Carcass, Mortal Torment, Chronosphere // Gagarin 205, Athens, Greece // 28.03.2015
After the Thessaloniki assault by the British Carcass, let’s take a look at the operation that took place @ Gagarin 205 in Athens. Scrubbing in with the British surgeons in the OR, were the well-known deathsters Mortal Torment and the great Greek Tech-Thrashers Chronosphere. The latter being snobed for not fitting in with the rest of the show. I’d say they were borderline there in terms of music, as some Death metal elements were quite evident.
If you were to describe CHRONOSPHERE, to those who haven’t heard of them before, here’s how it goes: Testament, Annihilator, Slayer and Megadeth had a jam including some Morbid Angel-esque stuff here and there, and vocals close to Phil Rind (Sacred Reich). They played songs off the “Embracing Oblivion” record (“Killing My Sins”, “One Hand Red Per Saint”, “Brutal Decay”) “Envirusment” (“Envirusment”, “Hypnosis”, “War Infection”) and a brand new song called “Demonized” which showed some more Death metal influence added to the already existent Chronosphere sound. Even though the crowd wasn’t insanely energetic, they definitely deserved the round of applause they received at the end of the show. Wish them all luck on the “Embracing Europe 2015” tour starting on the first of April!!
Up next MORTAL TORMENT came up to make us dance to their sick Death metal stuff. These guys are one of those cases in the greek scene where they match brutality with an insane sense of humour, so even when you’re not a fan of their stuff, you definitely wanna see them play, cause you know you’ll have the time of your life! Their style is somewhere in the vein of Cannibal Corpse, Dying Fetus (they covered “From Womb To Waste” off “Reign Supreme”), Suffocation and so on.
We heard songs off “Resuscitation” (“Exhumed Tormentors”, “Amphetamine Murder”, “Decomposition In Vomit” ) “The Quadrum Plague Split” (“The Elbow Throne”) and off the upcoming album “Cleaver Redemption” (“Tender/Dismember”, “Sculpting The Dead”, “Masturbating The Deranged”, “Necropitogyron”, “A Million Skulls To Bludgeon”). Got the crowd more warmed up, consisting mostly of Deathsters and insane fans of the band. Also for 2 older tunes they got in their previous guitar player. Props to Mortal Torment on my part! Every time I see this band playing live, I seem to enjoy them more and more. May the force BREE with them!
And now time for the big guns. The surgery has begun people, and on that Saturday on the cutting table, it was CARCASS‘ whole career from their goregrind beginnings to their melodeath metal days and return to action. It also was the humorous attitude of Jeff Walker naming himself and Bill Steer as “old farts” and how happy he is for seeing younger audiences in the front rows along with the old school in the back. The band kicked in after the “1985” instrumental (from “Surgical Steel”) with “Buried Dreams” off “Heartwork” and made evident that Carcass is in the house to kick serious asses, especially with a sick comeback album like “Surgical Steel”! We heard songs off “Reek Of Putrefaction” (“Genital Grinder”), “Symphonies Of Sickness” (“Ruptured In Purulence”, “Exhume to Consume”, “Pyosisified (Rotten to the Gore)”, “Reek of Putrefaction”), “Necroticism: Descanting The Insalubrious” (“Corporal Jigsore Quandary”, “Forensic Clinicism/The Sanguine Article”, “Incarnated Solvent Abuse”), “Heartwork” (“Heartwork” which was the show closer, “This Mortal Coil”), “Swansong” (“Keep On Rotting In A Free World”, “Black Star”) and “Surgical Steel” (“Cadaver Pouch Conveyor System”, “Captive Bolt Pistol”, “Noncompliance to ASTM F 899-12 Standard”, “The Granulating Dark Satanic Mills”, “Unfit for Human Consumption”).
The great thing is that everybody enjoyed the old stuff equally as much as the material off “Surgical Steel”, making it seem greatly successful both in the studio and the live shows, which means Carcass are not one of those bands who’ll just live off its past glorious catalogue. And to enhance the humorous and British as hell attitude, Jeff Walker dedicated two songs of the set to the ladies (I think one of them was “Genital Grinder”). British humour, special and strange, just like their music. When the lights went on with “Ruptured In Purulence”/”Heartwork”, I couldn’t find a single person not smiling. The crowd went crazy on each and every song, crowd surfs were part of the evening in the way they should be! Honest to the core performance, great audience-band interaction, what’s not to like from such a kick-ass show? The operation went smoothly and the patient is alive and waiting for the next Carcass gig, hopefully close to the time that this league of extraordinary gentlemen from Liverpool releases a new album! Well done to every contributor of this well-organized night, and we’d like to see acts like this more in the future!
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