The Silent Rage is a band which I had the luck to make a review about their first official work. What I had written then, gets multiplied by ten on a live situation. I always said that a band with left handed players is unique, since I believe in the Jimi Hendrix syndrome of talent. They have two, one of the two guitar players and the bass player. Also, the singer has far away from the second, the best voice I have ever heard in such young Greek musicians. Easily. They played the songs of their work and also, a new one entitled ”Edge Of Forever”, ahead of what they have done so far, an excellent song indeed. To make matters better, they gave us a cover of Deep Purple’s ”Burn” very well played. The future doesn’t belong to them, it is already theirs. Go on to the style of the new song and everybody will follow you definitely.

Arkenstone was a band that unfortunately I heard for the first time but thankfully, I finally discovered. I have no words for them, they are the joy of the middle metalhead. Powerful, with lots of guts and passion to their playing. To be honest, they come closer to my tastes of music compared to the other bands but I have to admit that they win the game from the beginning. When a band starts with ”Inner Self” of Sepultura, how can a gig go wrong? Both guitar players are riff machines, the rhythm section steady and the singer growls or shouts when needer. I declare myself as a fan of them and wish them the best for the future. We need such bands definitely.

Until Rain were the typical headliners of the day. I could state that their music is emotional progressive metal. Seldomly I have seen tight units in groups of so young age (I think they are max 20 years old). Technically speaking, they are great players, especially the drummer. What I didn’t like is that they seem to have given more space to technicality than passion. When their music gets enraged, they sound a lot better. The title track from their debut ”The Reign Of Dreams” is easily the best they played, while they gave us a big medley consisting of the following songs: ”!” by Pain Of Salvation, ”The Mirror” by Dream Theater, ”Walk” by Pantera, ”The Glass Prison” by Dream Theater again, ”Master Of Puppets” by Metallica, ”Blackest Eyes” by Porcupine Tree, a Rush song which I don’t remember since I don’t listen to Rush at all, ”I Don’t Believe In Love” by Queensryche, ”Vicarious” by Tool, ”Heir Apparent” by Opeth, ”Queen Of The Reich” by Queensryche again,and ”Hallowed Be Thy Name” by Iron Maiden”. A little more passion and maybe a second guitar player to make them even heavier will surely make them tops.

I must state that Agnosia, a band from Crete (like Arkenstone) had to cancel this mini tour, since their guitar player suffered from pneumonia. We wish the best of luck to this band also. In general, it was a very good gig, proving that Greek bands are a level up compared to previous years and maybe there is some hope that our music scene will get even better in the future. Until the next time we shall enjoy something familiar, that was really enough. What comes next?

Aggelos “Redneck” Katsouras.

At 20:05, the first band Layil showed themselves on stage! Five ambitious and teenage amateurs from Piraeus, influenced by many different kinds of music trying to create their own style. As I was observing the audience while they were playing, I didn’t see any enthusiasm in their eyes. It was more like ok these kids play for their fun and that’s all. Nothing more to see or listen to.

The same thing happened with the next band, named Days of Reunion. Playing in Psychedelic – Visual rhythms, they didn’t manage to move the less than a hundred at that time – members of the audience.

Until Rain made the big change in our mood. It’s a very promising progressive metal group from Thessaloniki. They presented their songs with peculiar dynamism, I must say. Songs that won fame from their album were: Reign of Dreams, Room, Blackest Eyes and a surprising cover from Savatage: Damien!

Time: 22:00 and The Silent Rage from Korydallos get on stage, filling An Club with their power heavy metal music! A very good impression was left by the songs entitled “Leading The Legions” and “Litany Of Imprisoned Souls”. The crowd was on fire and there finally was some head banging!

Things got hotter when Arkenstone from Heraklio Crete showed themselves! Their professionalism was praiseworthy. It is worth mentioning that they worked in the past with big names like Rotting Christ and Septic Flesh. The audience including myself-was so excited with their hardcore music! Their songs: “Dead Human Resource” and “Psychopath’s Salvation” are already in my favorites list. The highlights of the show were the covers “Seasons In The Abyss” and “Attitude”, by Slayer and Sepultura respectively.

Last ones for the event was Agnosia , a large group from Piraeus. They presented with particular excitement their new work that contains dynamic songs, especially “Another Promise” and “A Drift Into Lie”. The covers they played in which the singer did his best with great results were from Deep Purple, Black Sabbath and Savatage.

The big minus of the night was the sound. The singers of the bands had to face the bad acoustic of their mics and they expressed their complaints many times to the organizers of the event, not with much success however.

After the show, I heard many opinions from friends and band members. The main conclusion is that the live wasn’t bad. The audience and the all the bands had fun. So, we left An Club with the hope that next time we will enjoy the show even more in better sound conditions.

Report: Efi “Burton” Papamihali.
Photos: Black Mist.