Until Rain
Arkenstone, The Silent Rage, Soundgeist
Harley Bar, Thessaloniki, Greece
23/01/10
It was a cold winter night, the coldest of the year so far, but this didn’t seem to prevent fans of underground Greek music to participate in a gig where four selective bands would produce their vision. I’d first start to apologize to Soundgeist and the fans of Metalpaths for not being able to see them, as I reached the bar soon after they had finished. That’s what happens if you play it wise guy and miscalculate some things. Sorry folks, I owe you one. From what I learned though, they played very good their progressive metal. And since about ten people told me so, I have no reason in not believing them.
The Silent Rage is a band which I had the luck to make a review about their first official work. What I had written then, gets multiplied by ten on a live situation. I always said that a band with left handed players is unique, since I believe in the Jimi Hendrix syndrome of talent. They have two, one of the two guitar players and the bass player. Also, the singer has far away from the second, the best voice I have ever heard in such young Greek musicians. Easily. They played the songs of their work and also, a new one entitled ”Edge Of Forever”, ahead of what they have done so far, an excellent song indeed. To make matters better, they gave us a cover of Deep Purple’s ”Burn” very well played. The future doesn’t belong to them, it is already theirs. Go on to the style of the new song and everybody will follow you definitely.
Arkenstone was a band that unfortunately I heard for the first time but thankfully, I finally discovered. I have no words for them, they are the joy of the middle metalhead. Powerful, with lots of guts and passion to their playing. To be honest, they come closer to my tastes of music compared to the other bands but I have to admit that they win the game from the beginning. When a band starts with ”Inner Self” of Sepultura, how can a gig go wrong? Both guitar players are riff machines, the rhythm section steady and the singer growls or shouts when needer. I declare myself as a fan of them and wish them the best for the future. We need such bands definitely.
Until Rain were the typical headliners of the day. I could state that their music is emotional progressive metal. Seldomly I have seen tight units in groups of so young age (I think they are max 20 years old). Technically speaking, they are great players, especially the drummer. What I didn’t like is that they seem to have given more space to technicality than passion. When their music gets enraged, they sound a lot better. The title track from their debut ”The Reign Of Dreams” is easily the best they played, while they gave us a big medley consisting of the following songs: ”!” by Pain Of Salvation, ”The Mirror” by Dream Theater, ”Walk” by Pantera, ”The Glass Prison” by Dream Theater again, ”Master Of Puppets” by Metallica, ”Blackest Eyes” by Porcupine Tree, a Rush song which I don’t remember since I don’t listen to Rush at all, ”I Don’t Believe In Love” by Queensryche, ”Vicarious” by Tool, ”Heir Apparent” by Opeth, ”Queen Of The Reich” by Queensryche again,and ”Hallowed Be Thy Name” by Iron Maiden”. A little more passion and maybe a second guitar player to make them even heavier will surely make them tops.
I must state that Agnosia, a band from Crete (like Arkenstone) had to cancel this mini tour, since their guitar player suffered from pneumonia. We wish the best of luck to this band also. In general, it was a very good gig, proving that Greek bands are a level up compared to previous years and maybe there is some hope that our music scene will get even better in the future. Until the next time we shall enjoy something familiar, that was really enough. What comes next?
Aggelos “Redneck” Katsouras.