Decapitated, Terrordrome, Genna Apo Kolo, CumAlot
Eightball Club, Thessaloniki, Greece
16/9/2011
It was a great chance for the extreme metal fans of Thessaloniki to warm their necks and have as much fun as possible. The scenery was ideal for such a thought, as we would see the Polish technical death metal masters Decapitated after nine years. It was the year 2002 where we first encountered them live with Vader, Krisiun and Prejudice in a great package. Now, four years after a fatal tragedy that came towards them, leaving its marks upon them with the loss of old drummer Vitek and vocalist Covan still counting his wounds and not fully recovered, they have decided to reform and test their endurance. The first step was the nice last album they made ”Carnival Is Forever”, so for the promotion of it, they stepped on Greece for the second time in history, and they promised to come back pretty soon.
CumAlot was the first band to appear on stage. It has been only a few months since their great performance on the Disgorge (Mexico) show and this time they were even more tied, despite the fear they had about the sound before the gig starts.The crowd started gathering slowly and for the next half hour they were really full of quality and good presence on the scene. Some problems on the guitar sound didn’t prevent them from doing the best they could and they closed their set with their hit ”Nobody Can”.
They didn’t play the cover they had planned for the show, as all bands cut their set a while to catch the time limit. Every new time I’m seeing them they improve a lot and I think it’s about time for trying to release their first full length, as soon as they will have more material soon.
The gig started as it should.
Genna Apo Kolo is more like The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen. A guitar pro, an insane bassist, a pounding drummer, and last but definitely not least, the great growler who loses control every time a
little more. Three covers only this time from Hateplow (”Addicted To Porn), Suffocation (”Thrones Of Blood”) which they dedicated to Nader Sadek who had just arrived in the city of Thessaloniki and of course ”Birth Of Ignorance” by Brutal Truth, with the help of another known fellow this time. Each time there’s always something new to enjoy to them, and I’ve expressed numerous time my opinion about their skills and worth, so this time I’ll leave it to a friend of mine who saw them first time and in all sense, he stated that he would give the 15 euros for the ticket just to see that because they deserve it. Hola!
Terrordrome is a band which keeps their quality very high no matter if they play very often or with big space between their gigs. I hadn’t seen them live since last May with Bolt Thrower and I can surely say I missed them.
But they made sure I wasn’t going to miss their familiar sound, a little more thickskin this time with their suffocating technique taking over everything else and with great joy seeing the trademark song ”Festivity Of Clitoris Leaking” coming back to the set. One of the most solid bands in history, not only for Greece. The guitarist’s hand once again made me think I’m watching a tennis match, the vocalist delievered pain and guts and the rhythm section devastated everything, with the bassist never losing a note, adding hellish groove and maybe the best drummer in all Balkans proving it once again.
Decapitated appeared on stage at 22:35 sharp and it was ”The Knife” that started the show. It became quickly clear that the new songs would dominate the set, as we heard totally five (the good ones to be honest) from ”Carnival Is Forever”. Their sound was really great and the new line up shows that accompanies Vogg with a perfect fit. Especially drummer Krimh played everything perfect and for about 55 minutes we tried to focus on him, as if Vitek was not in our minds. There were also two tracks from ”Organic Hallucinosis” with ”Day 69” and ”Post (?) Organic” making us shake for good and the surprise was in ”Mother War” from my beloved ”Nihility”. They left the best for the encore with the title track of their debut ”Winds Of Creation” and of course, ”Spheres Of Madness” as the last track moved the place for good.
In overall, it was a great package with a very cheap ticket price. I expected a little more people to come but at least the ones that were there made their presence active. The Polish quartet was very happy with the response of about 150 fans and after the show, they told us they would like to come again in the near future (surely they won’t take them nine more years, or so I hope). Some complaints for the vocalist pass by because he was very energetic and his rasta hair would touch both the floor or the ceiling. Good luck to the guys in the XRTC promoting company in their efforts, we have hard financial times coming across and we must praise them for trying to entertain people. It was a good start for them, they can claim they did a great job. The perfect is the enemy of the good, so they have more in front of them. Next stop: Aura Noir!
Report: Aggelos “Redneck” Katsouras.
Photos: Louis Konstantinou.