wisdom-2014-featured

Wisdom, The Silent Rage, False Coda  //  7sins, Athens, Greece //  21.02.2014

Once more a band that hasn’t played on stage for a strong amount of time, comes back to claim their share of the scene. This time around in the field of Heavy/Power a band called Wisdom! Personally I didn’t know them at all so I wasn’t really sure what to expect. Along with them on that Friday night, the Prog/Power newcomers False Coda and Power metallers The Silent Rage.

DSC_1286False Coda were the ones to hit the stage first, since the supposed opening act called Mirrors Deception cancelled their appearance 2 days prior to the show (their frontman had left the band 2 days prior, as I was informed, a sad thing really). So on topic, False Coda wrecked the stage for about 45 minutes showing material off their upcoming album “Closer To The Edge”. Their frontmans’ voice is somewhere between Tim Aymar (Control Denied), Geoff Tate (Queensryche), Russell Allen (Symphony X) with music background close to Dream Theater of the “Awake” era with some hints of Deep Purple. Amazing mix! Coming from a fan of mostly Thrash and Death metal like myself, the statement that these guys kicked ass, is definitely an even greater compliment for the band, who didn’t forget to thank us all for coming over to see them playing. I don’t know about the rest of the audience but I’llt definitely get the album when it comes out!

DSC_1428Next we have The Silent Rage. These guys have been through a lot of hard times, since they’ve changed their line-up a lot over the past 3-4 years maintaning only their mainman Nick Siglidis, yet they’ve come back strong enough to overcome those difficulties and play. Anyways with a new line up and ready to kick serious ass, they started with a new track from the upcoming record called “Stormwarrior” and then to go back to a fast paced song from their previous works entitled “Perished In Flames”. Their style is like a crossbreed between Helloween and Stratovarius given really well on stage. We heard songs from “The Silent Rage” EP (“Leading The Legions”, “The Silent Rage”, “Wings Of Tragedy”), “Harvester Of Souls” (“Inner Scars”) and some more new tracks (“Sin Of The Pilgrim”, “The Right To Dream”, “Between Harmony And Sorrow”, “A Piece Of Eden”). They had a great stage presence and performance especially their frontman who was smiling to the audience throughout the set.

DSC_1609Now it was the time for the headliners Wisdom to show their own brand of Heavy/Power to the crowd. Many years of inactivity have taken their toll on the crowds’ knowledge of the songs (including myself). They were pretty energetic though with an old school type of energy (especially the drummer who was a beast!) performing stuff from their only record of 1995 (“The Prophecy”, “Steps Of Fate”, “Mortals Immortal”, “Breakable Earth”, “Wisdom”, “Waves”, “Voices”, “Cursed Love”, “Wild Side Of The Angel”) and 2 covers on Savatages’ “Edge Of Thorns” and “Arabia” from a band I can’t really recall right now. It was more of a journey back in the days of bands trying to make things happen in 90s Greece any means neccesary, when things were a lot harder for them. These bands have to be active if they want to make things happen and for an extended period of time if they want to be remembered as much as other more successful bands of the scene. I just wish to see more from Wisdom in the future who seem experienced (their guitar player is a guitar instructor) as well as from the other bands who are young and fresh and full of dreams!

Check S&D Photography for more photos.

Report: John Savvidis
Photos:
Dimitris Balabakis