Sodom, Blynd, Spider Kickers, Vermillion Days
Eghtball Club, Thessaloniki, Greece
24/11/2011
After 1 year and 11 days exactly, the German thrashers, are back to their second homeland. Sodom ,who have been loved as few bands by the Greek metalheads, are here for the Legions Tour Fest with Blynd, for three shows in Greece and one in Cyprus. The first live show in the city of Thessaloniki was surely a blast. I can’t compare their last show, because it was included in their promoting tour for “In War and Pieces”. Now, we had the pleasure to enjoy more old stuff and the whole “package” of the show was really worth it and as a result, the club was almost full.
The band who opened the show, was a local band, Vermillion Days, an upcoming Death/Thrash metal band. The youngsters played nearly 30 minutes and they really
warmed up 100 people who were at the beginning. Their music compositions are close to the music of Dew-Scented, so we couldn’t to stop headbanging. They presented their work from the EP “In The Warfield” and the songs who distinguished were “Revenge”, “Political Ambush”, “Vermilion Days”, “Blind Obedience”,”Murder Thoughts” and “Mass Deception”. The played awesome Death/Thrash Metal and several mosh-pits were created. Also they played “D.N.R.” from Testament and they did it without mistakes. The crowd went crazy even more. They had a job, to prepare the people for the Thrash Metal storm, and they did it absolutely well. Congratulations boys!
Around 9.15 a familiar band was ascended to stage. Spider Kickers were the second support band for the night and they came from Ioannina. The first time that the veterans played for the metalheads in Thessaloniki was at the show
of Rotting Christ. I had to say that they fit better in the Legion Tour Fest line-up because their old school Thrash Metal made the crowd to have more fun and mosh pits were took place during their performance. A savage and primordial old school Thrash Metal as it extolled by Sepultura and as it presented in the latest Spider Kickers albums “VIII Division” and “Alcoholic”. The vocalist/drummer, James Edouarth, was looking like he’s got on fire and the drum kit seemed to be collapsed. Well, a technical problem happened after a while, probably because of the smashing blastbeats. Also, the guitar compositions were equally good and travelled the audience many years in the past. Their highlight songs “Are You Dead?”, “Mutilate and Eat” , “Somewhere Must Be a God” and the closing “Tsipouro” prove that even in the distant parts of Greece, exist Metal diamonds.
The third support band, Blynd from Cyprus, came out around 10 o’clock. I saw them for the first time and I have been totally satisfied by their performance. A total Thrash Metal band with new 
wave sound, who have played at many live shows before, and their experience was clear upon the stage. Once again many circle pits and a wall of death took place, and the fans seemed to respond to their massive music. The Cypriots played many songs from their last full-length album “The Enemy” and few from their upcoming album. For near 50 minutes we couldn’t stop headbanging at songs like “Rage and Mindgames”, “The Enemy”, “Final Resistance” and “In Chosen Few”. Their music has to many Groove elements, so it couldn’t not be added a Lamb Of God cover, the “Laid To Rest”. At this song I can tell that the whole building was budged. Blynd is the band that can make great things in the future and must gain more attention from the fans. It was a true warm up for the headliners.
And now it’s time for Sodom. After 20 minutes of sound-check problems, the ageless punks from Germany came on stage. Like every Thrash Metal live in Greece, this one turned quickly in a Metal Party, too. Without Konrad “Bobby” Schottkowski, this time but Markus “Makka” Freiwald, was a worthy substitute.
From the first song “In War and Pieces” we quickly realized that we will live again great times. The people got crazy and with “Sodomy and Lust” got mad even more. Tom Angelripper never stopped to thank the 400 fans who came in the live show. And that’s why they played all of their great songs. The heavy “M-16” was next and almost all the people banged their head. After this song, Sodom played all the malevolent songs of the past albums. The people’s favorite “Outbreak of Evil”, “The Saw is The Law”, where the club did really got on Thrash fire with circle pits, stage diving and all the crazy stuff, in “Nuclear Winter” there was none without doing headbanging (well there was a few, but they were girls, kids and fags) and the Black/ Thrash song “Proselytism Real” from “Outbreak of Evil” EP, that left me speechless, were few songs of the past albums. “The Art of Killing Poetry” interrupted the travel in time. The fans never stopped the stage diving and the circle pits and Onkel Tom admitted that we are the most crazy people that he have ever seen. At the same time the manager of the band was also on stage, participating in the songs, and that’s why it was a real crazy Metal party. “Iron Fist” was next and the tireless metalheads continued the mosh pits and the stage diving.
Barnemann was also affected by the mad crowd and he was walking several times upon the stage, doing crazy things. Then, Sodom played
a beloved song for the Greek fans. Tom said: “We gonna play a forbidden song, but we want you to sing the lyrics” and we immediately got into the point. Onkel Tom scraped his bass and then we all shouted “Fuck The Police”. As it was expected the fans went more crazy in this song, if you know what I mean. But Sodom seemed that they didn’t want to stop this crack-brained atmosphere, because the following song was “City Of God”. All the people were shouting the lyrics, All the people banged their head, and all the people stayed pleasant. The trip to the old stuff didn’t stopped. The German band played a song from “Code Red” album, who the have played it quite many times before, “The Vice of Killing”, and after that, the colossal “Blasphemer”. Onkel Tom and Barnemann who were the leaders of this party, couldn’t stay uninvolved, so beer and ouzo was flowing abundantly. Angelripper was taking a look to the girls, and he dedicated “Eat Me” to a blond girl in front. Then it was time for the most favorite songs in Greece, “Agent Orange” and “Ausgebombt”. In these songs I also got crazy so I can’t tell many things. I had mosh pits and headbanging to do. Because the live show was turned into a party, it was natural to play some party songs. In “Es Gibt Kein Bier auf Hawaii”,from personal Tom’s project, and in “Wachturm” it is needless to say for stage diving and wild circle pits. One more song from the people’s favorite album “Agent Orange” was “Remember the Fallen”. Quite slow, but effective, and almost all of us
was singing the lyrics. The night ended with “Sodomized”. The crowd was asking it from the beginning, so Sodom did us the favor and we retaliate with circle pits.
After 2 hours Sodom, were off stage. I don’t know how they play in other countries or how the other shows in Greece will be, but I know that here, the live show, was a total Thrash Metal party. Tom Angelripper was very excited of the people’s Thrash behavior, Barnemann enjoyed it too, and Markus “Makka” Freiwald replaced the old drummer satisfactorily good. And all about mosh pits and stage diving ,that I described, were not excesses, but they were facts. If I have the chance again, I will not miss them live, because after the show we went to hospital for completely body reconstruction. The show was definitely the law.
Report: Stathis “Sethianus” Ntailianas.
Photos: Louis Konstantinou.