“Breath in the life we bleed…”
Who would have guessed it that a doom metal festival in Greece would be an annual institution? So, here we are, Demons Gate Festival was loyal to its appointment this year too, an excellent organisation for one more time, with good sound but most of all full of love and dedication from anyone that is behind it. This year we didn’t as many bands as last year (when there were twelve bands in two days) since this time the festival was dedicated to Scott “Wino” Weinrich, an iconic figure of doom metal. So, the first day we saw six bands, headliners were the mighty The Obsessed and along with them Darkest Era, Aherusia, Obsidian Sea, Agnes Vein and Blax. The second day had an acoustic set by Wino and the film “Wino:The Documentary”.
“raining goth words…”
Doors opened after 17:00 but there were only a few people at that time waiting to get inside so when the first band came on stage the club was desperately empty. So, although the festival kicked off with a small delay (that forced the timetable off) BLAX had to face the fate of every band that opens a festival and play for only a few fans. The Italian band is a young one with only one full length and they are into dark rock tunes trying to find the sweet balance between darkwave and some more hard rock tunes. Obviously their music isn’t made for doom metal festivals but the variety in such events is always welcomed but also necessary for attracting new blood and not just the usual doomsters among the fans. The main problem though was that most of the fans weren’t familiar with Blax’s songs so there were no sign of excitement or anything else during their 35 minute long set and we had to hear the Talking Head’s cover to start dancing around and/or grab the first beer from the bar while others started to check the merch corner where you could buy stuff from all the bands.
Blax video:
Blax setlist:
Rules Of Meravilla / Our Brain Condition / Raining Words / Eva’s Eden / My Poker’s Room / Psycho Killer / Party Of Little Giants / The Queen Of My Heroine / Shady Life
“Dust in wasteland…”
King Diamond was playing on the decks when lights turned off again and AGNES VEIN got on stage. They are a great powerful trio that we have enjoyed many times live and as every time they hit us with some epic sludge doom. With great sound the band from Thessaloniki was superb, they seemed pretty compact up there and their forty minute long show was one of a kind. They kicked off with two older songs and they three compositions from their great latest album “Deathcall”. Everyone in the club was excited with them as their dark and heavy music is unique (along with their unique tshirts, Tom Jones anyone?). “Vultures Hymn” was the ideal song for closing their show, the compact doom rhythm on drums, the bass that was crawling inside us, the vocals of Sakis that fit so nice over the repeating guitar riffing… “circling high, against the light…”
Agnes Vein video:
Agner Vein setlist:
Melkor / soulship / rara null / sovereign star / vultures hymn
“horrors came to mock the sun…”
At 19:40 ΟBSIDIAN SEA from Sofia got on stage and they were really impressive. They are a power trio that is fully into classic sabbath’s doom but they also have some great groove in their compositions along with some nwobhm elements that kept our eyes and ears fully focused on them. They played for forty minutes, having a setlist that weren’t focused only on their latest album (“Sisters” was great as a last song with some beautiful double vocal lines) but they also played some of their older stuff. They are really into traditional doom and they do it with respect, Anton Avramov (vocals, guitar) was the ideal frontman so yes, everyone in the hall was satisfied with their performance and I’m pretty sure many went for their stuff after the show.
Obsidian Sea video:
Obsidian Sea setlist:
Lament the Death of Wonder / Child in the Tower / A Shore Without a Sea / Impure Days / Mythos / Sisters
“Και μιάν αυγή καρφώθηκε, πάνω στον μαύρο βράχο….”
More fans were starting to get into the club when AHERUSIA got ready to occupy every corner of the stage and I mean it literally as they are seven people! They started to play “Bacchus” album and many blown away by them, especially those ones that haven’t see this great before. The Athenian band gave a great performance, the energy they bring leads to a ceremony that flies away from here and now and along with the Ancient Greek lyrics they manage to create a crack in space and time. Reality is harsh of course and they know it but they are above all great humans so they don’t hesitate to talk about the injustice in the society. Their music is rich anyway, they combine different elements, they have polyphonic parts, they have some theatrical elements but what I like most is that everything seems to be part of a greater puzzle. Indeed, we love this music collective and since love is the only thing that will make world a better place you better come closer to them too, you will get better too. The surprise at the end with the black metal outburst of “Archipelagos” brought smiles on the faces of those who follow them since the early days.
Aherusia video:
Aherusia setlist:
Wingless Though You Fly / A Sacrifice That Matters / The Reckoning / Rapture / I Roamed Alone / Rise And Raise Valor / Sun Of Hades / Archipelagos
“Come away to the shadowed vale…”
It was about 21:50 when the music had to switch through music genres again. DARKEST ERA from Northern Ireland released one of the best albums in 2022 (“Wither On The Vine”) so they decided to begin with the first song of the album and it is true that “One Thousand Years of Night” was ideal to set the appropriate mood for them and creating expectations for their show. As their beautiful leads were putting proper colors to the compositions and Krum was really singing with passion everything seemed so perfect during their show, no matter if at one moment they are closer to Primordial and the other to Amorphis. Their best moment was “Collapse”, I was waiting for this song and they didn’t disappointed me. I wanted one more song but time flies when you have great bands like them.
Darkest Era video:
Darkest Era setlist:
One Thousand Years Of Night / Sorrows Boundless Realm / Floodlands / Collapse / A Path Made Of Roots / Tithonus
“Waiting, watching, spinning thoughts they torture me…”
So, it was time to see the headliners of the day, the mighty OBSESSED in their first ever gig in Greece (the fact that it wasn’t a sold out show is a shame but let’s be honest, doom was never a trend). Scott “Wino” is an iconic figure and gave us the chills as he stood in the middle of the stage as the doom trip begun and each song was better than the other. The band carries a heavy jersey in the doom genre so it was no surprise that many couldn’t hide their emotion as the music marked many of us back in the early 90s. But this wasn’t just a nostalgia trip, the album “Sacred” was a great come back in 2017 and the songs from it can stand side by side with the older stuff). We didn’t really understand clearly what Wino was saying in between the songs but it didn’t really matter, we could feel them 100% when they were raising their fist in the air or they were pointing their heart…
It is really impressive how good they are, you listen to their songs and almost unconsciously you start headbanging and then you start realizing how rich is every guitar riff, every hit on the drum kit and of course every lyric by Wino. Even the new, still unreleased stuff seemed to come out from the same old magic fountain. The other musicians were great by his side and of course there was an encore, of course everyone was happy on and off the stage and of course this was a great concert by a great band.
The Obsessed video:
The Obsessed setlist:
Sodden Jackal / Climate Of Despair / Hiding Mask / Streetside Jam / Punk Crusher / Blind Lightning / Streamlined / Protect And To Serve / Decimation / Endless Circles / Skybone / The Way She Fly / Lost Sun Dance / Brother Blue Steel
After the eight hour standing the first day it was hard to carry our tired bodies around but the second day was fully dedicated to WINO so it was hard to resist. This time the club was full of chairs so right at 19:00 Wino stood on stage alone holding an acoustic guitar and for forty minutes he offered us an acoustic set, stripped from distortion.
This is something that he does the last years anyway, he records acoustic albums and there is no doubt that heaviness doesn’t always need the electric distortion and it is really in acoustic sets like this that you can really go deep into the powerful lyric world of Wino. That why the stage felt like it was fully occupied no matter that there was only just one person up there.
“The anger of chaotic confusion…”
He started with four songs from “Forever Gone” album but it didn’t really matter which songs he played this night, since everything tonight had to do with the energy behind the man, a man that stood there humble and down to earth telling us stories about the songs or other small stories (“my ex wife asked me why I don’t write a song about her and told here I made a full album for you”, “I don’t like many things in Texas but I want to be buried there”, “I’ve tried lot of stuff but stay away from hard drugs”, “I will dedicate the next one to Mark Adams because I didn’t have the chance to say goodbye” etc). If I had to choose the best moments of the set I would say “Old And Alone” (from “Adrift” album) but also the classic cover of “Iron Horse”
Wino video:
Then got on stage Dimitris Papandreou, the art director of Gimme Shelter Film Festival and said a few things about the film “Wino:The Documentary”. Then invited on stage Wino and Sharlee Patches, director and girlfriend of Wino the last four years. What’s more fans could ask them questions so we learned a few more interesting things about Wino, from how he tunes each song depending on the lyric theme or what is his favorite drug.
At 21:00 everyone left the stage, lights turned off and we enjoyed watching the film “Wino:The Documentary”, a film made with love about an artist that has offered so much to doom through a dozen of different bands that someone can create a great music collection just by having albums of The Obsessed, Saint Vitus, Spirit Caravan, Place Of Skulls, The Hidden Hand, Shrinebuilder, Premonition 13 but also his solo albums. The film was full of old and new stuff, with some rare live footage, with some personal moments (I liked the scene where he jams with his children) but mostly the warm words of those that came across with Wino through the years and they were telling how important was Wino and his music for them. Like someone said “He is a gift to rock n roll”.
® κείμενο/φωτογραφίες/video: Konstantinos Mindcrimek Vlachos
