Unleashed Hell In Fest 2009
Hatebreed / Terror
Despised Icon, Last Hope, Die Without
02/07/09 Gagarin205 Athens, Greece
This is not the first time that we are in that gratifying situation to give praise to “Hard Times Athens” and at that time it seems that the promoting company was also left with the greatest impressions, since in a relevant blog that has been uploaded after their evaluation, they announced that despite the fact that the concert was held in a difficult summer period where many people were missing on holidays and even if it took place at an enclosed venue, finally the crowd counted almost 1000 in number with presents from all over Greece, setting them to the list of our country’s current most reliable hosts.
But let’s not discourse upon the festival’s matters and pass to the second band (unfortunately our interview duties was the reason that we weren’t able to be on venue on time and so we missed Die Without’s appearance even if we did our best to buck up. However we were lucky enough to miss only a few minutes from the second supporting act’s show, who were Last Hope from Bulgaria and I was fortunate to enjoy for the third time. Last Hope is a young fivesome lineup, worthy continuation of the diachronic Hardcore grandsires, who stood for once more up to our previous grades and their non-stop ascending career that defines them.
Sadly enough, the fact that after Last Hope were about to play three headlining bands, scaled down the number of their songs and they remained on stage for about half an hour or less. This really didn’t prevent us from forming a full-fledged opinion for them and I think they deserve a big hail for warming everyone up the best way possible.
It is about time for the Canadian Despised Icon to enter the stage. Personally I was never really into that new wave of Death Metal as I always preferred the old school traditional stuffs in the hard sound, so I thought that I would be more something like a critical spectator rather than a fan, but fair enough they proved me totally wrong and Despised Icon was so high-powered that even right after the show I kept on singing their tunes in my mind in order to check them again immediately when I would be back home. What I really enjoyed was the fact that the classic pigscreams of the band and the drummer’s playing were so close to their studio sound, something that attests that their abilities are by no means fake. So It seems that although at the beginning there was a bunch of people (including me) who believed that Despised Icon’s music wouldn’t be really fitting into the specific live’s identity, not only we changed our minds but we went far on increasing their number of fans especially because of their professionalism.
The crowd with the “T”-design hats are all drawing close to the stage, ready to see Terror kicking some asses. As expected, the band welcomed everyone with their familiar perseverance, asking for “More Stage Dives”. The audience didn’t let them down from their side, as they were gradually even more people climbing on stage after the second track and beyond. In my opinion, and I am sure everyone says the same thing, they were by far this day’s number one appearance.
Scott Vogel with his dynamic outfit and his bizarre-kinda humoristic phrases, commonly known as “Vogelisms”, has kicked up a real fuss and that was when things were starting to put a spoke in our wheel because of the stuffy air, caused by people’s mosh. Actually nobody seemed to get disheartened (this is hardcore anyway), and together with Terror gave us away an unforgettable show!
Lights get lower and Jamey Jasta’s voice greets our ears but not our eyes since even from the first notes of “Doomsayer”, the place was transformed in a real hell where you could see nothing far from some heads banging! Everyone started jumping and singing with a great potential, covering even the frontman’s voice and creating a crazy tightness between Hatebreed and ourselves.
Personally I never had the chance to attend a Hatebreed show before (I still have that damned ticket from 2006’s fest where we were supposed to host Hatebreed, Trivium, In Flames, plus a couple of a few other bands; don’t know why, but I never cashed that in) but what really surprised me was the fact that Jasta’s voice approached more the “Satisfaction Is The Death Of Desire” era than the latest records and that made me think that maybe he is not really able to accredit 100% properly on his tracks. Nevertheless this was only a small detail cause when you listen to songs such as “Proven”, “Never Let Die”, “Betrayed By Life”, “Tear It Down”, believe me you don’t really focus on that kind of remarks.
Hatebreed’s farewell song was “I Will Be Heard”, among their promise to return soon to our country with a more filling set-list.
Quote of the day: “I don’t care if you are straight edge or not, I don’t care if your t-shirt says Madball or Slayer, I don’t care if you have a pussy or a dick, you are still my family…” – Scott Vogel, Terror.
Report: Rena Koutsou.
Photos: Marga Rarity.