[DimK]After the cancellation of the first Metal day of the so-called 'Rockwave Festival' the promoters managed to 'dry' the equipment for the shake of the Greek metalheads who were anxious to watch SLIPKNOT on-stage. The strange stories and the promoters' press releases made a lot of brows to raise since the alleged electric storms and the one hour rain were pathetic excuses for a festival cancellation. After all, you have to be ready to handle these kind of conditions... Since every cloud has a silver lining the Greek audience took a hard lesson about the poor organization of 'festivals' in their home country and will definitely re-consider investing their money on them.

Nevertheless, METAL TEMPLE was in place as always to report from this event even though was not officially invited as a press media (we are not with the goodones hehe). The first thing I noticed while entering Terra Vibe was the weak attendance which was mainly due to the fear of 'extreme weather conditions' and another cancellation. The stage that would host LITA FORD and SAXON was merely a joke. The lights were less than adequate while the sound had to be loud enough to cover the sound from the main stage...

[DimK] So, Lita Ford took over the stage right on time (yes they managed to kept the timetable) with Larger Than Life. Well, Lita's return was pleasant surprise for all the Hair Spray lovers but judging by the band's appearance one can say that it was not a good idea after all. There was a rehearsal mood all around while Lita looked as she was not prepared for this. She had a bizarre stage fright that made her performance rather clumsy. But I have to mention that the on-stage conditions did not help the band at all; the hot sun was blinding the musicians (the stage's orientation was wrong) while the numerous technical problems force them to improvise.

Music-wise Lita sounded very good and had the mood to party with the 200 metalheads who were there to honor here first (and probably last) live appearance upon Greek soil. Things got better with time getting old time hits like Back In The Cave and Hungry where Lita proved that she still has the moves and the looks to back these tracks up. The majority of the audience gave her a warm applause while singing along during the closing tracks Close My Eyes Forever and Kiss Me Deadly. Jim Gillette -Lita's husband- was doing the backing vocals and joined her wife on Piece (Hell Yeah) that comes from the upcoming album Wicked Wonderland that sounded pretty good. Personally I did not understand the necessity of having three guys doing the backing vocals and I do not want to think that it was to support or cover Lita's mistakes. All in all, it was nice to have a legend to Greece but it could be better if the band had spent additional time in the studio rehearsing.

Lita Ford setlist:

01. Larger Than Life
02. Black Widow
03. Can't Catch Me
04. Gotta Let Go
05. Back To The Cave
06. Hungry
07. Falling In And Out Of Love08. Piece (Hell Yeah)
09. Close My Eyes Forever
10. Kiss Me Deadly

[YiannisD] That was the highlight of that day for me. Everything else seemed so small and unimportant. I have been waiting to see DOWN for many years and that time had come! Phil Anselmo, Pepper Keenan, Kirk Windstein, Rex Brown and Jimmy Bower got on stage one by one under the screams of an ecstatic audience. And it was seconds after I started singing New Orleans Is A Dying Whore that the song's first riff came out of the speakers. And then- chaos! Headbanging, weed smoking, beer drinking and a brutal, yet happily stoned atmosphere covered Terra Vibe. One thing I noted is Phil Anselmo who seems to be better than ever! This man has been reborn and is back to reclaim his crown! I can't really find the words to describe the incredible amount of heaviness this band can produce. Their dirty bluesy sound was exactly what that sunny day needed. Their flawlessly performed setlist, which was perfect except for one thing, the absence of On March The Saints, their energetic show (it was soooo cool watching five punks playing like children up there) and the pretty good sound were more than enough to make all metalheads, stoners and potheads have a hell of a nice time! Oh, I just forgot to mention something...

Two special things happened during DOWN's set. First of all it was Phil's birthday. Everyone was singing his birthday song while Phil was constantly playing with the crowd. And, while DOWN smash our bones with their stoned, whiskey soaked tunes I notice MASTODON just behind the stage. And it fucking happened! They got on-stage, Kirk grabbed the mic, Phil grabbed the bass and they performed a jam on Bury Me In Smoke! Was there a better way to end this more than great performance? Nah, I don't think so... When I dieeeeeeeeeee, bury me in smooooooooooooke!

DOWN setlist:
01. New Orleans Is A Dying Whore
02. Lysergik Funeral Procession
03. Lifer
04. The Path
05. Hail The Leaf
06. Ghosts Along The Mississippi
07. N.O.D.
08. Eyes Of The South
09. Stone The Crow
10. Bury Me In Smoke

[DimK] After Lita's appearance it was time for the British legends SAXON. To be honest with you I had second thoughts of getting to 'Rockwave Festival' since the one our given to the British band was another joke! And I do not have to mention again (hell I did mention it again...) the tiny stage and the primitive stage lights that were an insult to the Metal magnitude of this band.

SAXON is a band that does not 'understand' of difficult conditions and clearly do not mind performing in front of no more than 500 faces! Biff and his energetic company underlined the fact that they should be the headliners on this 'festival' since with their one hour setlist managed to spread enthusiasm and energy. The band squeezed in the tiny setlist (for their standards) some new songs and the old time classic hits that -as always- blew us away. Biff got connected with the audience from the first seconds and proved that respecting your fans is a crucial element for all the Metal bands regardless of their success. Of course, we were not satisfied by the duration of their appearance that was only enough to warm us up! So, a massive thank you to SAXON who managed to be the aforementioned 'silver lining' and gave their hearts to please their Greek fans who are mistreated by the local promoters. Personally, I will catch the band on-stage (depending on my economical status) somewhere abroad since SAXON is the best band to watch live!

SAXON setlist:

01. Battalions Of Steel
02. Heavy Metal Thunder
03. Demon Sweeney Todd
04. Strong Arm Of The Law
05. Motorcycle Man
06. Let Me Feell Your Power
07. Crusader
08. 20,000 Ft
09. Denim And Lether
10. Wheels OF Steel
11. Live To Rock
12. Princess Of The Night

[Harry] Well, this was this year's 'Rockwave Festival'. Many believe that the excuses for the cancellation of the first Metal day will eventually strike DiDi's monopoly and will raise the standards for the future events. Personally, I think that nothing will change (the fans easily forget) unless the Greek metalheads will start thinking of combining the summer vacation with a proper festival abroad!

After watching SAXON for the billionth time it was time for me to catch SLIPKNOT on-stage. Well, due to my working schedule and all those happenings (and electric storms) that lead to the cancellation of the previous Metal festival day I did watch any other band except from the last 3 songs from DOWN's appearance.

But that's already history. So, at about 22:00, it was time for the headliners of this concert -sorry but I can't call it a festival- to come on-stage. After the sick intro, the nine musicians/artists hit the stage and the scream Here comes the pain! sounded the beginning of the 80 minutes full of madness. As for all the bands that day and the majority of the concerts in Greece, the sound was at first awful and became better as the time passed. But the maggots in front of the stage didn't seam to bother about that. From the back you could see mosh-pits during the concert while everybody -including myself- screaming all the lyrics. Of course, when the time came for their hits, like Wait and Bleed and Before I Forget an adrenalin rush took over the young fans that were jumping and screaming even louder. Even though, they played many songs from their older albums -something that I really enjoyed- and not only from their last one despite the fact that this was the All Hope Is Gone tour. But it was a surprise for me that they did not play The Heretic Anthem. But we can't have everything, can we?

The good (?) thing about SLIPKNOT is that they don't have one front-man. And I don't know if this is good because you cannot watch in nine different places at the same time. They don't have only Corey since there are also Shawn Clown Crahan with his energy on stage, Joey Jordison even though he is hidden behind his huge drum kit, or the other members that they didn't stop headbanging and covering every inch of the stage. Songs like The Blister Exists, Left Behind, Disasterpiece surely made their fans happy and in between they played Dead Memories just to cool things down but fortunately just for a while. It was time for SLIPKNOT to leave the stage and come back after a few minutes for the encore. Like a big frontman Corey manipulated the crowd and almost all of us, sat down as he told us to and the last mosh-pit started when he said Jump the fuck up! and at the same time Joey with his huge drum kit, defied gravity and he was playing almost upside down!

This was a great performance by SLIPKNOT and I think that even the band's haters should agree on this. I sure hope that I will see then again soon on stage. It was time to leave, with a big smile in my face since I saw SAXON (again) and SLIPKNOT, and return home trying to put my pieces back together. It is always nice to watch two of your favorite bands live, but I think there is something that we all want: A proper festival in our country and not something like that.

SLIPKNOT setlist:
01. Intro / (SIC)
02. Eyeless
03. Wait And Bleed
04. Get This
05. Before I Forget
06. Sulfur
07. The Blister Exists
08. Dead Memories
09. Left Behind
10. Disasterpiece
11. Psychosocial
12. Duality
13. People = Shit
14. Encore
15. Surfacing
16. Spit It Out
17. Outro ('Til We Die)