Gehenna + Support Acts,Thessaloniki, Greece

Once again in their 18 year history, Gehenna is on tour. This time came, for the first time, in my country and especially in Thessaloniki for their Greek Black Metal fans. But the Greek Black Metal fans in Thessaloniki thought that it was not such a big deal to watch one of the oldest Norwegian Black Metal bands and one of the biggest in the  underground scene, and for that reason we were nearly 100 people in the club. Although we were a few, we still enjoyed the furious Black Metal from the Scandinavian band. The fact that I heard for a bad hungover that the band members had the day before, made me hesitate for how will be their show. But they quickly refuted me. The band came out and conquered the crowd after the two support bands, who warmed up the people.

The first band was Gospel of Grief, from Athens and they came out around 8.30. An elaborate band, that was playing nice Black Metal music for nearly 40 minutes. They had good stage presence and they presented their work from the first full-length album “Our Symbol Is Death”. The Athenians  seemed to have work too much together, but the band didn’t had the same response from the crowd. Maybe this is explained, because it was their first time in the city and hardly a few people here knows about them. The songs that distinguished among the others were “Stories of Doom” and “Black Origins of the Universe”. The truth is that I enjoyed their songs more  in the live show, rather than  in their album. The positive thing is that, no matter what they play, they present it very good.Gospel of Grief can achieve something special in the future.  They closed their set-list with the cover of Carpathian’s Forest homonym song, in which the band’s vocalist  was singing it along with Omega’s vocalist.

The second band who supported the show, was one of the best and most popular local bands, Erevos. The fact that they have played too many lives as a support in bands like Mayhem and Satyricon and a French tour a couple of years ago, gave them much experience for stage appearance . They played new and old stuff,other more Black Metal and other more Black/Death Metal, which they are contained in their latest work “Descensus Ad Inferos”. They also stayed on stage around 40 minutes and their Black/Death Metal with the melody of the keyboards was a true preparation for the headliner band. The Macedonians played some of their best songs, such as “Under the Wings of Thanatos”, the atmospheric “Adou Katavasis”, the more Black/Death Metal songs “Possessed by the Moon of the Underworld” and “Kerveros”, “Erinyes”, “Grotesque Blasphemy” and they closed up with an Exoudus cover.

After a long time waiting, around 11 o’clock, Gehenna came on stage. They played mainly from the last album, “WW”. Although we expected to play more from their first albums, where they play amazing Black Metal, we still had fun with the Black/Death Metal songs from “WW”. From the first song “Death to Them All” the occult black atmosphere covered the club and the panic was about to start. Second song was “Flames of the Pit” and the hellish atmosphere was still maintained. After that, were following “Adimiron Black” and  “Grenade Parade” until we hear song from their early work. Dolgar said “Ad arma Ad arma” and then we realized that, after many years they still play equally good  the amazing raw Black Metal music from their first spells. After the “Ad arma Ad arma” Sanrabb went to the microphone and begun singing from “New Blood” . Gehenna started to killing us with summary proceedings. With Sanrabb’s vocals the show became more grim and dark and together with the video wall the atmosphere was blacker than hell. After “New Blood”, the highlight song: “Werewolf” exactly in our faces. Gehenna played another song from the “Adimiron Black” album, “Devil’s Work”. Well, it was time to relax with one-two cigarettes because after that, “Devout Dementia” was following and headbanging started automatically. The thrashy “Murder” was next and then the last song. It was more than expected to play another song from the three spells. The atmospheric “Morning Star” closed the setlist and after 55 minutes Gehenna was off stage. Complaints were heard about the time, but it was Gehenna: Raw and evil black metal, nothing more-nothing less.
It was near midnight when the people started to leave. Even if Gehenna played many songs from their Black/Death Metal era, both I and some others who are fans of the three spells,  enjoyed their show. I have seen many Black Metal bands in the past, popular and unknown. Other bands were posers and other did spooky things to look evil. Other bands were coming on the stage to play Black Metal in every sense of the word, and in this category is Gehenna too. They still play the real Black Metal of the past and they are still alive. Although the Norwegians played less than an hour, it was still a very good Black Metal show. We saw Gehenna live in Greece, what more can we ask? They came, they killed, they left.