I've changed this prologue three times prior to this live report going public. Firstly, because I was rather late to write it (my schedule was too tight these days) and secondly, because my internet connection was following Murphy's Law and was down the previous days. Anyway, Sunday night and myself with a half dozen of friends went to Kyttaro Club to watch something different. HAIL! started their small European tour from our city and it was a good opportunity to listen to some covers from an all-star project.

After the usual delay the doors eventually opened. And after a while -and a big cue in front of the toilet- it was time for CELLEBRATE to hit the stage. From the beginning of their set, I found out that this band was not my cup of tea. Their experimental Metal -something between MASTODON, ISIS and NEUROSIS- didn't attract me. Even though the sound wasn't bad -I think so- they failed to warm up the audience. They did some mistakes and their overall performance was poor. The only interesting moment was the last song that was a cover of Raining Blood (what do you mean by whom?) but mainly for the song and not the way it was performed. They do need a lot of work if they want to go a step further.

So, after their set and a small wait, around 600 more metalheads were ready to see HAIL! live. One by one they hit the stage, with Dave Elefson wearing a T-shirt of the Greek National football team and Andreas Kisser with Sao Paolo's socks! The sound was good and the quartet seemed that was having a good time. Of course, some of the songs lacked volume from the absence of a second guitar and maybe others did not fit Ripper's voice. But who cares? We saw an all-star project playing some of the most well known songs from the Metal scene. Elefson and Kisser were headbanging most of the time, despite Andreas was a bit tired since he arrived in Greece from U.S.A. the same day. Tim Ripper Owens' voice was not at its best, but nevertheless he still is one of the top vocalists right now in the Metal scene. One of my objections was that Ripper didn't know all the lyrics by heart. On the other hand, this is something normal since those are not songs that he sings all the time. The other one is that they may have had to practice a bit more since -for example- they played half of Rainbow In The Dark. The crowd had a nice time listening to songs that some of us grew up with and I saw some of them stage-diving and crowd surfing. Someone even got onstage and grabbed Ripper's hat, something that made him a bit angry, but just a few seconds later, the fan thew it back on stage.

After 90 minutes -an hour of playing time- the show was over. Some of you may think that just an hour of playing for a cover band is too little, but on the other hand we all knew the setlist and we were prepared for what to come. As for the 10 Euros to attend the meet-and-greed well, I think that this wasn't the bands decision; not that other bands don't do something like this.

Overall, it was a good performance and I think that most of us had a great time listening to HAIL!. Good sound, four well known musicians and a nice setlist that satisfied most of us. Let's just hope that they will release a DVD or a full length album, since I believe there is some chemistry among them.

HAIL! setlist:

01. Ace Of Spades (MOTORHEAD)
02. Territory (SEPULTURA)
03. Symphony Of Destruction (MEGADETH)
04. Grinder (JUDAS PRIEST)
05. Fucking Hostile (PANTERA)
06. Walk (PANTERA)
07. Balls To The Wall (ACCEPT)
08. Neon Knights (BLACK SABBATH)
09. Wrathchild (IRON MAIDEN)
10. The Green Manalishi (JUDAS PRIEST)
11. Metal Gods (JUDAS PRIEST)
12. Peace Sells / Paranoid / Peace Sells (MEGADETH / BLACK SABBATH medley)
13. Refuse / Resist (SEPULTURA)
14. Whiplash (METALLICA)

(photos by Harry)

CELLEBRATE

HAIL!