Truth be spoken, the fact that Helstar were to play a show in Athens, wasn’t full advertised and in a conjunction with other factors (ie quite a few “big” gigs around the time), a football match and the general misery, didn’t contribute to the turnout being too great.
All in all, people around the club were few and there were some delays before Endomain and Memorain took the stage with some quite long pauses between them. Because of some misunderstanding, it wasn’t possible to cover these bands, but they did sound quite fine, in general, according to other punters, if not a little removed from the overall “spirit” of the night, a modern heavy metal band and a groovy thrash one, not being exactly the most compatible choices for a traditional band like Helstar…
Then again Helstar were in a terrible predicament, as they had lost their original flights due to overbooking and their delay due to heavy traffic (because of some accident) on their way to the airport and thus resolved in buying out of their pockets some last minute replacement tickets (at no small expense – you realize) in order not to cancel the show, but arrive via Barcelona (18 hours later) to their destination! Talking about dedication, and Keeping It Real, True & Metal (but we weren’t to find out about this until much later)! We were able to figure things out, instantly once the band arrived, who then feverishly resolved into trying to prepare for the show, doing a very basic sound-check and prepping up for the show under quite a bit of duress…
Once the show started, with one James Rivera, diminutive in stature, but great in soul and voice, dressed up as “Dracula” complete with cape and pointy fangs, didn’t seem to matter much, as following the first couple of tunes that it took the band to find it’s bearings and adjust the sound and get in the zone, proceeded to be – business as usual, being taken care of, in a spooktacular (spectacular) fashion!
Opener “Awaken Into Darkness” fell a bit short of expectations, due to the sound still being a bit all over the place with things getting much better on the ensuing second entry from the very well-received new album “Vampiro”, “Blood Lust”… only to take us almost thirty years back for “To Sleep, Per Chance to Scream” from the classic “Nosferatu” album, switching back and forth, “To Their Deathbeds They Fell” brought us back to today, only for “Harker’s Tale (Mass of Death)” to take us back again! “Black Cathedral” again from “Vampiro” felt almost natural, next to the classic “Rhapsody in Black” and “Baptized in Blood”, which send fans to a state of wampyric frenzy…
After this “vampires” suite of songs, James took off the cape and fake fangs to continue with a few more “generic” songs, which is not meant to be taken as a criticism, as the band has several excellent albums to choose from and not a whole lotta time, due to their late arrival. “Fall of Dominion”, “Pandemonium”, “Tormentor” and “The King is Dead” were quite good selections receiving all different, but almost unanimous degrees of praise from the crowd that for its size, hardly more than 150 people were pretty friggin loud, all things considered (at which point James explained what have happened to the people and received a warm applause). Unfortunately and despite the crowds chants for “Winds of War” – that one was not aired, leaving “Evil Reign” and “Run with the Pack” to try and cover up for its lack, which well up to a point they did with the crowd really into them and the ensuing “N.I.B.” (Black Sabbath Cover) done a little more dirty, which was to be the band’s parting gesture…
Really tired and sleepless the band – did bid the fans farewell, saying they’ll try to be back (although, the turnout is not exactly great to warrant that) and were gracious enough despite their obvious tiredness to take photos with eager fans and sign some autographs. All things considered, a class and classic act that showed no ego and gave it all (and more), despite any problems to entertain its fans. All I can say is… I salute ya!
PS: Special Thx to Gerjan Koninenbert, James Rivera & band and Yannis Dollas (for the photos)…
Then again Helstar were in a terrible predicament, as they had lost their original flights due to overbooking and their delay due to heavy traffic (because of some accident) on their way to the airport and thus resolved in buying out of their pockets some last minute replacement tickets (at no small expense – you realize) in order not to cancel the show, but arrive via Barcelona (18 hours later) to their destination! Talking about dedication, and Keeping It Real, True & Metal (but we weren’t to find out about this until much later)! We were able to figure things out, instantly once the band arrived, who then feverishly resolved into trying to prepare for the show, doing a very basic sound-check and prepping up for the show under quite a bit of duress…
Once the show started, with one James Rivera, diminutive in stature, but great in soul and voice, dressed up as “Dracula” complete with cape and pointy fangs, didn’t seem to matter much, as following the first couple of tunes that it took the band to find it’s bearings and adjust the sound and get in the zone, proceeded to be – business as usual, being taken care of, in a spooktacular (spectacular) fashion!
Opener “Awaken Into Darkness” fell a bit short of expectations, due to the sound still being a bit all over the place with things getting much better on the ensuing second entry from the very well-received new album “Vampiro”, “Blood Lust”… only to take us almost thirty years back for “To Sleep, Per Chance to Scream” from the classic “Nosferatu” album, switching back and forth, “To Their Deathbeds They Fell” brought us back to today, only for “Harker’s Tale (Mass of Death)” to take us back again! “Black Cathedral” again from “Vampiro” felt almost natural, next to the classic “Rhapsody in Black” and “Baptized in Blood”, which send fans to a state of wampyric frenzy…
After this “vampires” suite of songs, James took off the cape and fake fangs to continue with a few more “generic” songs, which is not meant to be taken as a criticism, as the band has several excellent albums to choose from and not a whole lotta time, due to their late arrival. “Fall of Dominion”, “Pandemonium”, “Tormentor” and “The King is Dead” were quite good selections receiving all different, but almost unanimous degrees of praise from the crowd that for its size, hardly more than 150 people were pretty friggin loud, all things considered (at which point James explained what have happened to the people and received a warm applause). Unfortunately and despite the crowds chants for “Winds of War” – that one was not aired, leaving “Evil Reign” and “Run with the Pack” to try and cover up for its lack, which well up to a point they did with the crowd really into them and the ensuing “N.I.B.” (Black Sabbath Cover) done a little more dirty, which was to be the band’s parting gesture…
Really tired and sleepless the band – did bid the fans farewell, saying they’ll try to be back (although, the turnout is not exactly great to warrant that) and were gracious enough despite their obvious tiredness to take photos with eager fans and sign some autographs. All things considered, a class and classic act that showed no ego and gave it all (and more), despite any problems to entertain its fans. All I can say is… I salute ya!
PS: Special Thx to Gerjan Koninenbert, James Rivera & band and Yannis Dollas (for the photos)…
