Bio-Cancer, Fadom, Biotoxic Warfare, AMKEN, Skull Koraptor // An Club, Athens, Greece // 05.04.2015
A warm Sunday afternoon had something really great in store: the release show of Bio-Cancer ‘s new album “Tormenting The Innocent” along with a bunch of strong Athenian Thrash bands (Fadom, Skull Koraptor, AMKEN) and another one all the way from the island of Crete (Biotoxic Warfare).
The first ones to hit the stage were the youngest of the 5: SKULL KORAPTOR! These guys are so full of energy, you simply can’t help but headbang and wait for that full – length record as well. Their style is somewhere between Metallica, Megadeth and Annihilator. They played the entire “Dead Ahead” EP (“Unbearable Pain”, “Anger Comes From You”, “Get Away”, “Dead Ahead”) and two new songs (“Blast It Out”, “Hatred Sinners”) showing their musical evolution in terms of songwriting and even catchiness. Best warm up for the worked up crowd that moshed and headbanged showing love and support from band one.
Things got even crazier with AMKEN, who played their whole “Adrenaline Shot” EP (“Zombie Pets”, “Adrenaline Shot”, “Gods Asleep”, “Nightmares”) as well as 2 new songs called “Shattered Reality” and “Obedience Dogs”. They kind of combine high pitched screams of Destruction with the US Thrash influences from Slayer, Exodus and others. And in terms of live shows? Fucking explosive! When it comes to AMKEN: IT’S FULL SPEED OR NOTHING!
Next to hit the stage were BIOTOXIC WARFARE who despite some sound issues (especially with the mic), ripped everything apart with their Death/Thrash material influenced by Slayer, Sepultura, Forbidden, Testament, Death, Morbid Angel and Deicide. The death metal influence was made evident in songs like “Dysphoric Reality” and “As We Rot (Promises Of Heaven)” (including guest vocalist Andreas of the infernal deathsters Blessed By Perversion). Other songs played of the sick “Lobotomized” record were the title track, “Baptized In Blood And Greed”, “Mors Indecepta” (that Slayer-esque intro!!), “Proclaim The Gospel Of Lies” and “Lust For Hate”. Also had a cover of Desaster (“Alliance To The Powerthrone”) to top everything up and turn An Club into a battlefield. Props to those insane Cretans!
Up next FADOM with their Megadeth-meets-Death-and-Kreator Thrash metal to bring “Massive Destruction” to the venue. And they did so, with tracks such as “Another Selfish Apprentice”, “Heavenfall”, “Thrasholution (Thrash Is Solution)”, “Pantophobia”, “Massive Destruction” (obviously) and two new songs to open the set for them, showing us that there’s more to come from these guys, even better than the “Pantophobia” material we mentioned! The one was called “Age Of Dawn” and the other was an instrumental yet untitled though. Simply insane, and the crowd as well! I’ve seen Fadom numerous times and they never cease to amaze me with their energy!
And now it’s time to bring out the headliners we’ve been waiting for, gathering up all we had reserved for the final showdown. BIO-CANCER hit the stage with the album opener “Obligated To Incest”. What I witnessed, and was most certainly part of, was a mayhem that only great bands of the underground achieve. Blood, sweat, mosh, stage dives, screams, gangs along with the band who struggled to do their own gangs as we were all crazy under the An Club stage. The band honoured their new album “Tormenting The Innocent” almost in its entirety (“Tormenting The Innocent”, “Boxed Out”, “F(r)iends Or Fiends?”, “Bulletproof”, “Think!”) as well as the take-no-prisoners debut “Ear Piercing Thrash” (“Ear Piercing Thrash” played twice under popular demand, “Killing Habit”, “Backstabbed Again”, “You Scream You Die”, “Get Cancered Now!”, “Spread The Cancer”). You know what’s more? A cover of Hypnosias’ “Extreme Hatred” driving everyone insane (including the writer who partly grabbed the mic and sang). Then someone in the crowd screamed for “Haters Gonna Suffer!” only to get the following response from Lefteris: “No haters in here, they’re outside!”. Also the two new members on guitars are simply exceptional players (Stavros Marinos joined the band a year or two ago and Thanasis Andreou a couple of months ago), and it was something I really wanted to see, the cooperation between them two. I was blown away, precision and stamina is the key for every great guitar player, and these guys have it all!
To wrap it all up, a Sunday night is a difficult night for a live show to go on smoothly if not organized properly. For the people organizing this event it was as easy as 1,2,3. Every band was there on time and everyone got back home safe. We witnessed a full-on Thrash metal massacre, not just a show, it was a Greek Thrash attack by some of the finest names of the scene! That’s all I have to say: (EAR PIERCING) THRASH TILL DEATH!