Eightball Club, Thessaloniki, Greece 14.01.2017
Saturdays are always great for lengthy gigs. So, Saturday 14th of January 2017 was a great night for a small festival in the heart of Thessaloniki city. This year’s Death’s Black Descent Mini Fstival included the one man band THE DEAD CREED alongside with upcoming Cyprian black metallers TEMPLE OF EVIL and of course the two highlights of the night, the Polish black metal phenomenon of our days MGLA and the recently reunited Sons of Satan, AKERCOCKE, from the UK.
I have to admit that due to serious circumstances I wasn’t able to attend the first two support acts, which I was later informed stood up to circumstances and got the audience warm enough, for the two following co-headlining bands.
The moment I entered the venue it was really obvious that it was fully packed and almost crowded – which was quite pleasant to see. The show was sold out and the crowd seemed to enjoy the quartet from Poland. As I mentioned before, MGLA are one of the top upcoming bands globally to what we call Nihilistic Black Metal
Having already ten years of releases on their backs (three full lengths and several EPs) they managed to bring the frozen climate to the excited crowd, including songs from their entire catalogue. Precision, great sound and the distance that they “serve” the crowd, with their full face covered in black cloth, made their appearance even more strong. Playing an extended version show (in length) all of their fans were surely excited! As for those who knew nothing of the band, it’s almost certain that they were convinced to look after what this really great band has done so far, to deserve this fuzz around their name. Great!
The turn-over of the stage was fast and it was time for the reunited English men AKERCOCKE to hit the stage. And so they did! Playing their own twisted music for about two hours full of great songs from their entire carrier and a new song from the upcoming album AKERCOCKE constitute one of the most extreme bands on the planet, in terms of performance, musicianship and extremity.
Combining acoustic passages with clean vocals together with death metal or even grind metal riffs is something none comes even close as perception. AKERCOCKE though have already done that, gone into hiatus and returned to show everyone what music without boundaries is supposed to be played and sound like! Ridiculously intense sound and right mix of this wall of sound that this band produced throughout their set, made the attendance even more tasteful and complete to all levels! I have to mention Jason Mendoca’s good knowledge of the Greek language made the crowd go even more nuts at times.
Kicking the year’s first show like that, I think that we are about to witness an interesting year of shows! I really look forward to see AKERCOCKE again in the near future! Extraordinary performance!
Special credits go to the guys from Krisis Productions for the absolutely great schedule and austerity of the pre-announced show times! This was a great present for all metal maniacs in Greece, and we thank you for that!
Photos by: Kaloyan Krastev