Paradise Lost, Shattered Hope // Fuzz Club, Athens, Greece // 22.11.2015
PARADISE LOST once more in Athens for a live show. The only reason for me to be there and scream my guts out singing alongside the shadowkings. No one of course could prepare us for such a great live consider the fact, of course, the last 2-3 times the visited us and how much “professionals” and bad they were.
SHATTERED HOPE opened the event for the night. They had the difficult “job” to win the crowd even for a little while. Their music is heavy, slow, pessimistic and unique for the Greek standards and that’s why I saw a lot of people so “quiet”. Don’t get me wrong I love the band and their music. But it’s a little difficult to play 4 songs and each song to have 10 minutes or more time length. Regardless that the guys were in good mood and their sound was loud and bulky. Nick I think has an amazing throat and his screaming-growls-brutal vocals made Fuzz club to shake. For us who love this kind of doom metal I think it was a great opening until the main “dish” was served!!
After the usual time out to get the stage properly prepared, the lights go out and a sort intro starts. At that time I was prepared to get another disappointment from one of my favorite bands. You see the last 2-3 times I saw them the setlist was a little over an hour or Nick Holmes was sick or something else was wrong. So I was conscious for what was coming up next and I had decide keep the good little things of their performance.
I couldn’t be more WRONG!!! And also I couldn’t be more happy. Great mood from the grumpy English with Nick Holmes joking at the whole time with us and trying repeatedly to lift us up. The journey begun with “No Hope In Sight” and the big question was really if Nick could do live those great brutal vocals. The answer came little seconds later with a big fucking yes!! “Widow” comes next and my neck get his first abuse. One more surprise comes with “The Painless” from the Gothic album and then one of my favorites from their latest album “Terminal”. Then the popular but yet great “Erased” and after “Praise Lamented Shade” and “Victims Of The Past”. Then comes finally “Enchantment” with us singing at the whole time of the song. “Flesh From Bone” is a great song although it reminds of Greg’s Mackintosh Vallenfyre. Then the amazing “Beneath Broken Earth”, “As I Die” and closed with “Requiem”. Wait? Did I Say Closed? No damn it. They came back after a while for 2 encores. “Return To The Sun”, “Faith Divides Us-Death Unites Us”, “An Eternity Of Lies”, “Say just Words” for the first encore and “The Last Time” for the second one.
It was truly an amazing night, Shattered Hope surely were up to the challenge and worm us up great for what was coming up next. They have really found their sound and their performance was very good. As for the shadowkings themselves…I can’t wait to see them again soon. With that kind of performance and attitude, I could watch them forever!!
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