Samael @ Texas Necropolis

\r\nMonday night is a difficult night for live appearances in Greece.  You see Greek fans are biased by the fact they were probably working – or having school in the morning and they will also do in the next day.  That’s the reason why I didn’t expect a big crowd in Texas Necropolis for Samael’s live show. 
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\r\nShow started on time with Noctiferia on stage. They sounded quite fresh and looked pretty trendy metalheads. However they didn’t seem to be original. I think I can name at least five bands that sound like them. But since I mentioned the sound issue, don’t know if it was because of the position I was standing in, behind the sound engineer, or whether the extra backline the bands had brought in the venue, fact is it sounded great. And in Texas Necropolis, a place where the acoustics is rather medium if not bad, it was a very pleasant surprise!\r\n

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\r\nAfter a half hour set came the time for Keep Of Kalessin. These guys were really interesting to listen to. Their sound is both fierce and melodic and the guitar playing rather unique. As Thebon (lead vocals) explained us earlier in an interview we did with them, Obsidian C’s style of playing is almost like flamenco as he uses a very small space on the guitar.  \r\n

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\r\nTheir sound was really impressive; the vocals were captivating and their stage appearance very good considering the small stage.  Their set list emphasized on their latest release Kolossus. \r\n

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\r\nAfter almost an hour on stage, came the time for Samael. The background showed clearly that a slide show would take place however being behind the band it would be interesting to see how we would be able to watch it. An unfortunate decision was to release fake smoke in the venue before they hit the stage. You can imagine how Texas would feel like for the ones near the stage with the stage smoke? \r\n

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\r\nThe crowd was no more than 150 people. Samael came on stage and immediately went on to smashing it. Their show was pretty intense however the crowd was rather indifferent. Set list included songs like "Baphomet’s Throne", "Infra Galaxia", "Into The Pentagram", "Valkyries New Ride", "Slavocracy", "On The Rise", "My Savior" and "Rebellion".  \r\n

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\r\nNot being a great fan of the band I have to say I was impressed by their stage appearance and their drummer/keyboardist doing something of a one man show and lingering in-between their melodies.  Dark, intense, really industrial like sound which the fans enjoyed but to be totally honest not exactly my cup of tea.  I think that Samael should have returned in Greece before having a new release to promote as they were here last year with Dark Tranquility. However seeing the turn out of the crowd I have to say that it will probably be too long until we see them again. What can I say, I guess Greece has a metal audience that doesn’t like diversity in the bands they watch each year this is why they don’t support any attempts made by the more risk taking promoters. \r\n

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\r\nReport Elena Mihailidou
\r\nPhotos Jim Hatzimoisis
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