It was not an easy task: to bring the mighty BROCAS HELM to Greece for a series of live gigs, so as to celebrate the mythical US Heavy_Epic Metal band's 25 years of existence. Times have changed now and someone 'into' this kind of Metal music can be regarded as - at least - quaint. Nonetheless, seven gigs in nine days is an achievement only the managers at www.eatmetalrecords.com could accomplish and every Greek old-school Metal fan should be more than pleased for having such promoters around. Late enough, I was into Underworld Club, Athens not earlier than 9:00 pm but was eager to meet many 'old Metal' buddies you can bump into (at the age of 30+) and have a beer or two for a start.
METALMORPHOSIS: This was the main reason I was in a hurry, as regards the support acts. But, unfortunately, I was in when they were just 'off stage'. Even so, the band has released a wonderful 12 vinyl single in the American-meets-European 80s Heavy_Speed Metal vein (imagine the vibe of 'cult' acts like EXCITER or CROSSFIRE or - even - CHATEAUX) and...sorry guys, next time I'll be there for sure!
EMBRACE FIRE: The Athenian quartet is 'stamped' as a savage Metal act, and this is truly correct. They delivered a 30+ minutes set full of archetypal Metal in the vein of 'obscure' MANOWAR, OMEN and (to an extend) SAVAGE GRACE, standing on foot in measured tempo pounding while bursting out in speed holocausts in between. Even if the sound was average enough, this did not bother both the band and the spectators to have a nice time with songs like Blood On The Altar, Demons and their Thunderous Roar 'classic' from their newly released Savage CD. Johnny Hot (WILD MACHINE) has a distinctive voice and won over great applause, while the rest of the band was in good form, too.
WRATHBLADE: Sorry, Chris, beers in between are a 'must' and - since I've seen this primitive Greek Heavy_Epic metal act five or six times in the past - was not that careful for their setlist. Despite that, the quintet carried pure old-school American Metal madness the finest way and - despite the fuzzy sound - gathered all freaky metallers in front for some serious headbanging. Dual guitar attacks by Chris Motsalos and Nick Sotiriou were all over the band's setlist, while Nick Varsamis' vocals offer an interesting doomy_preacher (a la PAGAN ALTAR or THUNDER RIDER) vocal contradiction with the band's music based on bands like DOOMSWORD, (old) DOMINE or TYRANT'S REIGN, SLOUGH FEG, BROCAS HELM and CIRITH UNGOL. See, we're talkin' 'bout some real cult Metal lunacy over there. A new ultra doom song was played, too; cheerz guys!
BORCAS HELM: Having seen them live twice in the past, there was nothing more to expect. Nothing more than pure 80s American Medieval_Epic Metal all the way. The San Francisco, CA legends opened up with Into Battle and a real battle begun in the pit. Despite the high-pitched sound of Bobbie Wright's guitar, no one seemed to care enough since this was a whole Metal party taking place. The band honored all of its works, performing classics like Revenwreck, Prepare For Battle, Black Death, Fly High and Time Of The Dark plus some stuff from their nice 2004 full-length like Cry Of The Banshee, Drink And Drive (ANVIL-influenced!!!), Drink The Blood Of The Priest and Defender Of The Crown. James Schumacher's bass pulled the strings all over; whoever is familiar with the excellent bassist's performance knows what we're talking about. Special homage should be paid to the (once again) brilliant drumming of Jack Heys (ha ha, a friend of Robb Reiner'); a real monster behind the kit.
BROCAS HELM carry on the tradition of THIN LIZZY-meets-IRON MAIDEN-meets-CIRITH UNGOL-meets-MANILLA ROAD and is (partially) responsible for the existence of such bands in our days, like HAMMERS OF MISFORTUNE or SLOUGH FEG. The cover version of Emerald (what do you mean by who') wrapped up a wonderful setlist. Even if there were not that many metalheads gathered, none was displeased by the BROCAS HELM set. The band -on their side- did not forget to thank the Greek fans for their loyal support all these 25 years, plus did take enough time to comment on the help of Eat Metal Records in the management of these 25-year-celebration gigs in Greece (2x Athens, Thessaloniki, Trikala, Komotini, Agrinio and Ioannina).
Feel you know nothing of/for all the above? OK, we said times have changed. But, but, but...it's never too late to dig in the past for some interesting Metal music. Except from everything else, BROCAS HELM's music is a classic, even 25 years after. I wonder how much of the music of today will be highly-recommended even ten years later...
