Acid Death, Aherusia, Soulskinner, Caelestia // Kyttaro, Athens, Greece // 10.01.2016
Sunday night and we’re lead to another promising walk in the streets of Athens. The Kyttaro Live venue awaits us. Today’s schedule? Acid Death, Aherusia, Soulskinner, Caelestia. Four bands on the extreme side of metal, yet different approaches. We’re in for a hell of a night!
One of the first things I noticed that night, was the good amount of people from the very beginning. CAELESTIA hit the stage with a 15-minute delay, which is a normal and expected delay in such events. That didn’t affect the band itself, which hit the stage for the second time supporting a great act after supporting Arch Enemy in November. With good sound as their ally, they played most of their debut album “Beneath Abyss” (“Malleus Maleficarum – The Secret Cult”, “Gates Of Shadows”, “Beneath Abyss”, “Lake Of Decay”, “Secret Rite”). Their style combines influences from late-era-Death, Dimmu Borgir, Dark Tranquillity and female vocals. Their professional attitude and balance between their influences, has really won me over. Be sure to check them out, I’m really looking forward to their next step! Of course, they didn’t forget to thank Acid Death for inviting them on, and so did the rest of the bands.
Up next, SOULSKINNER with their well-known Vader-meets-Malevolent-Creation-influenced Death metal, shook our heads for good, doing what they do best: playing at full speed and volume a set based mostly on their latest album “Crypts Of Ancient Wisdom”. A really special moment was when Gothmogs’ 7-year-old godchild came on stage (with an Iron Maiden longsleeve), as a sign of the younger generation getting into heavy metal. It’s important to give children the chance to attend any kind of show and then decide what fits them the most, regardless of the musical direction they’ll take in the future. Soulskinner didn’t forget to thank everybody for attending the gig and supporting the scene.
AHERUSIA took the stage (with a strong following among the audience judging from the reactions to their material), delivering their own brand of Black metal, with lots of narrations in Greek, clean singing parts and traditional instruments. I always loved the Hellenic Black metal sound, but when the traditional elements or the Greek language become an important part of it, that’s when I feel really proud to be Greek. Playing material from their two albums “And The Tides Shall Reveal The Traces” and “As I Cross The Seas Of My Soul”, they showed why they deserve to be a strong band of the Greek scene. And this is coming from a person who wasn’t a fan of the band till I saw them live. Another special element was the presence of 3 guitars on stage, which is somewhat rarely seen in black metal.
After the triad of support acts, it was time for tonights’ main course, ACID DEATH. That day, 5 years ago, they decided to get the band rolling once more, with the appropriate line-up to support a reunion that would make sense to the scene. Let’s be clear though, the members of the band never really left the scene, via Infidel, Kinetic and other projects they took part in. The set kicked in with great visuals ever present in the back and the first 2 songs off “Hall Of Mirrors” (“Mental Slime”, “Truth Revealed”). The heads started going round in circles or up and down like in a pop-corn machine.
We heard a lot of great stuff that night from all of the albums: “Hall Of Mirrors” (the title track with Manthos Stergiou of Tardive Dyskinesia, “Taste Of The Erratic” with Iliana Tsakiraki and Nadja V on vocals, “Life And Death” with Jon Soti of Floating Worlds, “Planes Of The Eternal Dead”, “Supreme Act Of Heroism”) “Eidolon” (the title track, “No Sky Above”, “Inside My Walls”) “Randoms’ Manifest” (“W.A.R. (Wrong And Right)”, “Psycho Love”), “Pieces Of Mankind” (“While The End Is Coming”) “Balance Of Power” EP (“Balance Of Power”, “Apathy Murders Hope” with Themis Katsimichas, their early guitar player, who also jammed Motorheads’ “Orgasmatron”) and “Misled” (“Dragon Queen”).
The band was in top form, and it was arguably their best show since the reunion. They thanked everybody for showing up and supporting the event and their dream in general. A night of celebration and a night to be remembered! All hail Acid Death! Well done to High Voltage Productions for putting up such a great event and we wish to see more of them in the future! Support the scene, HORNS UP!
Check C.Alossi Photography for more photos.