Rockwave Festival celebrated this year its 10th anniversary and the proceedings were held at the TerraVibe theme park, located just outside the town of Malakasa, 30mins from Athens. The festival all those years has always been one of the highlights of the Athenian summers and the anticipation around it is always great. Therefore, when a few weeks back the bands that would perform live were officially confirmed, the third and final day of the festival seemed very promising. And indeed our expectations were met...

Even during a summer that had been somewhat kind (temperature-wise) to Athenians, we were once more boiling when the gates opened around 3:30 pm. However, one could read all over our faces that 33C beaming down on our metalheads was not enough to put us off. It is one of those times though that you reconsider whether black T-shirts and Metal should go together in such occasions! The TerraVibe theme park is a great venue for live concerts. Open-air, surrounded by trees, grass below your feet, adequate restroom facilities and lots of space for gift shops and other events. What is most important though in my humble opinion is the fact that the whole area has a slight downward slope to the stage that makes it theatrical enough to achieve very good standards of sound output to the spectators and have a clear view of the stage wherever you're standing. It was also great to see that although the ticket price stood at ?39, the crowd gathered for the Metal day of the festival exceeded once more the 6,000 mark, not forgetting that only a few days earlier W.A.S.P had cancelled their European tour and only two days earlier Guns n' Roses also gathered that figure. With such a support for Metal music, it makes more and more sense that Lordi won the Eurovision contest, doesn't it?

Moonspell (by Elina)

The first to appear onstage were the Portuguese Goth-Black-Doom-You-Name-It-They-Play-It Metal band Moonspell. They have always been a quality Metal band but after their latest release, Memorial (SPV Records, 2006), they rose the expectations for their show. And they managed to confirm and surpass those expectations! They kicked-off with the intro of the album In Memoriam, the sound-blaster Finisterra and continued with Memento Mori. The singer was on a great day throwing his best Death vocals to dress the Black_Gothic sounds played by his team mates. The participative screaming audience would follow the lyrics only to pump-up the band's mood even more and make them love every minute onstage despite the hot sun. Fernando Ribeiro (vocals) yelled many times efcharisto (thank you) and Rockwave Hellas between the songs to express the band's appreciation for the vibe they were receiving from the crowd. He also made a note on the football European Cup Final where their national team lost to Greece and had some kind words for Greek striker Charisteas that nailed them back then! It was all in good spirit though and probably connected them even more with the fans.

They continued with two more tracks from Memorial, having a fantastic performance during the instrumental Sons Of Earth, followed by the aggressive Blood Tells. The album Irreligious (Century Media Records, 1996) couldn't be missing from the show and made its appearance with the song Opium, which was next in line. The rest of the setlist included Proliferation, Upon The Blood Of Men, At The Image Of Pain and the amazing Sanguine, all from their latest album. The band surprised us by playing (towards the end) the classic song Vampiria from the album Wolfheart (Century Media Records, 1995), which drove the audience mad. What was awesome at the end was the way they introduced the bands next in line, with respect and admiration for each one of them and I was amazed at the fact that Fernando confessed that without Celtic Frost, Moonspell wouldn't exist now. There are not many bands that admit such things when they are well-known or at the highlights of their career. The crowd demanded that they played one last song before exiting and they rounded off their solid performance by playing Full Moon Madness from their Irreligious 1996 album. Moonspell certainly deserved the huge round of applause and cheers that followed and after witnessing such a great crowd I expect to see them back here in the winter.

Crimson Glory (by Grigoris)

To miss the chance seeing this legendary U.S. Metal band performing live in its original lineup would seem out of question some years ago. The Sarasota, Floridian band's first two albums - Crimson Glory (Par_Roadrunner, 1986) and Transcendence (Roadrunner, 1988) - have long-gone been 'registered' in golden lettering on the pages of the 'monumental Metal releases' book of glory, while the news about extraordinaire vocalist_frontman Midnight handling the mic (again) did create shiver to all the band's devotees. Not more than 15 minutes after Moonspell's departure, it was time for some inspired U.S. Metal music to take command.

Well, I wish Crimson Glory never play in Greece again. Not under these circumstances at least. Strong rumors regarding Midnight's addiction to booze did reveal to be true. A once unique singer walked onstage non-sober (obviously), had some printed stuff in front of him to read the lyrics (print size A2?), made enough mistakes in terms of tempo_timing and delivered a performance with average vocal abilities supported by some scattered 'true Midnight' high-pitched notes. Read it an' weep.

As for the rest of the clan? I feel sorry for the musicians, since they played 100% of what they could deliver, even if the sound was not that helpful. The twin Flying-V attack of Jon Drenning and Ben Jackson was exciting while the faultless rhythm section was supported by an unknown (to us) extra percussionist, who also handled backing vocals during the whole setlist. Midnight's performance_behavior - of course - did cause some abnormality in regards to the perfectionism of Crimson Glory's instrumentation, widely seen and criticized by a generous proportion of the crowd.

It was expected that the band's first two albums would be the ones carrying the main setlist. And so it was. Valhalla, Dragon Lady, Azrael, Mayday, Queen Of The Masquerade, Lost Reflection came from the legendary debut while Lady Of Winter, Red Sharks (gig opening track), Masque Of The Red Death and Eternal World did make their appearance off the Transcendence sophomore effort. An ideal setlist - enriched by War Of The Worlds from 2000's Astronomica, sung by the mysterious sixth member_percussionist mentioned previously - that would have made all of the audience go crazy, If Midnight had been a little bit of a professional. Cross-checking opinions with various friends and colleagues after the CG appearance, all the old-school fans were terribly disappointed (count me in). The younger ones did lie somewhere in between. Rarely, though, did I hear an overall positive critique for the gig of an eternally beloved band.

Celtic Frost (by Grigoris)

This was a good enough reason for someone to check out this year's Rockwave Festival (since Crimson Glory did not stand proud against our expectations). Among the mentors_ pioneers of the whole Death_Black_Goth extreme Metal genre mania, Swiss legends Celtic Frost did visit Greece for the first time. Yeap, a summer festival was not the ideal place for Celtic Frost to deliver their unholy rotten sound, and that was rather obvious exactly after their - anyway - very good performance. Tom Warrior Fischer - a living legend for extreme metallers - and Co. walked onstage in full black clothing, ready to fill our ears and hearts with endless misanthropic decayed chords and vocals. Many Thrash Metal maniacs had 'built' local mosh pits for the CF faster tunes to dance with, while the more 'avant-garde' fans did stay a little bit away from the scene to focus (also) on the band's onstage behaviour.

Martin Eric Ain (Fischer's colleague for more than 20 years now, aka the Hellhammer days) was the grand persona, no doubt. In his priest clothing, banging his head endlessly while proposing much of the band's inter-song speaking, Ain is (for many CF diehard fans) a personality equal to Fischer. Newly recruited drummer Franco Sesa did deliver no less than what was expected for such a sound, while tour 'newcomer' Anders Odden (Apoptygma Berzerk, Cadaver, Satyricon, Mayhem) also was the appropriate choice, even if I think the band would also kick ass as a typical trio.

Anyway, touring for the promotion of their latest album Monotheist, the Swiss veterans dedicated enough of their gig to this one. Surely a weird album (as if it could be something different), Monotheist's tunes like Ain Elohim or Synagoga Satanae did leave the spectators with mixed emotions. Those aware of the band's sound may had a good time, still the others (imagine many did come to the fest merely for Twisted Sister) seemed bored to death. Hence, even if Celtic Frost did play a great gig, with the better sound related to other bands from the lineup, it was apparent that this band needs its own venue with their own fans to share this personal atmosphere.

Apart from the new album, classic cuts like Necromantical Screams, Procreation (Of The Wicked), Dethroned Emperor - to mention a few - hit the air with enough doomed brutality, while the thrash-y Into The Crypts Of Rays and Circle Of The Tyrants (maybe the band's landmark all these years, judging - once again - by the crowd's response) raised tons of adrenaline and subsequent mosh dancing_crowd surfing. A warm applause sent the band backstage, while it is essential now for the band to perform a whole setlist in an indoors venue some time in the near future; the situation will be different a lot. Tom, thank you for your first time here.

Twisted Sister (by Grigoris)

With W.A.S.P. calling-off their participation only 3 days earlier, Twisted Sister was the sole headliner for the day. Also having headlined last year's Rockwave (Metal day) activities, lots of murmur was heard for the lack of some other 'grand' name to wrap up such a day. Not to disagree, also remembering the band's performance last year, it's obvious that Twisted sister guarantee to kick your fuckin' ass on a hot summer night, even if playing day after day in your house's backyard.

AC/DC's It's A Long Way To The Top (If You Wanna Rock N' Roll) is the ideal intro for any band's gig; let alone the shivering if you've never seen AC_DC live. The lights went dim, Dee Snider screamed Good evening! and the rest is history. Four albums lent fifteen songs of high energy; What You Don't Know (Sure Can Hurt You), The Kids Are Back, You Can't Stop Rock N' Roll, I Am (I'm Me), Under The Blade, The Beast, The Price, Burn In Hell, I Wanna Rock...phewww. To cut a long story short, if Twisted Sister is your band then there's no way the setlist can be disappointing.

Dee was - again - outstanding, running all over the stage, interacting with the crowd. Still, I did notice his voice was not on the same level as last year, not something magnificent though. He was cheerful enough to play with the rest of the band, but was eventually driven mad for the lack of 100% functional microphones. As for the rest: the guitar duo delivered excellent playing with average sound, Mentoza is the silent force you don't wanna fuck around with (hence, he was great...) while Pero's drum playing was anyway good, but exaggerating at times (you're not a Slayer member, you know).
The crowd would not oppose participating in such a Hard Rock N Roll party, so voices, dancing, lighters in mellow parts, shouting and tons of sweat were present for more than an hour. Not 100% satisfied with the band's cover on the Rolling Stones classic It's Only Rock N Roll, the encore of Come Out And Play along with S.M.F. wrapped up the setlist, leaving the band shocked by the audience's final applause.

The memories are so strong from their 2005 gig, so I should note that this year's performance was a little bit of lower status. Still, even if with average - again - sound, Dee Snider and Co. proved their everlasting love for high energy Hard Rockin music (let aside the motives for their reunion etc).