PESTILENCE @ Gagarin 205

\r\nIts a typical Tuesday afternoon in Athens , people are driving their way back to their home , tired from work , full of stress and i personally saw a lot of people half asleep in the train. But for those who are heading to Gagarin 205 club, things are different.Theres no words such as: tired , stressed , sleepy and other similar short-time diseases when you know that in a couple of hours you will see alive on stage Grave , Benediction and Pestilence together!! Three legendary bands from the Death/Thrash scene its a hell of a reason to speed up ,walk through the sleeping passengers , get off the zombie train and walk faster to the concert. \r\n

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\r\nPeople started to gather outside Gagarin 205 club, around 19.00 and after one hour only few left outside the club , eating , drinking and talking with friends.Inside the club now people were consuming beers , buying T-shirts and vinyl Records, talking , smoking , laughing and everything seemed that its gonna be a hell of a night!! Deathsters and Thrashers from various generations , all together waiting for this oldschool event.They were not to many , maybe because Tuesday is not the perfect day for a concert.The main area was half full and upstairs was closed for the people but i dont think that the fans really cared about this. Its gonna be an oldschool Death/Thrash night and nothing is able to change this. \r\n
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\r\nSome minutes after 20.00 , lights were turned off and Grave walked into the stage with people cheering and calling their name.Its their first live in Greece and this makes things more interested for the band.Its different when you know that there are people down there , waiting for this concert for almost 21 years! Mr. Ola Lindgren started greeting the people and seconds later Grave began their show. \r\n
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\r\nThey started playing songs from their last album but also many of their old classical stuff with Mr. Ola Lindgren giving a perfect Death Metal vocaling performance and ripping his Jackson guitar, Mr.Fredrik Isaksson on the bass , headbanging , sweating and playing with a lot of energy , Mr.Ronnie Bergestahl hitting his Yamaha drumset with great easiness and their new session guitarist , mr. Magnus Martinsson (Insision), playing awsome , staying in his corner and filling the sound and adding more power in it. \r\n
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\r\nThe people were a little bit calm and the most of them were in a -stand and watch- mode, but as soon as Grave started playing old stuff the fans started mini mosh pits and minute after minute everyone in the club was cheering , headbanging and asking for more!! Grave kept their low profile by playing more music than speaking and their great performance was followed by a nice Death Metal sound. The front fanatic audience felt the bass levels in their chests and while aproaching the back you could really hear the sound getting better. The truth is that nobody really cared about sound quality when you have Grave ripping the stage with their rotten vocals and their oldschool Death Metal sound. \r\n

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\r\nThe band played for one hour and a half without doing any mistakes and after an encore, Mr. Lindgren finished the show by sending hopeful messages for a second concert in Greece (and not after twenty one years again) , and by leaving his guitar near the amps and making his humbucks scream.People were cheering,claping and shouting their name and thats the time that Grave left the stage and Benediction started warming up their fingers,wrists and ankles. \r\n

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\r\nTime was 21.45 , the second band was about to hit the stage but Gagarin was still not full in the main area.Upstairs was still closed and very few was now entering the club. Despite the small crowd , the place was full of joy , energy , spilled beer and smoke. I saw more people now reaching the front and when the lights turned off i understood that the Benediction experience was about to begin. \r\n
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\r\nA big Benediction flag showed up and the band walked into the stage with people going crazy!! Its the second time they visit Greece and that helped a lot for keeping their name alive and you could see that through the fans.More people now in the front pushing the night to a new moshing level. Mr. Dave Hunt appeared full of energy and ready to tear the place down and after some intro greetings he let the show begin by reminding us that this is an oldschool Death Metal night!! \r\n
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\r\nBenediction started their setlist with songs from their last album - Killing Music - and the fans responded.Mosh pits , headbanging, fistbanging , failed crowd surfing attempts , cheering , claping , singing. Mr .Dave Hunt was great, with his brutal vocals in a great condition and his energy all around with him , walking around the stage. The guitars were perfect. Mr.Peter Rew playing great in his side and headbanging to his riffs while from the other guitar mr. Darren Brookes was acting like a young thrasher that plays his first concert.Running , headbanging , spitting in the air , making contact with the fans always with a big smile in his face and his guitar sound and performance reaching great levels.The bassist , mr. Frank Healy was absolute great! The man just couldnt stop playing his lefthand bass and run around the stage. Headbanging from the start to the end of their setlist.On the drumset, mr. Neil Hunton gave some Death Metal drumming lessons to all of us and played his drums with great techniques and fantastic power dynamics. \r\n
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\r\nThe fans loved it!! Watching Benediction playing songs from their last album but also old classic ones like , -The dreams you dread - , - Subconcious Terror - , -Jumping at Shadows- and many more.Song by song the people were getting more crazy and more fans started to enter the mosh pit and i even saw a guy fainting and been carried away!! The sound was great and the band didnt faced any problems at all. No mistakes , no accidents , everything perfect till the end. \r\n

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\r\nBenediction played many songs and after one hour and a half and without encore , because mr Hunt explained us that the encore trick sucks , the band finished their setlist and starting bowing to the people while throwing precious souvenirs(picks and drumsticks).People were asking for more but they left the stage so Pestilence can begin their show and continue this great night. \r\n

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\r\nReport: Efkarpos \r\n\r\n

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\r\nAfter Grave and Benediction, two of the most important acts of death metal genre, finished their sets, leaving me with the best possible impressions, the stage of Gagarin 205 was ready for one of my personal beloved groups and one of the most important groups of Thrash/ Prog Death metal genres, the re united Dutch outfit, Pestilence, for first time ever in Greece and with almost their classic line-up performing great their technical death metal sound, covering their whole history from “Malleus Maleficarum” till their latest album “Resurrection Macabre”  leaving all of their fans completely satisfied with their set list. Of course there was many fans (including me) that have been waiting for “Twisted Truth” to be played, but I think that the live version of “Land Of Tears” a track that hasn’t been played for about 17 years , until this night (according to Mameli’s words) left no space for complains about the set list.
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\r\nThe whole presentation of Pestilence on stage, for me had no importance at all, I mean, it’s a death metal band we don’t need any specific presentation. Mameli during the tracks was speaking with the first rows, and he must have said the word “fuck” more than 100 times during the show, Tony Choy was moving all the time from the left side to the right, back, front etc and Uterwijκ  according to his face expressions must felt once again 20 years of age.
\r\nAfter the two first tracks which were off the latest album and by the hearing of the classic “Creamo Therapy” off their first album the crowd came back to life and with tracks like ““The Secrecies Of Horror”, “Lost Souls”, “Land Of Tears” off the album “Testimony of The Ancients” drove the crowd wild, with head banging, moshing, even crowd surfing (only one time)\r\n

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\r\nThe only negative point that I have to quote is the amount of the people that came to the show, well for a Tuesday night the amount of people was ok, but  these bands deserves more. But the most important was that all of the people stayed to watch all of the bands and they enjoyed their music, after all, as the Benediction’s front man was said ( a couple of times) ““This Is An Old School Death Metal Night”.\r\n

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\r\nAs for me, a childhood dream came true (as and for many others) we saw Pestilence on stage with Tony Choy on Bass guitar…next target..Asphyx!!!
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\r\nLampros “Witchfynder” Tennes \r\n

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