With such an unusual weather for December I descended to Athens' known Metal (and other obscure music) club, Underworld. That night I had to watch three bands and the feelings for each one were really different. I had never heard any song from Wrathblade, I loved Old Season's debut album and Battleroar… well, I mostly wanted to listen to the new songs performed live since I had seen the band several times and I knew how well they stood on stage.
Wrathblade played a mixture of epic / doom / old school Metal. Though quite monolithic, their compositions sounded interesting but from a point on I got bored (I guess this has also something to do with the fact that I didn't know their songs). I recognized Nick Varsamis as their vocalist (also in Litany). They seemed well prepared for this live and I am looking forward to listen to their demo / album / whatever.
Old Season: Now here's a band I really looked forward to seeing on stage (though I didn't expect to do so in such a short time). Their debut album (check the review here) found its way into my hands and I instantly fell in love with it! I was wondering how on earth they would be able to recreate the album's sound on stage. Well, let me tell you something, not only did they manage to come clean but now I dear say that the album's production really steals away a lot of their abilities.
You see, Old Season on stage really kick ass. Not only do they manage with ease to perform their lengthy compositions, they also have a massive presence. Led by the AMAZING vocalist Frank Brennan, the band (who didn't stopped for a moment to do the Irish dance - cool) performed the majority of the album's songs like "And Sands She Turned For Time", "The Claw", "A Divine Plague" but also played two brand new songs "Meet Me On The Battlefield" and "Forever Damned" (not sure about the second song's title). Let me just say that "Meet Me On The Battlefield" can easily become the new "Out In The Fields"!!! in conclusion Old Season really kicked the shit out of us. Can I see them live a couple more times please?
Battleroar have managed in a short period of time to create a fanatic group of followers and to be honest with you I think they deserve it. I had seen them several times in the past. I was mostly interested in seeing how they were going to play their brand new songs (that are at least ten times more technical than those of their debut album). First thing, let me mention that the club's sound was their enemy that night. Still the band performed an excellent collection of songs from both albums. The setlist included (amongst others) the following: "Vampire Killer", "Morituri Te Salutant", "Sword Of Crom", "Victorious Path", "Deep Buried Faith", "Egyptian Doom", "Swordbrothers", "Siegecraft", "Berzerker", "Battleroar". Not bad, huh? And I neglected writing down a couple of more (due to beer consuming).
Marco Concoreggi was in great shape that night and he really managed to deliver a great performance. The fans of the band went berserk for most of the time (Battleroar fans, well… epic Metal fans are known for their mentality during live shows). The band managed to recreate the songs of the new album quite smoothly. If only they had a better sound then we would have been talking about an amazing live set. But in the end I didn't see anyone complaining.
Oh and just for the record, during their set Battleroar took a small break and let another band hit the stage… Anvil!!! Yeah, Anvil are currently taking a Greek tour and they're playing in a couple of days here in Athens. The band performed "Metal On Metal" (RESPECT!!!) and let everyone speechless. Now tell me where else in the world do you get to see such events take place?
