Echidna
Everfailed, Stillborn, Eyes Of Ignorance
Eightball Club, Thessaloniki, Greece
26/12/2010.
One more time, we had the chance to see some great local bands in Eightball Club. Except the typical headliners Echidna, whom I have seen twice in the past, the rest of the bands were a new experience for me. It is nice to see people trying to do their best in order to reproduce the feeling of some bands they love very much and enabled them to get in the wonderful world of metal music. What made me not think I wasted my time was the fact that the bands tried to do their best and in most terms, they were able to give more than just a decent performance. Let’s get straight to the point, because many words mean nothing sometimes.
Eyes Of Ignorance is an amazing case of band. First of all I was amazed to see their young female vocalist perform an incredible amount of songs, starting with ”Crystal Mountain” by Death and continuing with ”The Pursuit Of Vikings” by Amon Amarth. The kids are only 15 years old, but the most amazing is that their excellent drummer is only 13! I mean…wow! Continuing with one of their songs called ”Another Life”, they playd some more legendary tracks like ”Violent Revolution” by Kreator and ”City Of God” by Sodom. They played one more song that’s untitled so far and they ended their performance with ”No Guts, No Glory” by Bolt Thrower. I declare that I was caught by surprise, I didn’t expect this. For the history, their songs are a mixture of Amon Amarth meets Dark Tranquillity style. If they keep up like this, the world is theirs.
Stillborn on the other hand, is a band that has the good mood to give their best, but in the route, they don’t achieve what they want to do. Starting with ”Propaganda” by Sepultura and continuing with ”Symbolic” by Death, they show that they need a lot of work until they become capable of presenting these difficult and full of riffs songs. They played one of their songs which surely suited them better, before continuing with ”Pleasure To Kill” by Kreator (much better than the other covers), ”Master Of Puppets” by Metallica and also ”Aesthetics Of Hate” by Machine Head. They listen to the right stuff, but they must do very hard work, especially on the guitars, and with a little more nerve on the vocals. The rhythm section was very good and steady though.
Everfailed from the island of Crete were a very very pleasant surprise indeed. I was informed that they were a very good band, but now i had the opportunity to see it on my own. Most better was the fact that their style is something you don’t find very often. If i was able to describe it, I’d say that they combine the progress and insanity of Meshuggah in their way of songwriting, with the vocalist singing with the soul of Mikael Stanne of Dark Tranquillity and the energy of Lars Goran Petrov of Entombed. They also did an enormous cover of ”Walk With Me In Hell” by Lamb Of God. This only, could make me love them for life. But once you meet them, go and see them live. You’ll find a lot more reasons than this one. I hope I can see them again in the near future. Well done guys, you totally rule!
Echidna proved why they were the headliners of the night. Presenting songs from their excellent debut album ”Manifests Of Human Existence” and with a new very good bass player, they gave a great performance that lasted about 70 minutes (!!!). Of course, they never hid their love for Death, that’s why they played ”Bite The Pain” (with the vocalist of black metallers Shadowcraft contributing on this one), ”Flesh And The Power It Holds” (with the guitar player of P.T.O.M.A. helping), ”Symbolic” (which ended the night), plus some more gems as ”Refuse/Resist” by Sepultura and the mighty ”Piece Of Time” by Atheist. They hadn’t played in about 18 months, but this didn’t prevent them of being direct and full of frenzy. Last but not least, I’d personally like to wish to all the bands the best for the future and may their dreams become true. Happy New Year to all the people!
Aggelos “Redneck” Katsouras.