Abbath, Order Of The Ebon Hand // Kyttaro, Athens, Greece // 24.01.2016
As a young man who loves black metal and was not able to watch IMMORTAL performing live, a concert of ABBATH would be an unique experience. The chance for such a concert to happen has reached Athens, when ABBATH kicked off the tour of his personal band to celebrate and promote the release of his new record. On January’s 24th, Abbath along with the greek black metal band ORDER OF THE EBON HAND, performed in Kyttaro, in front of many die-hard black metal fans who did not miss the chance to meet ABBATH and watch him performing online on stage.
The show started about one hour after the initial start time, with the crowd to be waiting patiently to get into the venue and watch the support act. ORDER OF THE EBON HAND, the black metal trio, started their show with an explosive burst and performed many old, classic songs of their discography, as well as a new one and a cover of MOTORHEAD, something that totally made the crowd scream and sing the lyrics. Their performance was solid, aggressive but with a minor problems. First of all, I believe that the vocals were not as loud as they should be and I couldn’t hear the vocalist in some parts. However, he made a great effort to surpass this problem and perform really well. I also felt that the band was a bit rusty and anxious, being a bit ‘mechanic’ on stage. Nevertheless, ORDER OF THE EBON HAND still performed as well as they were expected too, being an ideal support for Abbath and his band. We also expect them to release new material as soon as possible.
ABBATH’s show was something really unique and expressive. The band, especially Abbath and King ov Hell, played along with the crowd and performed the songs with perfection, with great sound, heavy and cold-blood as it should be. The band performed songs from Immortal’s discography as well as from I’s and from the recently released ABBATH record. As a result, the setlist was a tempting one. It contained songs such as ‘Winterbane’, ‘Warriors’, ‘Fenrir Hunts’, ‘All shall fall’ and more, in an one hour and fifteen minutes performance. For those who complained about how many of the classic IMMORTAL songs were missing from the concert, keep in mind the legal battles involving ABBATH and the rest of the IMMORTAL.
I appreciated every single moment of the specific performance. ABBATH’s stage moves and expressions helped to stimulate the crowd and the fans that did not miss the chance to sing along the lyrics and headbang even with the new and maybe unknown to some songs. Abbath on stage were theatrical, even the drummer, who stood spooky with his demon mask on, gazing the crowed as a satyr in hell. The new songs seemed quite aggressive and reminded me of Immortal’s first days. Their sound mixed perfectly ‘Pure Holocaust’ with ‘Damned in Black’, totally orientated to the classic, 90’s black metal.
The show ended and I must say that both bands stood well on stage. ABBATH’s performance was something unique and completed. Black metal is something hard to appreciate and needs effort to be hooked upon, but is also hard to be expressed and performed. ABBATH is the father of the genre, at least one of its fathers and that’s the main reason why he delivered his music with such affection and loyalty.
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