"Thrashing and slamming like hell in the pit
Tomorrow they know may not come
Banging and moshing like they don't give a shit
To the rapid beat of the drum" (D.R.I. - Thrashard)
"Don't start to cry if you get a black eye
Just dive back in and give another try
But too much action may leave you in traction
So you better get insurance no matter your endurance" (Exodus - The Toxic Waltz)
Those words by those Thrash legends could pretty much sum up the Thrashers United event going on for the fourth time in 5 years! Exarsis, Bio-Cancer, Chronosphere, Fadom and Domination were there to show what the new breed of Thrash has to offer. A fully packed 7Sins awaited some of the most popular bands of the scene. The 16-year old phenomenon called Domination took the stage first to show what they're made of. They played mostly material from their well-known so far "The Sacred Matrix" mini-CD (I Am Your God, Crisis, Death And Decay) in the style of Sepultura, Pantera and Slayer as well as newer stuff off the upcoming full length "Infants Of Thrash" (playing the blistering title track and one more I can't recall) creating the first mosh pits and stagedives (the writer being one of them!), giving it all for the crowd that set the tempo for the bands to come.
Coming up next we have Fadom, the honored band of the event releasing their debut full-length "Pantophobia" that day. The band decided to play that album in its entirety in a mixed ordered starting off with "Massive Destruction" making things even more violent in the pit including a surfboard for stagediving and plastic bananas (yes you heard it correct: two surfboards for all the maniac stagedivers). Songs played off that album were the title track, "Heavenfall", "Thrash Bandicoot", the anthemic "Thrasholution",
What a great Saturday night awaits the whole of Athens Thrashers: a co-headlining show of great British Thrashers Evile and local Thrash heroes Suicidal Angels and Chronosphere. There was a good level of attendance at Kyttaro club even though it could have been a bit better organized and advertised. Yet everyone was excited about the event, especially a new generation of Thrashers with blood flowing wild through their veins.
The first band to hit the stage was Chronosphere. Their style is close to Sacred Reich (vocalwise even though they have more of their own style) and Testament/Megadeth/Exodus musicwise. They took the crowd by storm and warmed them up for good with everybody stage diving, crowd surfing and moshing their hearts out. We heard songs from their amazing debut album "Envirusment" ("Genetically Determined", "Envirusment", "Hypnosis", "War Infection" being the set's closing track) and from their upcoming album two new promising tracks called "Brutal Decay" and "The Redemption" (the first instrumental they ever wrote according to their frontman Spyros Lafias). All in all they won even more people in the crowd wearing their t-shirts with pride. On a side note, Evile's drummer fixed a cymbal during their set. That's a sign of true respect and unity between the bands, any other band would put the drum tech to do that.
Then we have the mighty Suicidal Angels. One may sometimes feel like witnessing a legend in its prime. You see old Thrashers talking about Sepultura or Slayer or Kreator (the list is endless) in their glory days that made them the monsters of the genre that they are today. That's how the writer felt about Suicidal Angels. With a kind of Star Wars related intro (correct the writer if he's wrong) "Athens...Let the bloodbath begin" and it did so with the title track off their kick ass latest album "Bloodbath". Then we had "Bleeding Holocaust" off "Dead Again" keeping the chaos level high in the moshpits. Their setlist was based around "Bloodbath" ("Chaos (The Curse Is Burning Inside)", "Morbid Intention To Kill", "Torment Payback", "Bleeding Cries", "Moshing Crew"), "Dhadead Again" ("Final Dawn", "Reborn In Violence", "Beggar Of Scorn") and "Sanctify The Darkness" ("Apokathilosis" being the classic closer, "The Pestilence Of Saints"). The new bass player was really enthusiastic and fit the Suicidal Angels image very well for his first live show and helped the audience enjoy the show even more. We should also mention two kick ass moments in their set: Nick coming down with the fans to headbang and play "The Pestilence Of Saints" and inviting people on stage for "Moshing Crew". That's how you actually connect with your fans! "Apokathilosis" brought the Suicidal Angels mayhem to an end with us waiting for "Divide And Conquer" (Chris Tsitsis stated some interesting stuff about it in the interview before this gig) to come out in early 2014.
