This gig was not really something that I was expecting to attend; the reason for this was the fact that I would watch DARK TRANQUILITY for the third time and I was not thinking that I could get something more from them. So, taking into account that SAMAEL was not my cup of tea then you can understand why I was not in that high mood that night.
I arrived at the Gagarin205 club half an hour before the announced starting time to realize that the road crew was preparing the stage for DARK TRANQUILITY. Ok I thought this is Greece and apparently SAMAEL got on stage before the announced time...

The anticipation was really building and at about 21:00 DARK TRANQUILITY took over the stage in front of about 800 Greek metalheads. The band was in a really high mood and entered with Terminus from their latest release Fiction. Mikael Stanne proved once again that is a charismatic frontman; his relentless performance combined with his unique way of connecting and communicating with the fans created an almost party-like atmosphere. Along with Stanne's warm and enthusiastic attitude came Michael Nicklasson and Martin Henriksson who were mostly energetic and share the same joy with the Greek metalheads. Lost To Apathy and Final Resistance fired up the fans who were already moving around forming in the traditional mosh pits. DARK TRANQUILITY proved why they are the leading band in the Melodic Death scene through an excellent performance that had as an ally the very clean and loud sound and of course the energetic crowd who was singing almost all the lyrics. Stanne explained that SAMAEL lost their flight from Thessaloniki to Athens so they had to switch places in the billing before getting back to their setlist with the oldies ThereIn, Punish My Heaven and The Wonders At Your Feet and the newbies The New Build, Icipher and Focus Shift. Their performance made me join the mosh pits while I was trying to capture with my digital camera something from this most energetic atmosphere. After 17 tracks and almost 90 minutes DARK TRANQUILITY left the stage without Stanne who remained to handshake almost all the fans in the first lines. The bottom line is that DARK TRANQUILITY gave their best performance upon Greek soil and proved that they are in the best shape.

The stage crew replaced DARK TRANQUILITY and started setting up the gear for SAMAEL. A great number of the fans on the front line left the club underlining the fact that they came only for the Swedish band. To be honest this thought crossed my mind but the fact that I haven't attended a SAMAEL gig kept me in my position. When the drum kit was replaced with the keyboard decks I recalled that SAMAEL have introduced samples, loops and several electronic sounds in their Black Metal after the release of Ceremony Of Opposites in 1994. The band from Switzerland opened their setlist with Solar Soul from their latest and homonymous album. Although, the combination of electronic sounds and the projected digital images created a really dark and evil atmosphere the remaing metalheads welcomed SAMAEL with a rather numb applause. Vorphalack was not affected at all by their attitude and performed the whole setlist with more than a professional attitude. As the time passed the band sounded more solid and as soon as Vorphalack announced that they would play some old songs the atmosphere changed dramatically; the image of a flaming pentagram, and the very good light show lifted our mood and made several heads to bang. Songs like Year Zero, My Savior or the really evil The Cross and Baphomet's Throne really made change my whole perspective towards SAMAEL. Indeed the band managed to impress me with their solid performance and heavy sound despite the presence of the electronic elements. Their whole show was more than good and I think whoever chose to stay after DARK TRANQUILITY's performance shared the same thoughts with me. I will definitely check out SAMAEL's back catalogue and acquire some of their albums like Passage and Eternal.

DARK TRANQUILITY photos

SAMAEL photos