Savage Grace, Wild Knight and more at An Club (2010)

An Club (Athens, Greece)

Savage Grace, Wild Knight, Prying Mantis, Marauder, Mortician, Arryan Path, Convixion

Day 1 'Up The Hammers' is the most important festival for Greece. It may not […]

By Grigoris Chronis

• March 5, 2010

Day 1

'Up The Hammers' is the most important festival for Greece. It may not be much of the 'festival' thing you expect since it fits fifteen cult/unknown (to commercial standards) bands from Greece and abroad for two days in a 400-faces-capacity downtown Athens club but it's the only one annual fest bringing forth fresh acts from around the Europe/world while also focusing a lot on giving a piece of chance to buried but not forgotten cult 80s Metal names. All these for a more than fair ticket and beer price; omitting the usual average sound exposed in such small venues. On the other hand, we'd all wish the interest by the vast majority of Greek metalheads was not only a dream come true so as for the fest to move in a bigger place with better facilities and – why not? – even some bigger budget for more names to be invited in the future.

CONVIXION

Raw, filthy & banging Speed Metal with a Thrash-y edge. The Athenian vagabonds hit the stage half an hour late (according to the announced schedule) and delivered the goods for the handful of metalheads gathered at the time. Formed by STRIKELIGHT axeman Nick Papakostas some 7-8 years ago, the quartet are now releasing their debut "Convixion" full length CD so this particular gig was a nice change for the band to showcase their new crafts along with songs from their 2007 EP. Their style comprises in-your-face Speed Metal riffing/drumming with screamin' vocals and a general classic 80s heavymetallic attitude. Their cover take on EXCITER's "Violence And force" classic tied excellently with CONVIXION's profile and you get the picture on what you should expect if you come across this spiteful band in the near future.

ARRYAN PATH

It was the first time the band from Cyprus stepped on Greek ground, and I think ARRYAN PATH were the winner (if such a term exists in this kind of festivals) of the first UTH day. For 40 minutes the quintet around excellent vocalist Nicholas Leptos performed songs off their magnificent new album "Terra Incognita" (read the review here ) plus samples from their "Road To Macedonia" 2004 debut (e.g. "Osiris", "Arryan Path"). The Heavy/Power/Epic/Doom Metal style of ARRYAN PATH is full of melodies and both a vintage and fresh vibe hence the response to the hearing of e.g. "Molon Lave" and "Minas Tirith" was rather vivid by a Greek crowd keen on this specific Metal paths. The cover take on "Nessun Dorma" aria was just a confirmation Nicholas Leptos is one of the most charismatic singers around in today's traditional Metal scene.

MORTICIAN

Heavy Metal made in Austria; you don't know many Austrian bands playing Metal from the 80s, right? MORTICIAN had released the "No War" EP back in 1987 and just this year Pure Steel Records compiled the "No War & More" collection with the addition of the band's two original demos. I was surprised to see them in UTH's billing since they seem to be quite an obscure act even for the 'cult' Greek/European standards, and their performance confirmed such an assumption. The band boasts great 80s vague German Metal riffing with a raw rhythm section and some weird semi-lunatic vocals and – even if they were rather good at their set – the reaction of the crowd was rather average. With a 50% original lineup onstage, MORTICIAN exposed one new song and walked off after 40-45 minutes of recital, ending their set with a speedy take on JUDAS PRIEST's "Breaking The Law".

MORTICIAN setlist:

"No War"
"Street Warrior"
"We Must Get Back"
"Prepare For Death"
"Sacrifice Of Sin"
"Reflection Of Your Soul"
"Hot Fight"
"Breaking The Law"

MARAUDER

The Greek Metal legends are a secure force when hitting the stage. With 20 years on their back, in a MARAUDER gig you know what to expect: full fury classic Heavy Metal music with firing guitars and convincing vocals. Based on the re-issue if their classic "1821" album the band offered (all?) songs off this CD ("The Greek Revolution Begins", "Free Like An Eagle", "The Return Of The Warrior") and – fighting the mediocre sound – delivered an honest set gaining a warm applaud after 45 minutes of performance. The band announced they'll be playing both in Athens and Salonica in April 2010 to celebrate their 20^th anniversary and – as always – I was just thinking why the hell this band never crossed the Greek borders in reputation (a couple of reasons are obvious but that's not the case right now).

PRAYING MANTIS

The Brits were the NWOBHM piece of the festival for the first day. Well, they're not that much of a NWOBHM act in most of their career but – what the hell? – PRAYING MANTIS is a British band that released their "Time Tells No Lies" classic LP early in the British Metal typhoon in the early 80s. With a new album in their luggage too ("Sanctuary") the Troy-bros-fronted band altered the fest's vibe a little bit presenting a melodic Hard Rock blend you can fall in love with easily. The new album had pieces to be offered (e.g. "Restless Heart", "Lonely way Home") plus older (e.g. "Can't See The Angels", "A Cry For The New World") and oldest ("Turn The Tables", "Panic In The Streets", "Children Of The Earth") cuts were hailed with extreme enthusiasm from the arena. The sound was good and nothing more (the vocals were 'buried' in the live mix), while the band was in very good mood and the classic British humor was on top again while interacting with the fans. Still, for many the hot moment in PRAYING MANTIS's set was the "Captured City" (ancient 1979-1980 track) encore. A good set, really.

WILD KNIGHT (this link will open in a new window)" target="_blank" href="http://www.myspace.com/wildknightofficial" rel="nofollow">WILD KNIGHT

Harry: It was time for WILD KNIGHT to hit the stage now. Knowing that I'd see Majk Moti (ex-RUNNING WILD) mostly and Frank Knight (from X-WILD), I was hoping for something good. But, things didn't go that way. Since their debut album has not yet been released, the setlist had songs from the X-WILD era and two RUNNING WILD covers with just one (I think) of their own works. Unfortunately I can't say that they made any impression to me or (most of) the crowd. No surprise, many chose to take a break and go for a snack or beer and - I'm sorry to say that - they made the best choice. WILD KNIGHT played without the energy we expected, the riffs sounded more or less the same and the new song is far by being called interesting. The only time that everyone(?) ran in frond of the stage was when they covered "Riding The Storm" and "Under Jolly Roger". And they weren't even decent covers…

SAVAGE GRACE (this link will open in a new window)" target="_blank" href="http://www.myspace.com/officialsavagegrace" rel="nofollow">SAVAGE GRACE

Harry: It was time for the headliners of the first day to come up, after a small delay. SAVAGE GRACE appeared and the 'true' Metal base went crazy even before they start playing anything, so I preferred to stay in the side of the stage in order to take some pictures. The sound wasn't that good; the vocals especially were too low and pale. Things went better for the sound as time went by, but to tell you the truth if you judge SAVAGE GRACE's appearance by putting aside the 'fan' virus, well it wasn't good. They played for nearly 50 minutes (neat time) and if you add some monologues from Christian Logue (quite boring after the third time - saying how grateful he is for us on his hard times because we metalheads gave him strength that we kept him alive etc etc) their set lasted for something more than an hour. If I had heard that even back in the late 80's SAVAGE GRACE weren't that good on stage, then this festival was the proof. Classic cuts included "Bound To Be Free", "We Came, We Saw, We Conquered", "After The Fall From Grace", "Sins Of The Damned" and "Master Of Disguise" plus two covers: DEEP PURPLE's "Burn" and SAXON's "Motorcycle Man" which was the last song of the night. I really wanted to see them live, because their 80s discography is good, but SAVAGE GRACE eventually disappointed me…