A couple of weeks ago and while walking down the street, I did notice a small poster announcing a mini tour of NWOBHM stalwarts and all around quite disproportionately influential to a variety of bands, Scottish heroes, Holocaust with some five bands in support. It also teased the release of a long delayed new album, after the band resumed operations properly back in 2012 (with yet another mini tour). I remember being a little skeptical since the gigs were on weekdays, not the best case scenario, for those who still have a job and also the mini-fest nature of the event with a showcase of a lot of “different” yet rather little known bands, which were all on the same company made this more of a showcase of company talent than a gig that was organized based on some sort of genre compatibility of sorts. But since I do quite like the output that Holocaust have had in the past I decided to go, especially since listening to a promo of their newest album “Predator” a few days prior to the gig and finding it rather good.
The event did start an hour later than originally planned, which caused a bit of huffing a puffing to some of the few people that had arrived early on to be there at the start of the gig.
First on came a Greek band called Heart Attack that has recently released their debut through the organizers Sleaszy Rider Records. They do feature in their ranks a few musicians that have been or still are a part of other bands like singer G. Drimilis (ex-Raging Storm), Nickos Mihalakakos on bass (Thelemite, Spitfire and others) & Lila Moka on keys (Hannibal and a few others). Their style is a mix between Hard and Melodic Heavy and they executed most of the songs on their debut plus a cover of Warlord’s “Lost and Lonely Days”. They did fall victim of opening up, thus the levels on their live mix were rather fluctuating with the vocals being hardly audible most of the time, a matter that seemed to get a little better by the end of their set, but not by much. They did seem to receive the support of the 30 people that were in attendance, including a few of their friends and family members.
Next of came Bullet Proof, a Slovak/Italian band with their debut also having come out of Sleaszy, that seemed to combine the aesthetics of Megadeth and Metallica, in a bit more in your face way. In their merciless thrash attack they did try in vain to get the few in attendance to respond to their songs, which was a bit of sad to watch as they did give it their all in their rather good performance. Their sound was vastly superior and funnily enough I was told by a friend that their singer/guitarist and the drummer are father and son, hardly distinguishable since they are not that far apart in age! They did play their own material and managed to extract a bit more support towards the end of their set…
In fact they were as cool as to cheer and try to pump up their compatriots Lucky Bastardz, a band that plays this loud, brassy and screaming thrashy heavy/power, in a way not dissimilar to some 90s bands. The whole vibe wasn’t a million miles away from latter day Armored Saint, but you know, not up to that level… supported by their pals and a few of the band members they delivered rather nicely, although at times their singer would overdo it with extended screams that didn’t really lend much to their music.
Next up came something like In Utero Cannibalism, a rather bizarre choice by any reckoning, since they play some sick and extreme death metal, but also in reality only their drummer Alex K, assuming vocals and having pre-programmed drums and a couple of stand in musicians having suffered the rest of the band quitting a couple of weeks earlier. It was definitely a performance not indicative of the band and while it generally would cause sympathy for the circumstances, a couple of pointless, racial jokes against the Chinese and Hindus, sort of felt quite out of context, only to be followed by some nihilistic ones...basically, I’m not sure if their inclusion was wise as their performance, including a Hateplow cover, was very uneven and emotionally charged. With the end of their show a couple of fans left but a few more had walked in keeping the total number of attendees around 40, consistently throughout the event.
With a little more than an hour’s delay from their originally planned stage-time, Snowblind came on, a band that features Jim Agelopoulos and Mike Galiatsos on guitars and guitars/vocals respectively, both ex-Nightfall. They did perform a small selection from their albums, trying to also promote a couple of tunes from their latest album “One Epic Metal Requiem”, namely “A Light in the Darkness” and “The Earth is on Fire”. They obviously cut their set a little short to make sure the whole event didn’t run past 2 AM, as Holocaust were advertised to play for some 90 minutes more or less, concluding with the eponymous “Lord of My Fate” from their 2003, sophomore release.
Last but quite not least, a little prior to 1 AM the Scots came on, easily sporting the best sound of the night – although John Mortimer’s vocals weren’t always equally loud and volume would depend wildly on the attendee’s position within the club. The trio started of energetically with the classic “Smoking Vlaves”, following it up with the title song from their new album “Predator”, which got its live debut there and then. The crowd seemed to respond rather favorably to it and another classic in the form of “Death or Glory” ensued. Another blast in the past came in the form of “No Nonsense”. “Shiva” from the new album generally pleased with its heaviness and nice solo. “Only As Young As You Feel” took us back to the band’s debut EP and was warmly received and the band kept spewing out a variety of new and old material that did quite seem to disregard the mid period an albums quite a bit. “Can’t Go Wrong With You” from the new album isn’t bad, but it’s trippy nature and long winded live performance didn’t seem to win the crowd over that much – perhaps in conjunction with the fact that the band chose to debut a lot of new songs that the crowd had never heard before. With a 1-2-3-4 intro the band launched into a crushingly heavy and grungy version of “Iron Will”, one of the heaviest songs they’ve ever done, from “Primal” and didn’t waste much time going into a crushingly heavy version of “The Small Hours”, famously covered by Metallica and all that. The band then took the plunge doing a trio of “Predator” tunes, “Revival”, “Lady Babalon” and “Expander”, which did get a decent respond, only omitting a couple of songs from their newest album. They did air “The Nightcomers” to balance things out, which the crowd responded better to and finally and predictably enough finished off with “Heavy Metal Mania”, a timeless hymn to this music.
The band seemed stoic about the low attendance, blaming it on probably the weekday, the crisis and the timing (not much time to advertise the gig) and did seem humble enough and contend to be there, hoping they would be able to return sooner or later.
All in all, a very fair event that was plagued mostly by its timing and other circumstances other than its core design and didn’t manage to draw a fair crowd out on a Wednesday night, which was kinda sad, given that it was very fairly priced. Too bad…
First on came a Greek band called Heart Attack that has recently released their debut through the organizers Sleaszy Rider Records. They do feature in their ranks a few musicians that have been or still are a part of other bands like singer G. Drimilis (ex-Raging Storm), Nickos Mihalakakos on bass (Thelemite, Spitfire and others) & Lila Moka on keys (Hannibal and a few others). Their style is a mix between Hard and Melodic Heavy and they executed most of the songs on their debut plus a cover of Warlord’s “Lost and Lonely Days”. They did fall victim of opening up, thus the levels on their live mix were rather fluctuating with the vocals being hardly audible most of the time, a matter that seemed to get a little better by the end of their set, but not by much. They did seem to receive the support of the 30 people that were in attendance, including a few of their friends and family members.
Next of came Bullet Proof, a Slovak/Italian band with their debut also having come out of Sleaszy, that seemed to combine the aesthetics of Megadeth and Metallica, in a bit more in your face way. In their merciless thrash attack they did try in vain to get the few in attendance to respond to their songs, which was a bit of sad to watch as they did give it their all in their rather good performance. Their sound was vastly superior and funnily enough I was told by a friend that their singer/guitarist and the drummer are father and son, hardly distinguishable since they are not that far apart in age! They did play their own material and managed to extract a bit more support towards the end of their set…
In fact they were as cool as to cheer and try to pump up their compatriots Lucky Bastardz, a band that plays this loud, brassy and screaming thrashy heavy/power, in a way not dissimilar to some 90s bands. The whole vibe wasn’t a million miles away from latter day Armored Saint, but you know, not up to that level… supported by their pals and a few of the band members they delivered rather nicely, although at times their singer would overdo it with extended screams that didn’t really lend much to their music.
Next up came something like In Utero Cannibalism, a rather bizarre choice by any reckoning, since they play some sick and extreme death metal, but also in reality only their drummer Alex K, assuming vocals and having pre-programmed drums and a couple of stand in musicians having suffered the rest of the band quitting a couple of weeks earlier. It was definitely a performance not indicative of the band and while it generally would cause sympathy for the circumstances, a couple of pointless, racial jokes against the Chinese and Hindus, sort of felt quite out of context, only to be followed by some nihilistic ones...basically, I’m not sure if their inclusion was wise as their performance, including a Hateplow cover, was very uneven and emotionally charged. With the end of their show a couple of fans left but a few more had walked in keeping the total number of attendees around 40, consistently throughout the event.
With a little more than an hour’s delay from their originally planned stage-time, Snowblind came on, a band that features Jim Agelopoulos and Mike Galiatsos on guitars and guitars/vocals respectively, both ex-Nightfall. They did perform a small selection from their albums, trying to also promote a couple of tunes from their latest album “One Epic Metal Requiem”, namely “A Light in the Darkness” and “The Earth is on Fire”. They obviously cut their set a little short to make sure the whole event didn’t run past 2 AM, as Holocaust were advertised to play for some 90 minutes more or less, concluding with the eponymous “Lord of My Fate” from their 2003, sophomore release.
Last but quite not least, a little prior to 1 AM the Scots came on, easily sporting the best sound of the night – although John Mortimer’s vocals weren’t always equally loud and volume would depend wildly on the attendee’s position within the club. The trio started of energetically with the classic “Smoking Vlaves”, following it up with the title song from their new album “Predator”, which got its live debut there and then. The crowd seemed to respond rather favorably to it and another classic in the form of “Death or Glory” ensued. Another blast in the past came in the form of “No Nonsense”. “Shiva” from the new album generally pleased with its heaviness and nice solo. “Only As Young As You Feel” took us back to the band’s debut EP and was warmly received and the band kept spewing out a variety of new and old material that did quite seem to disregard the mid period an albums quite a bit. “Can’t Go Wrong With You” from the new album isn’t bad, but it’s trippy nature and long winded live performance didn’t seem to win the crowd over that much – perhaps in conjunction with the fact that the band chose to debut a lot of new songs that the crowd had never heard before. With a 1-2-3-4 intro the band launched into a crushingly heavy and grungy version of “Iron Will”, one of the heaviest songs they’ve ever done, from “Primal” and didn’t waste much time going into a crushingly heavy version of “The Small Hours”, famously covered by Metallica and all that. The band then took the plunge doing a trio of “Predator” tunes, “Revival”, “Lady Babalon” and “Expander”, which did get a decent respond, only omitting a couple of songs from their newest album. They did air “The Nightcomers” to balance things out, which the crowd responded better to and finally and predictably enough finished off with “Heavy Metal Mania”, a timeless hymn to this music.
The band seemed stoic about the low attendance, blaming it on probably the weekday, the crisis and the timing (not much time to advertise the gig) and did seem humble enough and contend to be there, hoping they would be able to return sooner or later.
All in all, a very fair event that was plagued mostly by its timing and other circumstances other than its core design and didn’t manage to draw a fair crowd out on a Wednesday night, which was kinda sad, given that it was very fairly priced. Too bad…
