OPETH. A single word that for some of us symbolizes everything that Metal should be. Sheer musical genius, a trip though other worlds and dimensions with lyrics and notes as our only transportation. It's no coincidence that I firmly believe they're the PINK FLOYD of our generation and anyone who's been a fan to both bands can feel that. Mikael Akerfeldt and his crew have this almost magical way of balancing beautiful clean vocals and hellish grunts, all dressed in pure poetry and unique music that alternates between the extremely complicated and the wonderfully simple.
It's also one of those bands that never cease to amaze me every time I watch them live. I didn't go to last year's 'Rockwave Festival' and missed them on purpose; OPETH is a very special band that needs to be seen in a place with perfect sound, surrounded by their own fans and definitely not under the Greek hot scorching sun. So needless to say, I was really anxious to watch one of my favorite -if not my favorite- band perform after all this time.
The doors opened at 19:30 and the band appeared around 2 hours later. Now I wish I could say that what followed was a joyful experience but sadly I cannot lie and let me explain what screwed things over.
Arriving at the venue, I was surprised that for the first time there was a huge parking lot outside and for once I wouldn't have to drive around for 2 hours to find a parking spot, only to receive a parking ticket from an eager cop. The pleasant surprises stopped there though. I've heard lots of disgruntled friends telling me tales about Building 56 before, but this was the first time I got to see this disgrace with my own eyes. The minute you walk in, you expect to see small civilian aircrafts under repair since it's nothing short of a huge hangar.
You see this hangar belongs to the Foundation of the Hellenic World and serves as nothing more than a storage area they weren't using anyway. So being a private foundation they found yet another way to exploit this country's innate ability for its officials to look the other way and make some more money. And who else would pay a shitload of money to watch a live show in such horrid conditions but us, Metal fans who go anywhere under any conditions to watch the band they love? You see we are the perfect victims in Greece; no mainstream media will cover 95% of the shows we go to, so no one ever knows about what's going on. There's just one major promoter all these years, so no serious competition means there's no reason to improve their prices or their services provided. Instead, they can pretty much get away with anything they do, as long as it means minimum cost and maximum profit. And this time it was no exception.
After a few more minutes you realize it's more of a hatchery; temperature, humidity and the overall conditions were just perfect to hatch eggs, only instead of poultry you had people who paid 33E to actually be in there. Little more time passed till I finally figured out that this place would fail as a hatchery as well, because nothing living could survive in there for more than a couple of hours. Smoke was building up, there was no ventilation at all and more than 1200 people had to breathe from the small door we came in. It was 10 Celsius outside but a miraculous 40 Celsius inside with enough humidity and smoke to hide most of the stage if you were on the other side of the venue. Mid-show they opened another small door across the first one to let some air in but this didn't work as well.
So, all I could think about was that this gas chamber (which in any other civilized country would be used only as a storage space for military equipment) better have some damn good sound that wouldn't reverb through its metallic walls. Well, guess again. OPETH appear on stage and begun their show with their face-melting Heir Apparent and my hopes for even some decent sound were crushed from the minute Mikael started grunting Long days, slow waste.
In Elina's own wise words, I can only understand what they're playing because I already know the songs. I think that about sums up the disgrace of having such a band trying to deliver that kind of music in a place that would serve as a means to mass genocide in other times. In a nutshell the sound was dry and reverbing the further back you went to the venue. And even under those hideous conditions, OPETH , to their credit, managed to give a kickass performance.
The band was in top condition and everything was played to perfection as always. The setlist had songs from their last 6 albums and they skipped a few classic favorites like Master's Apprentices and Demon of the Fall but to be honest, they'd need a 4 hours playlist just to cover enough basics for everyone.
Mikael was in a great mood and like the previous times he said lots of jokes but unlike the previous times we couldn't really understand most of the things he said because the excellent sound system was making him sound like Muppet Show's Swedish chef so we had to work together and fill in which words we managed to understand to complete the joke. Challenging, I have to admit.
I really wish this was a report focused on this amazing band. Nothing has changed since my last report concerning them. Watching them live is an experience every metalhead has to go through at least once. But make sure it's in a country where promoters don't see the Metal fans as bags of money but instead they treat you with respect and give you what you paid for. Kudos to all the fans that went through this and still managed to be a truly great audience.
Setlist:
01. Heir Apparent
02. Ghost Of Perdition
03. Godhead's Lament
04. The Leper Affinity
05. Credence
06. Hessian Peel
07. Closure
08. The Night And The Silent Water
09. The Lotus Eater
Encore:
10. Deliverance
