"Darkness Over Tel Aviv" was an interesting event, a combination of Israel's young guns Black Metal MAGOR, Finland's MOONSORROW and Greek extreme Metal legends ROTTING CHRIST.
 

Doors opened around 21:00, inside was a great variety of merchandise stands, with T-Shirts, vinyls, CD's and even a food stand, so the fans had plenty to spend their money on. MAGOR opened the evening with a very energetic set, the band, that has been around since 2002, are finally set to release their first full length album, and the powerful performance that they put on this night showed them to be one of the finest Black Metal acts to come out of the holy land, and the crowd ate them up, MAGOR may have only played a little over half an hour but they left a strong impression with an excellent and professional set.
 

At 22:35 the intro began to welcome Finland's MOONSORROW to the stage, and the crowd went wild. There was a problem though as a lot (not all, but many) of the crowd was lost during their set. Anyone who knows me, knows I'm not a big fan of bands who prolong their songs for no reason, and while long complex songs, with lots of rhythm and melody changes may work well on record, it simply didn't translate well into a live setting, especially considering the other bands on the bill, both of which play short and energetic compositions. The crowd was lost to the point that unless the band spoke or unless you're a fan of the band, you didn't know where one song ended and another began, luckily, not all the songs were at the 10 to 15 minutes mark providing a relief and introducing a bit more energy, MOONSORROW are without a doubt fantastic musicians, they write fascinating, long, complex and epic compositions, the problem, as I already mentioned is that unless you're in the right setting (like a Prog Metal Fest), long and complex compositions do not translate well into the energetic setting of a live Metal show, especially when the headliner is the legendary ROTTING CHRIST who are known for their high energy shows.
 

It was at 00:20 that ROTTING CHRIST took the stage and woke the audience up, starting an immediate mosh pit, main man Sakis Tolis is without a doubt one of the most charismatic frontman in extreme Metal, and the crowd loved every second, this was the bands 5th time in Israel, and my 3rd time watching them, and I enjoyed every second, ROTTING CHRIST are certainly loved by the audience that came to see them and it was beyond obvious who the headliners were, the crowd knew every word and every note, their performance of "Nemecic" sent the crowd into a frenzy, but that was to be expected, as very rarely did the moshpit (encouraged by the band) died down, When the band left the stage, they were very quickly brought back to thunderous applause and the crowds "we want more" chant, and while the encore was just one song, the band surprised with their timeless classic "Non Serviam", which ended a fantastic and energetic set from the Greek legends. This was indeed a fantastic night, 3 excellent bands shared a stage, and while MOONSORROW isn't my cup of tea (and many others in the crowd), ROTTING CHRIST more than made up with their excellent set. This is a good time to thank Yishai Sweartz and Raven Metal for providing the Israeli audience with another fantastic, well organized night of Metal.
 

Setlist - Moonsorrow
1. Tyven
2. Sankarihauta
3. Ukkonsenjumalan Poika
4. Raunioilla
5. Kivenkantaja
6. Kylan Paassa
7. Jotunheim
8. Sankaritarina
9. Kuolleiden Maa