Wednesday 11/05/11, a great day for a great live. HAGGARD returned again in Athens with the "THE DARK SYMPHONY TOUR" celebrating at the same time their 20 years in music. The doors opened at 19.30 , and the thing that really caught my attention was the big queue in front of FUZZ's ticket booth , with people buying their tickets , literally ,at the last minute.

With the show finally starting at 21.00 ,about 400 pair of eyes saw suddenly a bunch of 4 guys, with really weird face make up, jumping on the stage and opening the show. But nobody told us about an opening act??? The Germans CROW7, without their female member in the backing vocals, had the awkward role of "warming up" the audience with a blast from the 80's (my cup of tea but not so many shared the same feelings). You could easily recognize in their songs a little bit of Whitesnake, Def Leppard, Bon Jovi, Malmsteen, Scorpions and so many others bands that i could easily go on telling. Warm, humorous and communicative, they kind of surprised us when they started throwing at the crowd T-shirts and G-strings with their logo on !!! They closed with their own version of "Beat it" by the late M.J with HAGGARD's guitarist and bassist joining them and head-banging like crazy.

Finally a few minutes after 22.00 , HAGGARD  got on stage and after their short sound check, they immediately tangled us into their musical web, starting with "In Des Konigs Hallen" and "The Sleeping Child" from their last album "Tales of Ithiria". The grandiose figure of the band's leader Assis Naseri was once again the one that "filled" the stage. His deep and "cruel" vocals matched perfectly with the light and high voice of the soprano. The warm and sweet sounds of the flute, the violin, the cello and the keyboards along with the "harshness" of the drums , guitars and bass created their familiar, harmonic and enigmatic musical atmosphere giving the chills to all the listeners (including me). The highlights of the show were not few; during the song  "Herr Mannelig" , Claudio Quarta (guitars) and Giacomo Astorri (bass) left the stage and mingled  with the crowd . We also had the pleasure of even listening to SLAYER's  "South Of Heaven"! Before the start of their encore, Asis introduced us to each of the 12 members of the band while giving them a red rose from the bouquet he was holding.

After almost 2 and a half  hours and 18 songs later HAGGARD proved to the unwary why they are so loved in Greece. Waiting anxiously for their new album with the hope of coming back again and repeating this day's awesome performance.