Report: Sigiriya + Support Acts – Athens, Greece

Sigiriya, Korsikov, Pools of Mercury // Six Dogs Club, Athens, Greece // 24.03.2014

After my attendance to the Long Distance Calling’s gig, I have the chance to attend another great concert; this time, I am about to watch on stage Sigiriya (ex-Acrimony), one of my favorite bands. Sigiriya has been rocking the world from their hometown in UK for about five years and are about to release their second full-length record. The band has given a party label to stoner rock, creating literally anthems for the specific music genre. Accompanied with Korsikov and Pools of Mercury, the band is about to give a blow-out gig in front of the Athenian audience!

The first band to perform is Pools of Mercury. By the time I arrived to Six Dogs, there were very few to watch the first support band and this is just a pity, because Pools of Mercury deserve full attention! The Greek stoner band has created music close to Kyuss’s music style, only a bit heavier at some points. The band is currently planning the release of their first EP, while looking forward to support a lot of bands in any concert that may come upon.

Pools of Mercury presented a few songs and performed around thirty minutes in front of a restricted number of fans. However, they tried their best to please everyone and we had the chance to get in touch with some great stoner and heavy rock songs. The songs have a lot of instrumental moments as well as moments with vocals. Pools of Mercury’s performance were great in overall. The only advice I could give to the band is to work on the vocals a bit, they can be better and more stable.

When Pools of Mercury’s set-list came to an end, Korsikov started theirs. Korsikov is another member to the Greek stoner rock scene, with a style similar to the previous band, but not the same. The band is a lot heavier, reminding me in some moments the sludge metal music genre. Their guitars are heavily distorted and their songs groovy.

Korsikov have some skills on stage. I liked their drummer a lot and the energy flowing through his heavy drumming to the band’s music. Sadhus’ vocalist accompanied the band in a song, and it was a great experience to watch him singing along with Korsikov on stage. Maybe he should guest on some of Korsikov’s upcoming songs too. The only thing I felt it could get better was the band’s sound for the guitars and the vocals. The vocals should be higher on volume, because in a lot of moments I could not hear the singer well and the guitars overdubbed them.

Next, it was about time to watch Sigiriya, the band everyone waited to watch on stage someday. The members of the band walked on stage and the show started. Performing some great songs off their first record ‘Return on Earth’ as well as a lot of new ones, the crowd was amazed by the energy of the band’s and their great sound and skills on stage. The new songs are even better than the ones in their first record, getting us thrilled to hear the studio version of them.

Their lead vocalist, Matt is a great performer. He knows what to do and say to keep the audience happy and he has a hell of a voice; deep, harsh and stoner-classic one. I also loved Stu and his powerful guitar solos and riffs (he is probably gaining his awesomeness from his beard). After the gig and the chance I had to get amused from the new songs and the old-goodies I must honestly state this: Sigiriya totally deserve a spot to the best bands I ever had the chance to enjoy on stage!!

Many thanks to Smokethefuzz for bringing Sigiriya to Athens and of course for organizing the gig. Many thanks to the support bands and Sigiriya as well. The night was awesome, we heard some good music and besides some minor sound problems we had fun, totally waiting for the next stoner rock or sludge band that will visit our country. I am also looking forward to attend the next Sigiriya gig in Athens, and it hasn’t been a day since I watched the last one.