“Fly high and touch the sky…”
The second day of 9th Horns Up Festival was easily my personal favorite among the three days since there was a great variety in music styles (from psychedelic folk rock and nwobhm to doom, grindcore and black metal) and all the bands gave top class performances so no one get bored or tired although there were seven of them:
Circle Of Mushrooms, Enthoned Serpent, Head Cleaner, Tytan, Junkwolvz, Iron Void, Kev Riddles’ Baphomet.
After the necessary morning day trip to incredible beautiful landscape of Meteora we returned to Trikala for lunch because we wanted to be on time at the venue of the festival, as the first band would be on stage early in the afternoon, before even the sun start setting…
“let the sun set on life forever…”
Those who missed their midday nap to be at the venue at 17:30 didn’t regret it because the organizers had a special gig for the fans. They have invited Circle Of Mushrooms, a local metal band that was active back in the 90s experimenting with folk sounds. But the thing now is that the last time they played live was 25 years ago! More or less the three out the four musicians on stage were from that band, only the singer was missing and now they have Chris Mpellos on bass. The band played only for twenty minutes but their set was beautiful, magic colors through music covered the venue, their psychedelic folk rock approach carried us away, especially the flute by Thomas Gouzias while Foivos (known from Agnes Vein, Hail Spirit Noir etc) was great on the drum kit and Apostolis Ioannou was ideal of the guitar tunes. Their setlist consisted of three originals and one cover on “Beneath A Bronze Sky” (Primordial). No need to add that I cant wait for their upcoming album «Koziakas» (when and if they decided to get in the studio again as they live in different cities).
video Circle Of Mushrooms
Circle Of Mushrooms setlist:
Reborn / Darkness / Doomed To Live / Red Light / Danger / Burndrops
“in heavy soil decorated with sorrow…”
Then from light we went to dark, not that there was some change outside the venue, the time was still just 18:00, but Enthroned Serpent brought the cold vibes that are required by the orthodox black metal. The intro was from their 2016 demo and then they played a brand new song that left everyone satisfied and made us headbang with their approach. I think they easily got into all the fans in the venue, even those that are not really into the extreme and the fact that no one was a good sign for them. I liked the two guitarists, Kalidor (vocals) and Silezor (that helped on backing vocals) and the compact rhythm section by Naxash (drums) and Adrahil (bass). The songs from Facing The Unknown EP were superb but I loved some new ones too, especially Snake God, most probably a great album is coming.
Video Enthroned Serpent:
Enthroned Serpent setlist:
The Calm Before The Storm / As Old As Time / Edge Of Eden / Sepulcher’s Secrets / Towards The Unknown / Facing The Throne / Ghost / Snake God / Turning The World Black
“the extreme sound of truth…”
Change of style once more as at 19:05 Head Cleaner were ready to play. This a Greek grindcore band that needed only thirty minutes to unleash their sound attack and managed to take our scalp through their eleven short compositions, with a mix of death and grind that surprisingly has a lot of catch groove in it. They were great as player, Kostas was impressive on guitar and they were much more serious that the average grindcore bands that for some reason tend to make jokes all the time. Unlike those “funny” bands Head Cleaner spread the word and their socio-political view about the corrupted modern society. Dimitris “Mitch” was fully dedicated on every word he spit reming us that we must awake before our boring routine kill us… “Going round in a circle you can’t get out / Will you awake from this narcosis?…”
Video Head Cleaner:
Head Cleaner setlist:
Used Parts / No Gods No Masters / Products Of Love And Chaos / Cold Machines / Not Like All Of You / For Tomorrow’s Lesson / The Maverick / System Of Perversity / Among The Living Dead / When The Clock Strikes 9:00 / Fake Show Protagonist
“love you to death…”
20 minutes break, cold beer at hand and we are all ready to enjoy Tytan, the veterans from England that wrote their own small epic story in the first half of the 80s with the classic album “Rough Justice” but then they dismissed and we had to wait until 2010 and see Kevin Riddles (their founder) putting the band back on tracks. Having said there was no surprise they kicked off with “Money For Love” and “Cold Bitch”. Riddles seemed to enjoy the fans’ warm reaction of the fans while Gary Bowler was a beast behind the drum kit unlike Andy Thompson that peaceful added the keyboard colors on their music. The guitarist (I apologize I cant recall his name) with the great Sabbath tshirt was super great and precise on guitar but ok, everyone agreed that there was one person on stage that really stood out through out their 60 minute set and that was Τony Coldham, a man with a great vocal range that managed to sing perfect all the compositions. At the end of “Ballad of Ed Case” they decided to play a game by doing a few bars of rock classics like “paranoid”, “neon nights”, “Heartbreaker”, “whole lotta love”. That was fun but I wish they had added one more original in their set. A great performance in any case and I really hope to see them again soon.
Video Tytan:
Tytan setlist:
Money For Love / Cold Bitch / Love You To Death / Forever Gone / Far Side Of Destiny / The Cradle / Rude Awakening / Fight The Fight / The Watcher / Blindmen & Fools / Ballad Of Ed Case
“I won’t be the one left behind…”
Then we had the usual break when normally the next band prepares the stage for their set. But wait a minute, 15 minutes later and the stage was empty, then some guys came in rush trying to catch up with time while they were calling out their drummer, it was obvious that Junkwolvz arrived a bit late in the festival. But when they started playing they were super energetic, a mix of hard n heavy that had lot of rock n roll attitude but I must admit I wasn’t familiar with their stuff so I couldn’t enjoy it to the maximum. The last song was a great cover of Slave To The Grind, a clear sign how much they love the early Skid Row sound.
Video Junkwolvz:
“call of the void…”
It was 22:25 when Iron Void kicked off with “The Answer Unknown”, a song that made lot of people headbang. I was disappointed last year when they had to cancel so I was really waiting to catch them live this year and hopefully they returned. This power trip is great, more doomy one moment, more groovy on other moments they had the approach of an experience band and I really enjoyed their set although they didn’t play “She”, my personal favorite from their latest album. They dedicated “Living On The Earth” on Dennis Cornelius (Revelation) and they waved goodbye with “Grave Dance”, there was one more composition in their track list but they didn’t have time to play it.
Video Iron Void:
Iron Void setlist:
The Answer Unknown / Tyrant’s Crown / Living On The Earth / I Am War / Spell Of Ruin / Eye For An Eye / Blind Dead / The Coming Of A King / Doomsday / Grave Dance
“can’t you see that I am confused…”
And so, like this we finally reached the last band of the day which was no other than Kev Riddles’ Baphomet. For those who didn’t know already Riddles was a prime member of Angel Witch from 1978 to 1981 and recently created this project to revisit those glory days and perform the songs live. What some people didn’t know was the fact that the other musicians were the ones from Tytan, they just changed the t-shirts for this set 🙂 But come on, what a great setlist was that, in reality they played Angel Witch album (in different track order) and “Baphomet” (from Metal For Muthas compilation) at the beginning of their set. Fans and band were having great time, a real metal party to end the day and of course the last song was the one everyone was waiting for, those unique moments when you are in a gig screaming out loud favorite classic songs, no matter if you know listen to them thousands of time…
“Fly high and touch the sky, you’re the angel I adore…”
video Baphomet:
Baphomet setlist:
Sweet Danger / Baphomet / Confused / Atlantis / Evil Games / Sorceress / White Witch / Gorgon / Free Man / Loser / They Wouldn’t Dare / Angel of Death / Angel Witch
® live report/photos/video: Konstantinos Mindcrimek Vlachos
