Another Sunday night, another Wacken Metal Battle. It was supposed to be the last one out of three, but due to the bad weather here in Greece almost three weeks ago the second one was postponed. The weather this time was fine, so me and Yiannis, decided to go and see those seven bands that were fighting for a place in the final of the Wacken Metal Battle.

Before initiating the report I would like to say a few things about something that I noticed. Even though Wacken Metal Battle is a big thing both for the bands and our country's Metal scene, I realized that Greece's two well known printed magazines were absent from the contest. I saw no reports or discussions about the contest. Shouldn't Greek metalheads start being a bit more suspicious? Anyway, I don't want to comment any further on the Greek rotten Metal reality.
[Harry] Since we are living in Athens and traffic jams are always in our schedule, we managed to get into the club just in time to listen to the first band, SCREAMINAL. Not more than 80 people were in the club at that time, but the band's 10-15 fans enjoyed their performance. Their Metalcore for me was nothing special, but many guys liked it. That's why they managed to climb to the fourth place. If they continue to work hard, since they are active just for seven months, they may do even better. But for now the band was average. The only thing that both me and Yiannis distinguished, was the voice of the singer. This lad has potentials...

[Yiannis D.] MORTAL TORMENT was the second band of the contest and they were not so passionate about it. The Athenian Death_Grind act was not so energetic on stage, something that had a great cost, the loss of the ticket to the finals. Anyway, the band played their own blend of US Death Metal with some DYING FETUS meets REGURGITATE Grind influences. The band must have added one singer lately, since I only knew that MORTAL TORMENT's singer was Rita, a beautiful girl with disgusting vocals. Hell yeah, she can teach many male singers how to sing some brutal shit!
[Harry] After a short break, KARMA VIOLENS hit the stage. Their appearance was good there with lots of headbanging. With their Metalcore, they managed to warm the metalheads that were watching their performance. I believe that those guys were one of the three bands from that night that were fighting for the two tickets, but they just didn't make it. Hopefully, next time guys.

[Harry] DESTINY DENIED was next. Playing a mixture of Death_Thrash Metal with fragments of Hardcore they didn't manage to attract the crowd. Even though I liked some of their songs, I think they are missing something although they weren't that bad. Probably a second guitar, in order to fill their sound and the scene, which was empty with only two members at each side and the drummer. Nice ideas but, in my humble opinion, they have to work harder.

[Yiannis D.] It was time for the Athenian INSIDEAD, a band I had the chance to see on-stage some time ago, when these guys were the support act for the Swedish melodic death metallers NIGHTRAGE. I basically knew what to expect, but it seems that you always have to expect the unexpected. The band was in a Metal delirium on stage, while the crowd was constantly screaming the band's name, showing its preference for the winner of the contest. The band's modern sound earned the audience with catchy riffing and incredible groove, and the headbanging seemed like it would never stop. Unfortunately, the band's set was over and they had to leave and let the next band play some real Metal.

[Yiannis D.] The next band was in fact the most Metal band of that night. Thrash Metal act RELEASED ANGER was 100% ready with its denim & leather full of patches and stuff, preparing us for what was going to follow. When they grabbed their instruments, many people got in the pit and showed what a real underground Thrash audience is like. Endless headbanging, dancing, stagediving and other brutal stuff took place, and I can say that my neck still hurts! If you want some traditional KREATOR meets SODOM retro Thrash Metal you have to check them out!

[Yiannis D.] It was getting kind of late, and the last band of the contest was ready to hit the stage. FULL TERROR ASSAULT was a band I never had the chance to listen to. The singer looked like he was totally wasted, but he could still scream his guts out. The band was playing a mixture of Hardcore, Nu Metal and Metalcore and there were times that they reminded me of bands like FULL BLOWN CHAOS, ASESINO and a much less technical version of LAMB OF GOD. The guys were unfortunately not so good on stage, making some mistakes during the tracks. Dunno, I think they can do much better.

The time was 23:30 and one more Wacken Metal Battle was over. If you see it as a whole, it wasn't that good as a concert. But two bands managed to pay us back with their performance. INSIDEAD and RELEASED ANGER were definitely the best two bands that night and they won a ticket to the final fair and square. The only thing we can do now, is to wait until the 13th of April to find out the other two bands that will go to the final alongside SACRAM, BARE INFINITY, INSIDEAD and RELEASED ANGER.

(photos by Harry)

SCREAMINAL

MORTAL TORMENT

KARMA VIOLENS

DESTINY DENIED

INSIDEAD

RELEASED ANGER

FULL TERROR ASSAULT