Leprous, Until Rain, Poem // Eightball Club, Thessaloniki, Greece // 22.09.2015

Tuesday, September 22nd , 2015 and on this cloudy day the Norwegian upcoming progsters LEPROUS lay feet on Thessaloniki ground for the second time. Being present on their previous show –supporting Therion- a few years back, I might say that they weren’t that upcoming on stage though they already had put out the outstanding “Bilateral” album! On this point in time, Leprous released “The Congregation” this year, and a big European album supporting tour has brought them here as the headliners of this day! So let’s see what happened during the show!

First of all, I have to admit that production-wise, the timeline of the event was kept precise thanks to the promoters and the venue employees. It was about 20.15 that POEM – rescheduled to open the event- hot the stage and with a warm sound they played a 40 minute show circling their performance using tracks from their yet upcoming and untitled second album and their debut album “A Great Secret Show”. POEM are a unique band in their sound and performance live and is always a pleasure to have them playing on stage! Tight and beautiful full sound!

Following the strict timeline, as I mentioned above, UNTIL RAIN were already on stage literally in a blink of an eye! Having some serious line-up changes, Until rain presented their new singer Cons Marg, who is no stranger to the Greek metal underground scene of Thessaloniki, and their new backing vocals singer Donna Zed while they had a guest bass player for that night as well! Being part of the progressive metal underground of their “home” Thessaloniki, Until Rain have proved to be one of the bands that always try to improve and evolve by hard work! With their new members and with full force the sextet, performed a short half-hour setlist with full precision and excitement proving once more their high quality on stage unveiling material from their past releases and a shorter version of a new song! Their setlist could be a little more “stretched” so that the audience could enjoy even more of their music.

Following the super fast stage set up headliners Leprous were on stage at about 22.30 -exactly the scheduled time- and they fucking nailed every band I have seen on stage the past 2 years!!!BY FAR!!! Let me calm for a while, and continue in a more unstressed manner! Leprous, hit the stage and presented 1.40 minute long set almost entirely based on newcomer “The Congregation” and of course its predecessor “Coal”. I have to point out that “Tall Poppy Syndrome” was noticeably left out and “Bilateral” was represented with only one song! They too have mentionable line-up changes, on bass, drums and lead guitar…all of which are AMAZING instrumentalists!!!Phenomenon prodigy drummer Baard Kolstad really has an outstanding persona on drumming position and I’m really grateful, I managed to see him on such an early age, because the guy is meant to hit those leathers and cymbals! Truly unbelievable! On how the rest of the band performed there’s another wow coming straight ahead!!! Leprous have run up fast the tower of stage conquering! They all bang, they move and they play their complex tunes with 110% precision and clarity!!! They are the best performers I have attended the past 2 years!!! Even Einar’s vocal problems –which didn’t let him perform the way he wanted, as so he admitted- didn’t make any sense because he was perfect even with problems!

It was hard for me to recover from the next day shock! Three progressive metal bands on a Tuesday afternoon playing their material professionally on a well organized event was something not to forget at all!!!Rarity of lifetime events- check!