Mortuary Drape, Varathron, Kawir, Chaosbaphomet, Disharmony // Gagarin 205, Athens, Greece // 23.04.2016

From the moment this festival – Lords of the Void II – was announced, everyone knew it would be a celebration and tribute to Hellenic black metal and a lot of well-known ‘personas’ of the scene would be attending. As that turned out to be true, several musicians came to support the event – both Greek and international including ROTTING CHRIST and WATAIN who came to watch the show and  commemorate an event we are not likely to forget.

Unfortunately, the first band that I caught on stage was DISHARMONY whose appearance was quite interesting. Some melodic yet aggressive guitars made the evening start in an unexpectedly good way. The downside, in my opinion, were the highly distorted vocals that were at some moments overshadowing the rest of the instrumentation.

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Next in line were CHAOSBAPHOMET whom I saw live for the first time but will certainly not be the last. After an extensive intro, the band got up on stage and presented us with grimness and majesty. Cloaked figures decisively captured the essence of the night performing both from their full-length album “Promethean Black Flame” as well as older material.

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The appearance of KAWIR was shorter than what I would have preferred though unquestionably remarkable. “Χαίρε τρίμορφη θεά” and “Διόνυσος” represented the new full-length release “Πάτερ ‘Ηλιε Μήτερ Σελάνα”. Older material was indubitably performed such as “To Cavirs”, “Ophiolatreia”, “Hecate’s & Ianos’”, “Artemis” and “Hermes (The Psycopomp)”. For the last song of the night for KAWIR, Stefan Necroabyssious (VARATHRON) sang “Sinn (The Blazing Queen)” from “To Uranus”.

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VARATHRON appeared live in Athens after some years of absence only to remind the Athenian audience of the good old times and tunes among which were “Son of the Moon (Act II)”, “The Tressrising of Nyarlathotep (Act I)”, “Cassiopeia’s Ode”, “Birthrise of the Graven Image”, “Genesis of Apocryphal Desire”, “Kabalistic Invocation of Solomon” and “Descent of a Prophetic Vision” where Themis from ROTTING CHRIST sat on the drums as special guest and ex-member of VARATHRON.

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For the last act of the evening, the Italian MORTUARY DRAPE proffered a non-stop stormy show that would satisfy old and new fans of the band. Wildness Perversion gave a great performance on the vocals communicating with the audience in various ways. “Primordial”, “Tregenda (Dance in Shroud)”, “Mortuary Drape”, “Abbot” and “Dance of Spirits” were among the tunes that were performed on an appropriate mystical and esoteric ambience.

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That Saturday night was filled with highlights, memories and quality music. The celebratory and ritualistic atmosphere of the event endowed all who witnessed it with momentous memoirs. Let us hope and expect another such evening sooner rather than later.

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Check C.Alossi Photography for more photos.