Sabaton, Delain, Battle Beast // Fuzz Club, Athens, Greece // 30.01.2015

Last Friday night of January, heeding the call of three strong European metal bands from the North: Battle Beast from Finland, Delain from Netherlands and Sabaton from Sweden. All of them in the overall field of Heavy/Power/Symphonic metal, making that night a place to be for every fan of the genre. That resulted to a jam packed Fuzz Club waiting for a night to be remembered.

BATTLE BEAST were the first ones to hit the stage, with their classic metal sound fronted by what I’d call “the female Rob Halford”. That’s right, if you wanted to find a reference for this band, it would be Judas Priest and definitely hints of Maiden here and there. One might say “Haven’t we heard that before?”. Definitely, but they were mindblowing, their energy was something I haven’t seen in a while by an opening act. Especially Norah’s voice was simply insane! Next time they should definitely do a headline show. Songs like “Touch In The Night” (their more disco-oriented), “Out Of Control”, “Madness” and “Black Ninja” proved to be enough to warm up people for good!

DELAIN followed, with one more beautiful female voice, more atmospheric, yet as dynamic as her stage presence. With a more alternative metal sound (something close to Lacuna Coil I’d say but with their own identity), they kept the audience warm, even though some of them were not familiar with the band’s material. They didn’t forget (like Battle Beast) to thank us for giving them such a warm welcome on their first gig in Greece. We also have to point out the great live show they put on with fireworks, dry ice etc. which made the whole experience even better.

Now, it’s time for one of the bands that the Greek audience has really loved a lot over the past years: SABATON. Definitely “Coat Of Arms” has been an important factor as it addresses one of the landmarks of the modern Greek history: “No Day” against fascism and totalitarianism. Above all, a band that has put insane live shows ever since and has managed to do so that night. With the sound of “The Final Countdown” (Europe) we faced the “Ghost Division” and Fuzz club was set on fire. Their mood was sky-high and the audiences’ as well. We heard songs from “Heroes” (“Far from the Fame”, “Night Witches”, “Resist and Bite”, “Soldier of 3 Armies”, “To Hell and Back”), “Carolus Rex” (“A Lifetime of War”, “Carolus Rex”, “Gott Mit Uns” sang in Swedish after popular demand becauce: “Democracy, you invented it” Joakim Broden), “The Art Of War” (“40:1”, the title track), “Attero Dominatus” (“Metal Crüe”), “Coat of Arms” (“Coat of Arms”), “Metalizer” (“7734”), “Primo Victoria” (“Primo Victoria”) and “Swedish Pagans” under popular demand!

Somewhere in the middle of the set Joakim jammed on guitar with the rest of the guys Deep Purple’s “Smoke On The Water” and Metallica’s “Master Of Puppets” just to give a more fun feel to the overall awesome show! Sabaton are like the Blind Guardian of a new generation for Greek metalheads, if we took into account how they screamed “SABATON!SABATON!” in-between songs, making Sabaton smile with gratitude! By the end of “Metal Crue” everyone had a huge smile on their faces, and are looking forward to making that happen again on future shows to come. And believe me, there’s a lot goin’ on this year in terms of kick-ass packages flying over Greece!