I must say that I was really curious as to what the turnout would be at this gig. Surprisingly, a lot of events/gigs that in the past, would have been a fans wet dreams seem to be materializing, even in the austerity stricken Greek lands, yet mainly due to that and secondly because of the sometimes bad even planning, a lot end up “in the red” with low turnouts etc…
This must be the third time that Sabaton have played Greece and what shows that the people’s tastes are pretty fickle, is the fact that the people who went to their first gig were about a hundred and yet just a few years and albums later, they’d play before more than a thousand strong crowd, at a pretty full, Fuzz Club.
Very punctually, the first support band, the Finnish heavy metallers, Battle Beast, went on the stage, with their frontwoman Noora Louhimo, sporting a quite outrageous punkish hairdo, just as she does in one of the most recent videos of the band... but hair aside, the girl and boys, made very good use of the relatively limited time they had to open, maybe a little more than 30 minutes, performing an interesting mix of some of the better songs from their album. They were quite enthusiastic and were lucky enough to get a quite fair sound for a support band. Combined with a pretty cliché, but very gratifying stage presence at the front of the Stage, where they were pushed by Sabaton’s huge drum riser, they did seem like they were enjoying their time and apparently so seemed to do the crowd, which cheered them quite a bit. They did open with “Far Far Away” and did air their singles “Black Ninja” and “Touch in the Night”. The latter, sounded a bit fuller live and not entirely as Sam-Fox’esque, as it does on the album. “Madness” ensued and followed, which, I am not the biggest fan of, but at least it seemed to go down well with the crowd. And with “Iron Hand” and “Out of Control” the latter from their eponymous release, they did conclude, their pretty good performance, before the Greek crowd. I would not mind, watching them again, to be quite honest. In an 80s paroxysm, they did go away with some soundtrack hit! (hehe)
Delain, are a female fronted Dutch band and for years and years Roadrunner, tried to make them a big success, but seemingly they never got to be huge. They sold well enough, but not well enough to keep their contracts, with that label, thus ending up on a much smaller European label. Sporting a ridiculously oversized spider stand to hang their backdrop, they ended up playing in front and around it, something that made them appear quite static. This might have actually been for the better, as they seem to have a lot of small details in their sound that needed to be replicated. The point is, that a suspicious amount of stuff, seemed to be pre-recorded. A lot of backing vocals and maybe, some orchestrations, seemed sequenced and the band didn’t sound as “rich” as they do on their albums. They were very professional, and I am sure that the mainly pubescent male crowd, got some nice eye candy, since their frontwoman, Charlotte Wessels seemed to perform in a rather see-through blouse. Well at least I heard quite a few people in the front rows making some comments about that! They do sound like a worse Epica, even if I guess they preceded them. Now, given that Epica, are imho, one of the lesser female fronted bands, this means that I found most of their songs quite cliché and rather boring. As I had to go and find someone in the venue, I missed a few of their songs, coming back for, “Army of Dolls” from their latest album “The Human Contradiction”, they did play “Go Away” from their sophomore album and then a batch of songs from their debut, “Pristine”, “Sleepwalkers Dream” and “The Gathering” before visiting their third album “We Are the Others” for “Not Enough” and its title track “We Are the Others”. While I can’t fault their performance I cannot say I liked it too much, as they didn’t have a lot of volume and did seem to get lost in between two much louder bands.
Then there was a bit of a long wait, since Sabaton, had to prepare, their entrance, which happened at about ten o clock. Europe’s “Final Countdown” began playing through the PA, only to fade into “The March to War” which was the introduction as the band members, slowly and “marching” as in a parade, saluted the crowd and took their places. I must say that watching their whole stage show, what really stood out was the ridiculous sized drum riser, fashioned like a Panzer, with dual guns and the insignia of Yamaha, (who seems to be their drum sponsor) with the said, drums occupying the top of the vehicle, covered in army nets! (lol!) I must say that could have easily been ridiculed and end up looking like some sort of Spinal Tap meets Manowar debacle, but with everything working like clockwork and the band perfectly choreographed, it ended up looking quite impressive instead.
Well following the intro the band started bombarding us, with “Ghost Division” and the more melodic “To Hell and Back” which got quite a big reception before, turning things down a notch to perform the majestic “Carolus Rex” in English. Still “Heroes” centered the next song to get an airing was “Soldier of 3 Armies” before the band, wend back to the “Carolus Rex” album again this time for a Swedish version of “God With Us/ Gott Mit Uns”. Pretty much trying to cover as many albums as they could the band also aired “The Art of War” which got older fans, quite happy, but they even went as far back as to “Metallizer” for “7734” or (hell) hehe (but the band has re-introduced it as a bonus in some versions of “Heroes”). Now the band did a small poll, of what the fans wanted to hear and while it wasn’t planned, they did air “Swedish Pagans” at the fans request, because they wanted to be democratic about it, being in the birthplace of democracy and all, but then dictatorially, went back to their intended “Resist and Bite” (hahaha).
In the midst of all that, Joakim was given a guitar and did offer some comic relief, by saying he’s been practicing, because he wanted to get girls and he couldn’t decide why he wasn’t getting any, other than not having a guitar. He went on to air out some pretty disastrous renditions of “Smoke on the Water” and some Metallica riff (I think “Blackened”?) before, catching some more comical flak, from the band’s guitar duo. Before he could attempt a further “song”, a roadie gave one of the guitarists a big pair of scissors, with which he did cut, the guitar’s cord, ending Joakim’s career “early”… I suppose, this whole shenanigans, was Sabaton’s little time off on stage, in the place of a boring drum solo and I must say, I did find it quite entertaining in a daft sort of way.
“40 to 1” got things lively again, before another Carolean song got an airing, this time in Swedish. This time “En Livstid I Krig / A Lifetime of War” was the one... next up it was “Far From the Fame” and the band concluded their normal set with “Coat Of Arms” a song about the 1940 Greek resistance, against the Axis forces which got them a huge response and applause.
Encoring the band, offered the rousing “Night Witches” from “Heroes” only to back track to “Primo Victoria” from the eponymous album. “Metal Crue” lightened up the climate with its party mood and superb daftness and with “Masters of the World” playing back as an outro, the band enjoyed the enduring applause of the fans which went on for quite a while. In fact, I was quite surprised, by the amount of people, actually buying t-shirts, even if they were not exactly “cheap”. Hadn’t seen that in quite a while.
That can easily be explained however as in the years between their first gig in Greece that took place in a small underground venue and this one, the band has become quite a bespoke act which gathers large crowds in the North of Europe and even if I find their style a little tiresome and basic and their singer, Joakim Broden, one of the lesser singers of the genre, due to his not so impressive range, I must say that he’s a superb front-man and makes up for his somewhat lacking singing ability, (which due to the band’s militarist style which is quite basic in the rock sense of things, but ornate with a lot of extra orchestrations) with his passionate performances.
Also for a band, that recently changed a good number of its members the newest line-up of the band was proven to be extremely tight. And if, they could impress me, a guy that’s heard their albums, but is not a big fan, imagine what the response was from the fanatics in there... it felt quite crazy and surreal at times with a thousand strong, chanting and hailing the band to no end. A “victory” for the band, and a well-deserved one. Till the next “mission” then...
Very punctually, the first support band, the Finnish heavy metallers, Battle Beast, went on the stage, with their frontwoman Noora Louhimo, sporting a quite outrageous punkish hairdo, just as she does in one of the most recent videos of the band... but hair aside, the girl and boys, made very good use of the relatively limited time they had to open, maybe a little more than 30 minutes, performing an interesting mix of some of the better songs from their album. They were quite enthusiastic and were lucky enough to get a quite fair sound for a support band. Combined with a pretty cliché, but very gratifying stage presence at the front of the Stage, where they were pushed by Sabaton’s huge drum riser, they did seem like they were enjoying their time and apparently so seemed to do the crowd, which cheered them quite a bit. They did open with “Far Far Away” and did air their singles “Black Ninja” and “Touch in the Night”. The latter, sounded a bit fuller live and not entirely as Sam-Fox’esque, as it does on the album. “Madness” ensued and followed, which, I am not the biggest fan of, but at least it seemed to go down well with the crowd. And with “Iron Hand” and “Out of Control” the latter from their eponymous release, they did conclude, their pretty good performance, before the Greek crowd. I would not mind, watching them again, to be quite honest. In an 80s paroxysm, they did go away with some soundtrack hit! (hehe)
Delain, are a female fronted Dutch band and for years and years Roadrunner, tried to make them a big success, but seemingly they never got to be huge. They sold well enough, but not well enough to keep their contracts, with that label, thus ending up on a much smaller European label. Sporting a ridiculously oversized spider stand to hang their backdrop, they ended up playing in front and around it, something that made them appear quite static. This might have actually been for the better, as they seem to have a lot of small details in their sound that needed to be replicated. The point is, that a suspicious amount of stuff, seemed to be pre-recorded. A lot of backing vocals and maybe, some orchestrations, seemed sequenced and the band didn’t sound as “rich” as they do on their albums. They were very professional, and I am sure that the mainly pubescent male crowd, got some nice eye candy, since their frontwoman, Charlotte Wessels seemed to perform in a rather see-through blouse. Well at least I heard quite a few people in the front rows making some comments about that! They do sound like a worse Epica, even if I guess they preceded them. Now, given that Epica, are imho, one of the lesser female fronted bands, this means that I found most of their songs quite cliché and rather boring. As I had to go and find someone in the venue, I missed a few of their songs, coming back for, “Army of Dolls” from their latest album “The Human Contradiction”, they did play “Go Away” from their sophomore album and then a batch of songs from their debut, “Pristine”, “Sleepwalkers Dream” and “The Gathering” before visiting their third album “We Are the Others” for “Not Enough” and its title track “We Are the Others”. While I can’t fault their performance I cannot say I liked it too much, as they didn’t have a lot of volume and did seem to get lost in between two much louder bands.
Then there was a bit of a long wait, since Sabaton, had to prepare, their entrance, which happened at about ten o clock. Europe’s “Final Countdown” began playing through the PA, only to fade into “The March to War” which was the introduction as the band members, slowly and “marching” as in a parade, saluted the crowd and took their places. I must say that watching their whole stage show, what really stood out was the ridiculous sized drum riser, fashioned like a Panzer, with dual guns and the insignia of Yamaha, (who seems to be their drum sponsor) with the said, drums occupying the top of the vehicle, covered in army nets! (lol!) I must say that could have easily been ridiculed and end up looking like some sort of Spinal Tap meets Manowar debacle, but with everything working like clockwork and the band perfectly choreographed, it ended up looking quite impressive instead.
Well following the intro the band started bombarding us, with “Ghost Division” and the more melodic “To Hell and Back” which got quite a big reception before, turning things down a notch to perform the majestic “Carolus Rex” in English. Still “Heroes” centered the next song to get an airing was “Soldier of 3 Armies” before the band, wend back to the “Carolus Rex” album again this time for a Swedish version of “God With Us/ Gott Mit Uns”. Pretty much trying to cover as many albums as they could the band also aired “The Art of War” which got older fans, quite happy, but they even went as far back as to “Metallizer” for “7734” or (hell) hehe (but the band has re-introduced it as a bonus in some versions of “Heroes”). Now the band did a small poll, of what the fans wanted to hear and while it wasn’t planned, they did air “Swedish Pagans” at the fans request, because they wanted to be democratic about it, being in the birthplace of democracy and all, but then dictatorially, went back to their intended “Resist and Bite” (hahaha).
In the midst of all that, Joakim was given a guitar and did offer some comic relief, by saying he’s been practicing, because he wanted to get girls and he couldn’t decide why he wasn’t getting any, other than not having a guitar. He went on to air out some pretty disastrous renditions of “Smoke on the Water” and some Metallica riff (I think “Blackened”?) before, catching some more comical flak, from the band’s guitar duo. Before he could attempt a further “song”, a roadie gave one of the guitarists a big pair of scissors, with which he did cut, the guitar’s cord, ending Joakim’s career “early”… I suppose, this whole shenanigans, was Sabaton’s little time off on stage, in the place of a boring drum solo and I must say, I did find it quite entertaining in a daft sort of way.
“40 to 1” got things lively again, before another Carolean song got an airing, this time in Swedish. This time “En Livstid I Krig / A Lifetime of War” was the one... next up it was “Far From the Fame” and the band concluded their normal set with “Coat Of Arms” a song about the 1940 Greek resistance, against the Axis forces which got them a huge response and applause.
Encoring the band, offered the rousing “Night Witches” from “Heroes” only to back track to “Primo Victoria” from the eponymous album. “Metal Crue” lightened up the climate with its party mood and superb daftness and with “Masters of the World” playing back as an outro, the band enjoyed the enduring applause of the fans which went on for quite a while. In fact, I was quite surprised, by the amount of people, actually buying t-shirts, even if they were not exactly “cheap”. Hadn’t seen that in quite a while.
That can easily be explained however as in the years between their first gig in Greece that took place in a small underground venue and this one, the band has become quite a bespoke act which gathers large crowds in the North of Europe and even if I find their style a little tiresome and basic and their singer, Joakim Broden, one of the lesser singers of the genre, due to his not so impressive range, I must say that he’s a superb front-man and makes up for his somewhat lacking singing ability, (which due to the band’s militarist style which is quite basic in the rock sense of things, but ornate with a lot of extra orchestrations) with his passionate performances.
Also for a band, that recently changed a good number of its members the newest line-up of the band was proven to be extremely tight. And if, they could impress me, a guy that’s heard their albums, but is not a big fan, imagine what the response was from the fanatics in there... it felt quite crazy and surreal at times with a thousand strong, chanting and hailing the band to no end. A “victory” for the band, and a well-deserved one. Till the next “mission” then...
