounds (MORGANA LEFAY, EVERGREY, ICED EARTH) with keys-fronted melodies is a hard task performed live, plus an adequate sound is a 'must'. WOLFCRY worked hard on their onstage appearance (having in mind their 'break', too) but the sound was not - again - more than just tolerable; the guitars were kinda 'buried' while the keyboards sounded as a drop-out. Thankfully, WOLFCRY's sweat overlapped such drawbacks in the eyes_ears of the spectators, resulting in a nice (overall) set. Waiting, now, for the Heavy_Power Metal band's (announced) upcoming Glorious CD to be released by the end of May 2009.

DEMON released their first, Liar, single in 1980 (and not in 1982 as Dave Hill told us, haha)! Listening again to this monumental tune, along with another set of classics from the UK-based band's career was a blessing and nothing less.

Widely (so as to say) known for their first couple of LPs, DEMON always had quality in their albums, all of them. Thus, with open arms we did welcome tracks like Night Of The Demon, The Spell, Sign OF A Madman and Have We Been Here Before? from their early 80s days, with a good set representing their later repertoire via tunes like The Plague, Blackheath, Wonderland (performed without the drums parts, due to a bass drum malfunction), Life On The Wire, a Blue Skies In Red Square_ Commercial Dynamite medley and the emotional Remembrance Day song.

The sound was rather good and clear. The band was tight as hell, Dave Hill has preserved his 'theatric' performance onstage and - even if he did not exceed in singing high - delivered an impressive thing going. The backing vocals helped on preserving a high quality in the songs' melodies, while the keyboards donated valuable help in setting up a good atmosphere. Really, nothing in question regarding DEMON's set. Unfortunately, the fans(?) did not seem to evaluate things properly, since there was no certain vibe in the arena... maybe most of the 200-minus faces were there as friends of the support acts or with a mere purpose to act wild only to the hearing of the band's Don't Break The Circle hit.

One Helluva Night was DEMON's encore; I stood still summing up - in my mind - the fans' acceptance. It seemed that for many it was something like a procedure; enter, watch, leave. Nonetheless, for core fans of the band it was another good show and that's what should really matter.

(photos by Nick Magni Ntolkas)

MIND WIRE SOCIETY

ACCELERATOR

WHEELRUNNER

WOLFCRY

DEMON