Another New Long Fest came to its end. A festival that it trying to become bigger every year, with hundreds of fans supporting it. For the first time this year, we enjoyed it in three different days.
Nea Makri once again is a perfect getaway play from the Greek capital, the place was ideal, lots of merchandise, endless cold beer and in general a great effort from all the guys who organize this every year. Only negative thought, the attendance. It wasn’t disappointing, but thinking of previous festivals there was a notable difference.
1st day: The show started early with Chronoboros who tried to make a lot of noise and had against them the hot summer sun and a lots of technical difficulties that thankfully got fixed until the end of their performance. The metalcore sound was common to many band that followed them. In Search Of Atlantis at first, Embrace The Paradox afterwards and Obzerv from Rethymno, Crete gave their best on the stage with their extreme and melodic sound. Foray Between Ocean played their first live show ever, presenting us their debut album “Depression Never Ending” and doing a very good job about it.
The sun had finally set and Womb Of Maggots tried to demolish the stage with brutal death metal. Excellent performance, with some guests at the end of their show. Giannis Nakos of Mortal Torment and Christos Antoniou of Septicflesh joined forces in order to make the crowd go insane while covering “Raining Blood”.
Karma Violens followed and when you have the ability of starting your show with one of your best songs, “Christian Lovers (Made Me Do It)”, and still manage to deliver a highly energetic performance then you’re onto something really good. Coming to the end of the day, Mass Infection gave instructions on how to be one of the best death metal acts around with a blasting performance. Finally, Yellow Devil Sauce took the stage with an excellent acoustic set which was very interesting to close a day full of extreme bands.
2nd day: Hearth cancelled their show and stoner rockers The Curf filled in for them, opening up under the bright sun before the alternative rockers Madleaf took up the stage. Up next, the duet of Omega Monolith gave an excellent performance with their instrumental heavy/doom sound followed up by Freefall from Thessaloniki and their blasting death metal. Next in line, Still Falling who gave their best to play their djent oriented material and did a very good job. One of the best acts of the festival, we.own.the.sky came up next and filled the place with amazing post-rock melodies and set the bar very high for the next bands. Change of sound, change of mood with Cyanna Mercury and their psychedelic songs influenced by the 70’s sound. They even covered “The Four Horsemen” of Aphrodite’s Child. Shortly before the end, Universe217 gave a breathtaking performance, worthy of their fame that have many years ago.
Final act, the mighty Poem with their second acoustic show of their career. With two extra members just for the night on keyboards and percussion, they played almost entire their new album “Skein Syndrome”, showing how good musicians they are. Highlight the songs “Passive Observer” and “Weakness” with their singer George Prokopiou (who left aside his guitar for the night) giving chills with his voice.
3rd day: The final day was here, the most-easy listening of the rest. Alternative rock for starters with Breath After Coma (at first) and 10Code (up next) before the crazy music proposal of Insect Radio and their punk/hardcore/math sound. Next in line, street punk from The Locals who played a lot of songs and covered “Rock ‘N’ Roll Band” of Bootstroke and Sun, Rain In Life with a sound influenced from the music scene of 90’s Seattle.
Maplerun took over who gave a terrific performance, full of energy and great songs before finishing with “My Own Summer” of Deftones. The day was about to end and two punk rock bands took over. Firstly, Wish Upon A Star with a memorable show and of course Despite Everything for the grand finale.
In conclusion, congratulations to everyone who organized this year’s New Long Festival. I don’t know why the attendance wasn’t very high, but I know that this festival has a steady fan base who will continue to support it for the years to follow. See you again in 2017.
George Terzakis
Photos: Anastasia Papadaki
