Watain, Degial, Aenaon // Kyttaro, Athens, Greece // 04.04.2014

Watain, the famous black metalheads from Sweden included Greece to their tour’s destinations, nine years after their last concert here in Athens and we could not be happier with their decision. Right after the release of ‘The Wild Hunt’ the band along with their friend-band from Sweden, Degial, are preparing to amuse as with a strong performance, an old-school one, with ritualistic acts and mood for destruction. Along with those two bands, our Aenaon is opening the concert. They are about to present a few songs off their latest release (which I personally feel it will be one of the best records of 2014) and a few old good ones.

The day has arrived and Kyttaro is ready to host one of the darkest and loud concerts which will take place in Athens this year. The rituals are ready, the devil sits on his throne and watches over, as the fans are arriving to the venue and the first support act is checking the last details of their sound….

Aenaon is surely a promising band for the greek black metal scene. Their latest record quickly became one of my favorites because of their ability to work on their music without compromises. The band walked on stage and their act has started. With a sound difficult to be achieved on stage, the band managed to offer us a glorious performance, and to present their new songs as good as it was possible.

Their set included songs like ‘ Grau Diva’, ‘Deathship Chronicles’ as well as older ones like ‘Er’. The vocalist, Astrous, surely gave his best self to sing with power and determination. As a whole, the band was satisfying on stage, but I felt like the minutes Aenaon has for their set was too low for sure. I really hope to watch Aenaon again and this time I wish the band will be able to perform more in order to relish songs we didn’t hear last night.

After a great performance for Aenaon, it was Degial the band who walked on stage and began their set. I was not familiar with the band’s music until the concert and I did not know what to expect from them. With old-school, corpse-paint on them, the band performed their black-death songs, with great energy and motivation.

Degial was furious and aggressive. The vocalist reminded me of the early Morbid Angel along with a few more black/thrash bands like Aura Noir for example. The crowd did not relax for any moment during their performance, headbanging to all those sharp guitar riffs and the blasting drums. For around fifty minutes long, the band accompanied us and got us hungry for fast and aggressive black metal, warming up the ground for Watain to take the lead.

After a few preparations of the stage, Watain were ready to perform. They decorated the stage with candles, flammable tridents, Chalices filled with blood and animal limbs. Torches with flames adorned the place, lighting the room and define the cult element in Watain’s performance.

Watain started with ‘Night Vision’ and continued with a lot of great songs from the latest record and from their past releases. Among a few titles, we had the chance to watch ‘ Devil’s Blood’, ‘ Black Flames March’, ‘ De Profundis’, ‘ The Wild Hunt’, ‘ Outlaw’ or ‘ The Serpent’s Chalice’ performed live and this is only a part of Watain’s show. The band surely knows how to interact with the crowd, with their vocalist offering blood from his chalice and the other members breathing fire literally! Their sound was good (it could be better but was satisfying anyway).

Watain is a band that surely needs attention as far as their stage performance is considered and one cannot get bored during their show. I loved how fast and sharp the new songs were sounding and the ability the band has to make us shiver even in songs like ‘The Wild Hunt’, which are originally slower and more like black-metal ‘ballads’, if I am excused to use the specific term.

For those who missed Watain yesterday, I can only advise them to watch out for the band in the future and join an event of them. Many congratulations to the support bands and of course to Watain, who totally made the night a day with their… hot performance!

Report: Kostas Tsosanis
Photos: Sofia Theodorou

WATAIN SETLIST

Night Vision
De Profundis
Malfeitor
Black Flames March
Puzzles of the Flesh
Devil’s Blood
Sleepless Evil
Legion’s of Black light
Total Funeral
The Wild Hunt
Outlaw
Sworn to the Dark
Serpent’s Chalice