Mayhem

have i been waiting for this a lot? OH YES! the show had been scheduled for mid-april and then was changed to end of may. this made me really anxious, but finally the big day arrived! mayhem are a band you simply cannot miss. they were the first band of the second wave of black metal, kick starting the norwegian scene.

of course mayhem have had some changes in personnel as we all know. but the core of the band is still there.. hellhammer, necrobutcher, teloch and also attila. the only new "face" is ghul. especially after i read necrobutcher's book "dead archives" i really was excited to see him perform.

the evening started with ravencult, a pretty good greek black metal band. they were enjoyable and got a lot of headbanging going. almost on time, at 10.30, the lights went off and we were greeted with a lighted up nidarosdom, the cover picture of de mysteriis dom sathanas. (above pic is mine, the others are not and i grabbed them from Facebook)

the band played the whole album from start to finish, in the correct order. we of course expected that and you can imagine how i went wild when it was freezing moon's turn. what a perfect song! this was oh so good. mayhem were amazing, attila keeps the mystery alive, not speaking to the crowd at all, creating a quite fascinating bleak, cold and mysterious aura. awesome.

i somehow expected them to play some more songs after the album, just as apocalyptica did, but after one hour they were finished. it was short, yes, but exactly what they had announced to do. and that was awesome. people got into moshpits, i was on the edge of those and a lot of people grabbing was involved, haha, to keep upright! awesome night, still somehow in the mood of this masterpiece of norwegian black metal..

when it's dark and when it's cold
the freezing moon can obsess you

- Daedin

Diamanda Galás

well, you might think what is a opera singer doing in a black metal blog? sounds like a relevant question. but let me explain why Diamanda belongs here like no one else.

Diamanda has, from the beginning, been a big influence on the metal scene, particularly the black metal scene. her style is not comparable to anyone else. her songs, her voice, her performance are full of grief, menace, even despair. she is part of darkness and darkness is within her. she is exceptional.

Sakis Tolis of rotting christ has followed her since her beginnings and is a huge fan. rotting christ collaborated with her for their album "aealo" where she sings "oder of the dead", a really fantastic, touching song full of pain and misery. Frost, or Kjetil-Vidar Haraldstad of Satyricon and 1349 names her as one of his beloved acts. Diamanda even headlined Roadburn Festival, a pure metal festival in Netherlands.

so she is much respected in the whole metal scene, especially the black metal scene. when her concert was announced there was no way i would not go. i took my mom-in-law and my friend Giota with me. the night was an experience i will not so easily forget. she is formidable in her range of voice. she will growl, scream, do unbelievable things with her voice. and let me tell you, she is avantgarde, this is not easy listening! this brings you to the edge of what you can endure!

this is the setlist i have gathered from another site: fernand, shAkwoman, la llorona, προσφυγας, a soul that's been abused, die stunde kommt, ανοιξε πετρα, o death, artemis, i've got someone to kill, let my people go. the crowd was enthusiastic, the last three songs were all encores. and yes, there were a lot of metal people present that evening. diamanda is quite a phenomenon, coming from such a different musical scene and still attracting so many (black) metal fans. 

i was sure that Sakis of rotting christ would be there to see her. but i didn't expect him to linger around outside the trianta hall at megaron mousikis after the concert. but there he was, talking enthusiastically to some people about what we just had witnessed. i politely asked him for a picture and we chatted a while and guys, from interviews i have seen i knew what a great person he is. but in reality it's one thousand times better! :D after a quick chat about germany and my home and rotting christ's last shows in athens, we called it a night. fantastic, really. i'm so very happy :D 

o lieb solang du lieben kannst,

o lieb solang du lieben magst!

die stunde kommt, die stunde kommt

wo du an Gräbern stehst und klagst

- Daedin 

Aherusia - Prometheus

This one needs some explanation. this band is a folk black metal band and they exist since 1997. they have three albums out and are quite interesting indeed. the name of the band is actually the river that leads to the underworld and it exists in reality in greece and is called 'Αχερουσια.

A friend of mine told me about the band and i really wanted to see them live. their release gig of the new album was in the day i spent in manchester to see ghost, so i could not make it. they played another show to open up for rotting christ, but i actually saw the rotting christ show the day before that. so i missed both opportunities and was sad about that. so when i heard that they will combine their new album with theatre, i knew i was going to go.

i asked my mom-in-law to go with me and she did! i did not tell her that this is a black metal band, but ok.. haha! i do roughly know the story of prometheus, but this was more about the people and how they reacted to the gift of fire. a very good concept and interesting idea to have the whole band present, playing the whole album while actors would sing and dance.

on account of the music it was perfect. i loved it. the music was fantastic and i had to tap my foot now and then and shake the head, a bit. just a bit, haha :D great performance. now the acting and the play was something else. it was written in the ancient greek dialect of the alexandrians, in nowadays egypt. this was very hard to understand and we got subtitles on screens, but still it was tough.

well, i knew i was in for something like an ancient greek tragedy, so the acting, dancing etc was in that style. this is of course something you either like or find it terribly boring. i would have enjoyed this much more, if i actually understood what is going on. this was a bit sad. but i must say hats off to the band for this great idea, the awesome concept and their truly magnificent music. i wish more people would learn about this and go see it.

into the deep, down falling, even to eternity down falling,
and weep

- Daedin

Zeal and Ardor

This was a show I was quite impatiently waiting for. I had only heard about this because three shades of black promoted this and I checked the band out. At that point there are only three songs publicly available but they already blew me away. It was something never heard before.

Zeal and Ardor is one guy, Manuel, who is half swiss, half afro american. He was working as a DJ and got as a challenge a mash up of black metal and "nigger music" as it was called in the challenge. what he made with it is amazing. It's slave music, chants and working songs, that were sung on the fields. And he combines this with driving, quite straight forward black metal. amazing.

the main theme is about slaves who are working on the fields. after years of praying to god, they see that he does not help them so they turn to the devil for solace and for relief from their pain and oppression. the songs have so much soul, they have a amazing feeling to them. and then there are the devil's screams, the dark and satanic side to this music.. wow!

the show happened in ilion plus and the place was packed. it was awesome to see that many greeks have heard about this amazing music. this is something quite unique and i think this man is the only one in the world who plays this kind of music. what a thrill! it truly was an experience that i will never forget.

the above picture is my own from the show. the second guy on vocals was fantastic, too and the band seems to really feel it and form a unity. mind-blowing evening.

devil is fine - he go by many names
devil is kind - we gonna go home to the flames

- Daedin