It's been over a year since Paradise Lost last paid a visit to our country and I was looking forward to some action for my neck. And by that I mean furious headbanging and not some gay activity that got inside your mind due to the shameless promotion of the media for all things gay. Try to disagree with me next time H.I.M. releases a new album. On the bright side; less men, more women so everyone's happy. I guess.
Besides men who like raw meat up their cavities there are also people who don't believe in the butterfly effect, which is not the latest song from the Finnish boyband but more like the theory of Chaos that tells us in a nutshell that the fluttering of a butterfly's wings in one place of the world can cause rain in another place.
In our case Paradise Lost brought British weather over Athens and I can't thank them enough for that since it got boring waking up in a sunny day for the eleventh month in a row. The bad thing is that I had to pick up Orpheus from his place which changed my plans so we got to Club 22 a bit later than expected. But fear not trusty reader for he paid for the parking lot and justice was restored in the land where the mighty satyrs used to play their pipes while prancing around in the ancient forests.
There are two reasons for this big intro which apparently serves no other purpose but to piss off people using online translators, students of the English language in their second year of learning and H.I.M. fans. First of all in order to explain why we lost the first couple of songs (if it matters, I had Opeth playing loud in the car so we didn't get bored while stuck in the traffic, don't worry; as if you did) and because there's no way you can write that much for a concert with a single band, no matter how great it is. I don't whine, on the contrary, support bands that serve as last minute additions tend to bore me more than the typical multiplex-oriented slasher movie.
So at last we tumbled down the stairs in a hurry and hit a human wall that was extending all the way to the entrance. Yes, the place was full; a pleasant surprise since it justified my belief in the strong Paradise Lost fan base. The all-weather metalheads managed to fight through the rainy weather and attend what seemed to be a sold out concert. At the time of our arrival they were in the middle of Grey and according to some polite gents there (the British climate we've been talking about) we had only missed Don't Belong. Only? Bloody 'ell, I love this song (last Brit outbreak, I swear). Widow from my beloved Icon was next, followed by Erased and So Much Is Lost.
Not much to say, I consider Host to be the worst thing that ever happened to Paradise Lost and if you disagree go hug a tree you hippie. It sounds much better live since there are also... guitars but still, it was a nice chance for the old neck to rest a bit. Mystify and Red Shift from Symbol of Life and Paradise Lost brought us back to the present. Everything so far was almost perfect. The band's performance was great with the new drummer having merged with the rest of the band, the crowd singing along at every chance. The sound was just ok, something that verified the suspicion I had ever since the Nevermore gig that Club 22 needs to improve in that area. Because seriously, I wouldn't demand anything but a near-perfect sound for their next song; from their Seals the Sense EP came the b-side that could have promoted an album on its own and I could never understand why it was left out of Icon. Nick said that they would just try it out with us and see how it goes. Well, you'd better make Sweetness a permanent part of your playlist, because a friend of mine that couldn't be there said that he would go just to see them perform it. Simply speechless, I couldn't believe my own ears. No Celebration was next and Hallowed Land was another reason for subjecting people around me to more of my hair whipping. My all time favorite song True Belief followed and my voice showed the first signs of giving up.
Back again to their Draconian Times album and Enchantment, a leap forward to Accept The Pain and yet another visit to Icon with Ember's Fire; my voice was already at 50% capacity. All You Leave Behind followed and people started cheering Eternal right after it ended. Yeah, I wish. Nick jokes about it asking if this is Greek for As I Die. No it's not, just obey the people and get to grunting damn it. Well, we did fine with that song as well, since it's the common link between old and new Paradise Lost fans.
The next song was dedicated to a great guy who recently passed away, Harris Efkarpidis of Metal Hammer magazine. I hope you listened to everyone sing along One Second for you, brother, wherever you are.
The band took a few minutes break and came back with the last two songs from their latest album, Forever After and Over the Madness. Their encore closed with Say Just Words and they returned after a couple of minutes for the last song which was – what else? Last Time that pacified Orpheus who had asked me for the 14th time already if they were going to play that; well, pacified is not the correct choice of word, he more like joined me in the overall frenzy that followed.
Not much to say about the performance of a band such as Paradise Lost. Their playlist was satisfying enough for every fan; how can you ask for anything more when they even played Sweetness? Club 22's low stage helped the interaction between the band and the crowd and everyone was enjoying it. Funny moment of the night was when someone was screaming Fragile Dreams and Nick replied Dude, this is from another band... At least he wasn't asking for Master of Puppets.
A great show with the perfect band for that rainy night, parts of which we should see in the upcoming live DVD.