And the time had come for the modern Odysseus to return home…After a long journey to the northern lands, he prevailed over the everlasting night and captured her essence…He came…but not alone. Four vickings were his company, bringing along the rage of the night, that was unleashed upon us on the stage of "An" club.
Marios Iliopoulos and NIGHTRAGE were here…
I arrived at an club at about 20:00. The place was surprisingly empty making me wonder if I had mixed up the date and time. Nevertheless, my enthusiasm didn't decrease and held my hopes high for a club filled with metalheads…
After a small delay the show started with the two opening acts. INSIDEAD, a heavy metal band who's appearance got our attention and NORDOR, playing black metal that was rather boring, making us wonder why we got there at the first place.
For my great disappointment I saw people leaving before the show of NIGHTRAGE. About 150 metalheads stayed, a fact quite irrelative for the band that was going to appear…
…and NIGHTRAGE got on stage!!!
They got on with the show with a short instrumental prelude and right after that chaos reigned. From the first note I realized that I had to deal with a truly great band. Power, speed, dynamic are a few words that represent NIGHTRAGE…Eventhough the place was half empty the band gave their 100%,as if they were playing before thousands of people. And it doesn' t stop there. Total professionalism characterized the band and their performance equally to their name: PURE RAGE!
To be more exact, the young singer's throat made the foundations of An club shake…
The setlist of the night was this:
01. Spiral
02. Descent Into Chaos
03. Hero
04. Scathing
05. A Condemned Club
06. Death-Like Silence
--- (Drum Solo)
07. Scars
08. Encircle
09. Being Nothing
10. Phantasma
--- (Guitar Solos)
11. Elusive Emotion
12. Reality Vs Truth
13. Poems
14. Macabre Apparition
15. The Tremor
This was one of the best concerts I've ever been to…But then again, You (all of you greek fans of N.W.O.S.D.M) wouldn't know…You weren't there…Honestly, where the fuck were you???
Vassilis Karogiannis
I remember some years ago when Marios Iliopoulos was leaving Greece and Exhumation behind to chase the chances he deserved in Sweden. After just a small period of time his effort were realized. NIGHTRAGE made awesome albums with the participation of some deadly famous people. After Metal Healing Festival it was about time for the Athenian crowd to welcome him and his band. Well…at least that was 150 people (the most) thought of doing so and among them count Rotting Christ and Septic Flesh members, Bob Katsionis and some other known figures of the Greek metal scene. You don't call that a successful welcome, don't you? Instead of crying of how often we get the same bands all the time, maybe we should start supporting some that totally deserve it and in this particular case Marios was one more reason.
The show opened by INSIDEAD, the band that won last year's "Battle Of The Bands" contest. Their blending of thrash and metalcore, although it is heavy enough and promising created no serious reactions in the crowd (which crowd?). They showed that they are capable of more and greater things, so good luck for them in the future. Then it was time for NORDOR that started with a satanic intro
during which the singer demonstrated that the band is deadly serious in what it is doing. That is true and their death/grind songs followed one another, but in spite of the singer's demands to gather into the first row the band managed to create a moshpit of one person which could easily be a world record (INSIDEAD had a moshpit of two)! This thing with Greek support bands goes way back because some are underestimated and others overestimated depending on who they are supporting. Here the facts are simple: NORDOR have limited musical skills that don't go with their almost 20 years of experience as a band. Good luck to them too.
From the moment NIGHTRAGE entered the stage till the moment they went down there was nothing else going on than pure metallic energy flowing around. The warm atmosphere that this venue always has and the good sound quality that it guarantees helped a lot in that.
They played songs from all their 3 albums in no chronological order giving their best in every note of them. Marios was leading the way holding his guitar as if he was trying to choke it and all the other members followed him in an aggressive exposure of melodic death metal. If we take out the bass player who helps the band in the live performances and was the only one who didn't move much, all the other boys made their stand up there and I am sure they will be remembered for good. Olaf Morck on the guitar was into the songs, played expressively and didn't lose his temper or his appetite when he had to face some technical problems. Along with Marios they make a great guitar duo and that was obvious in the well - made melodic double solo they played some songs before the end. Antony Hamalainen is the new singer, a Finnish boy with blond hair that surely has a thrashcore past and who can sing, growl and move like the masters of the genre although he is really young. Since the concert without us thinking of Lindberg's voice then he surely passed the test. I left Johan Nunez, the 19-year-old drummer at the end because he really left as speechless with his power and his technique. He was viciously pounding the drums and in his drum solo you could hear your jaw moving by his hits. I don't know how Marios made it, but he gathered some fine young lads to help him with his vision and if they continue together then their next album should be a
blasting dynamite!
The performance of NIGHTRAGE was bloody incredible and the power that this band has driven by Marios' experience and the other guys' enthusiasm is unstoppable. The sight of the empty venue was disappointing though, but the band played as it should for the lucky few who were there. Many people in Marios' place wouldn't consider playing again in Athens, however he is so stubborn (in the good way) that I am sure he will come back many times to prove his guts and to share his music with us.
