For many, Friday the 13th is a bad day. For others who live in 2019 and not in the Dark Ages, don’t work on the Weekends and want something special to end the week, it’s a good one. That was Caravan Of Shadows, a festival that has the intention to be held in a different city every time. From Corfu, the caravan came to Athens and Ilion Plus, a very nice venue that for some strange reason I haven’t visited before in the past.

There was a small delay until the doors opened, but the guys moved fast and just ten minutes late according to the program, Grey Vs Gray hit the stage for their first show ever. The alternative/progressive rock power trio didn’t have any interactions with the audience, but personally it didn’t matter to me as they clearly wanted to adopt this style while performing. They presented atmospheric compositions from which they try to tell stories, as some unusual covers with matching samples in a way that someone who don’t know them would think that they are their own songs. They won the applause of the audience and something tells me that we will see nice things from them in the future.

Setlist: View From Above (“Nameless City” story), Dark Room (“Nameless City” story), Special No One (“Nameless City” story), Glowing Gray (“Nameless City” story), Jenny Of Oldstones (Game Of Thrones S08 OST), Wolven Storm (The Witcher III OST), An Ordinary Couple: The Dream, An Ordinary Couple: The End, Hurt (Johnny Cash)

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The epic heavy metallers DeifieD were next and got the audience excited from the first riffs. They played songs from their first EP “Chaos, Blood & War” and also some who will be in their first full-length. I saw them for the first time and I have to say that they gave me a great impression. Very good performance with passionate vocals from Dimitris Giannakopoulos and compositions with epic feeling that are perfect for situations like this. I hope that soon they will release their first album.

Setlist: Eyes Of Fire, Bad Blood, Queen Of The Underworld, Diomedes, Phovos, Blessing, Chaos Blood & War

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The Silent Rage followed, who also were the common link with the first edition of the festival. It was the band who brought most fans that night. It’s been many years since I’ve seen them and I can say that they are something totally different now. The new members give them a different vibe, not only Nick Sarbanis on guitars but also the A-M-A-Z-I-N-G voice of Michael Rinakakis who also showed his big experience with his constant interaction and jokes with the audience. I also have to congratulate him for choosing to stay true to his style and didn’t remove his leather jacket during their performance. The songs from the debut album “The Deadliest Scourge” were accompanied from three new ones that sounded really great. The best appearance of the night belonged to them without any doubt.

Setlist: Signal Of War (Intro), My Race Won’t Last, The Deadliest Scourge, Stormwarrior, Sin Of A Pilgrim, The Serpent Lord, Between Harmony And Sorrow, Code Of Destruction, A Piece Of Eden, Leading The Legions, Nuances Of Life

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What came next was not a good spectacle. Many left the venue while Memorain were setting up their equipment and even more left after the first two or three songs. That probably affected them, as their singer Vagelis commented a lot about it and tried his best to make the rest participate. He even left the stage and started pushing people around, but with no big result. It’s very strange for a historic band like that to not have fans of their own, especially when they are the headliners. The thrashers chose to play some covers, probably out of schedule, as it seemed to me that they did it to entertain the ones who chose to stick around and watch them. With nine albums in their discography, they have material of their own for hours. Those were “Peace Sells”, “Raining Blood” and “For Whom The Bell Tolls” (if you don’t recognize the tiles, you are in the wrong webzine). Before the last one, Costas on guitars seemed like he was about to leave the stage and Vagelis held him back (who also forgot some lyrics, but that’s OK).

The finale was a bit weird, but the night was really nice even if we witnessed the rare phenomenon where the audience had more interest in the support bands than the headliners. Caravan Of Shadows gave a lot of smiles to the people who chose to attend and now we have to wait and see what the next town will be.

George Terzakis

Photos: Chris Kissadjekian/livephotographs.com

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