
40 years of Metal Hammer. 40 years of Kai Hansen. I don’t know if this is a hell of a coincidence or not but it was definitely the perfect coincidence for a big celebration. So it was the 40th anniversary of the longest running magazine for hard music in Greece and this is no coincidence. Generations have grown up reading it.
So the magazine decided to celebrate by bringing Gamma Ray to Greece for two concerts. Yes, maybe the Rays have not given signs for ten years. Yes maybe yesterday except for Kai we only saw Dirk Schlachter from the beginning of the line-up but all this didn’t matter much since every show of the band is a big party.

Together with them two Greek bands with fresh releases in their quiver. The Athenians Desert Near The End and the guys from Volos, Silent Winter. Everything indicated that the last, for me, concert of the year would be very loud and I was not wrong.
A long queue had formed outside Floyd early on. Metal Hammer listened to the demand of the crowd which after selling out the original location led to the organizers moving to a larger venue. I don’t know if that venue sold out as well but it was certainly a large crowd. The weather may have played on our nerves a bit as it drizzled twice in the hour I waited outside but no big deal.
8 o’clock… the doors opened and shortly after, not at half past 8 as announced, Desert Near The End came on stage. I had seen the band live some years ago, if I’m not mistaken in Galatsi, and since then I had the best impressions. Maybe their technical power thrash is not the most heavy or to put it right the easiest to digest but the guys really delivered.

In the time they had they presented us compositions from their extensive discography, 6 full albums, although the truth is that due to the fact that their compositions are relatively long they couldn’t play too many. But anyway, I think they rose to the occasion and they certainly gave me the stimulus to listen to their fresh album “Tides Of Time” as soon as it falls into my hands.
A quick change of equipment on stage and it was the turn of Silent Winter who were also closer sonically to the headliners of the night. The band has recently, less than a month ago, released the excellent “Utopia” so I was keen to hear live songs from it.
As it happened 4 of the 6 compositions they performed were from this album. The setlist was unfortunately truncated by two tracks compared to the one in Thessaloniki in order to keep to the schedule. Oh well.
I have seen Silent Winter several times in different venues and I can say that they are better every time. The streak was not lost yesterday. The crowd had a good response to the new songs and they already seem to have loved them. We are now looking forward to the presentation of the album live. Soon.

But it’s time for the main course and the ageless Kai Hansen. What the hell with this man? Has he found the fountain of youth? Either way, this performance was highly commemorative. After all, the band hasn’t given us new material for a long time, so there was no reason to focus on a recent album. So, we had a good spread across almost all the albums with “Heading For Tomorrow” being represented by 3 compositions and “Land Of The Free II” shining through its absence.
But these are technical details. After the classic introduction the band entered with the storming “Land Of The Free” only to be followed by the even faster “Last Before The Storm”. This was followed by two compositions from the band’s latest album “Empire Of The Undead” to dive back into the past.

That’s how the whole night flowed and when you have such an extensive discography of course you’ll won’t do justice to some of your songs unless you want to play 3-4 hours straight. I was well impressed by the relatively new singer of the band Frank Beck who together with Kai complemented each other very cleverly. At the same time we also saw Kasperi Heikkinen from Beast In Black as a loan signing in the role of the other guitar.
The first part of the concert ended with the beloved “Somewhere Out In Space”. While the band was catching their breath, Kostas Chronopoulos and Hakos Pervanidis took the stage and said a few words about the magazine’s celebration and Kai Hansen, who was even given a plaque of honour. I don’t think there was a person in the club who didn’t agree with what Kostas said.
The band returned to the stage for the closing credits with “Heading For Tomorrow” and “Send Me A Sign” and that’s how this celebration of music ended. I personally will wish Metal Hammer to celebrate so many more years and continue to contribute in their own way to our beloved music.
Michael Ntalakos
Photos: Peter Papapetros
