Arkangel, Architects + Support Acts @ Athens, Greece

Friday, April 3rd, 2009, posted by K.Panagiotis

Arkangel / Architects
Go As Alice, Before The Devil Knows You Are Dead
Texas Necropolis, Athens, Greece
28/03/09

Back in 2007 I was unlucky enough to miss Architects gig in Athens and to be honest I really regret it. Well thanks to Hard Times many of poor souls like myself had a second chance.

After the release of their latest kickass album “Hollow Crown” the interest to what these Brighton dudes has been up to has reached its boiling point, although they have always been ones to pay attention to. Just before packing the bags for the European tour with Comeback Kid, Misery Signals, Bane a.o. they dropped by to share the stage with Belgian metalcore band Arkangel, that visited Greece for the first time, though they’ve been playing up for almost 12 years now. So here’s a little taste of the madness we experienced a couple of days ago.

Before The Devil Knows You Are Dead (deathcore, Athens) started the warm up. They got to play their first show back in December 2008 as a support band at Have Heart show. Since then they’ve been developing their sound, trying to sound more mature and professional.

All songs that they performed are available on their myspace page for anyone to discover more about these upcoming crushers. New track “Before The Devil Knows You Are Gay” and that almost classic cover of “Welcome To The Sludge City” (originally by Annotations Of An Autopsy) sounded frenzy and fresh. A lot of friends were there to support them, headbanging and doing the sing along.

Go Ask Alice (metalcore, Athens) followed. Their birth as a live band happened at All Shall Perish show(September 2008) so we’ve all been kinda curious what they’ve been doing those 6 months. Obviously Lacid and Co. were working their asses off because this time they played a sadly short but truly “ok-now-we’re-gonna-set-you-guys-on-fire” set.

Performing some proper excellence-claiming tracks (some of them still untitled, lads been in recording fever for some time now) and closing up with older lovie “Heart Needs A Heartbreak” they were pumping us up with captivating and furious vocals and utterly well played sick riffs, enjoying a warm audience feedback.

Things started to get serious when Architects hit the stage and left no doubt that these metal upstarts know how to do their thing in style. Heating up with old favs “You’ll Find Safety” and “Always” (both to be found on “Ruin”) they literally drew everyone insane. After couple of seconds people were already surfing around the place and a bunch of risky dudes in the front were screaming their lungs out, grabbing Sam and dragging him in the crowd.

Next punches in our mugs were the brand new but oh-so-loved kicks “Early Grave”, “Borrowed Time”, “Dethroned”, “Numbers Count For Nothing” (all to be found on “Hollow Crown”) and of course “We’re All Alone”(originally from split with Dead Swans). Everyone in the audience seemed to know each and every word of the songs, the sing along was amazingly intense, people were kicking each other with some kind of unbelievable barbarity, Sam was jumping around the stage creating a sonic storm and the rest of the band was pummeling the living shit out of their instruments.

One of the really enjoyed moments was the performance of “To The Death” (to be found on “Nightmares”), which personally happens to be one of my favorite tracks ever. The band overwhelmed us with “Follow The Water”, that’s when EVERYONE got into moshpit and screamed so freaking loud I bet we could be heard even on the outside of Texas Necropolis.

Architects have always been remarkable for their amazing live power, insane enthusiasm, high class energetic performances, playing professionalism and the talent of wilding even the shyest lad out. Couple of months ago Kerrang! characterized them as “The future of British metal”, I guess yesterday we all were the witnesses of how fair this statement really is.

But that wasn’t the end, Arkangel were obviously craving for the culmination of craziness. And oh dear they totally got it. At the point of their invasion the club already transformed into a stuff ’n’ sweaty box full of hungry for more brutal party peeps.

The attitude was as nasty as it gets and the bursting tunes well ballsy, managing to get all of us into the vicious chaos of flying fists and deafening screams. Starting up with “From Heaven We Fall” and “Let Your Unloved Parts Be Known” taking on with “They” and “Fallen Angels We Are” and reaching the top with slicing and pounding “Within The Walls Of Babylon” they actually succeeded to provoke everybody from those diehards in the front till some random dudes drinking beers in the bar to bang their heads, top their feet and screeeam! With a suitably brutal ending like this the show was apparently impressive, annihilating and hypnotic.

Hopefully we won’t have to wait a long time for the next arse-kick: Walls Of Jericho are tearing the place apart on April 13 and Poison The Well are about to posses us on April 14. Hell fucking yeah!

Marga Rarity.

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