Eleventh and last day for this year’s Release, which was dedicated to the extreme sound. And it was a very beautiful sight to see a few thousand people making another trip to Plateia Nerou to see a death/black band headlining. Thankfully things have changed. Of course it wasn’t as crowded as the other two metal days but that wasn’t a problem to have another great night.
The opening act was Pestilence. Patrick Mameli, the only constant member throughout their whole career, approaches the microphone and asks “Athens, are you ready for some death metal?”. The answer came immediately from the crowd who braved the sun and set up in front of the stage. Their fans seemed to be very much looking forward to this show since they are not a band that visits us often. They chanted their name rhythmically after almost every song, opened mosh pits and made sure that a nice setting was set up for the Dutchmen with Mameli thanking them all the time. Personally their music never managed to win me over, but their performance was excellent and they pleased everyone who went early to see them. They closed with the classic “Out Of The Body” and left with a huge applause.
Next up was the legendary Testament. A huge banner is set up in front of the stage, which falls down for the American thrashers to storm the stage amidst an ovation. What can you say about each of them. Alex Skolnick and Eric Peterson led the charge with one awesome riff after another. Steve DiGiorgio on bass with newcomer Chris Dovas behind the drum kit created a solid rhythm section. Who Chris, after a short solo, spoke to us briefly in Greek as his origins are from here. A short speech, which earned from the audience a warm round of applause. Of course, in front of them all was the titan Chuck Billy whose figure cannot fail to catch the eye at every concert of the band. Their performance as the evening wore on was aided by the awesome light show that tied in seamlessly with the various demonic images on stage. The setlist featured many songs from the band’s classic period, which was sure to please their fans as they performed anthems such as “The New Order”, “Trial By Fire” and “Disciples Of The Watch” among others. In general, Testament played as headliners, they were crushing it and reminded us how much we would like to see them in a closed venue, since they don’t come to our country very often either. They closed with “Alone In The Dark”, “Over The Wall” and “Into The Pit”, to which the crowd went wild as expected. Could I see them for another hour? Easily.
Closing with Behemoth. And in their case a huge white banner is raised on the stage, on which pentagrams are projected. As soon as the band comes out on stage, we see them behind the banner like an eerie shadow theatre until it too drops and they are introduced to us properly. The sound is flawless and the band reaches very high levels of performance. Various images are displayed on the video wall showing their great…“love” for Christianity and Nergal often changes his appearance according to the song he is playing. Nergal who was impressed by the reactions of the crowd, saying that this is the best concert they have played on Greek soil. He also said that in ancient times we had many gods but our modern gods are among others musicians like Rotting Christ, Necromantia and George Kolias of Nile stating that if there was no Hellenic black metal there would be no Behemoth. And that’s a huge badge of honor for those who built this scene. They played great songs like “Ora Pro Nobis Lucifer”, “Ov Fire And The Void”, “Conquer All” and “Demigod”, “Bartzabel” is much better live than in the studio recording and they had a big surprise playing “Cursed Angel Of Doom” from their first demo back in 1991! The only negative in an otherwise seminar performance? Seventy minutes from the moment they hit the stage, they bid us farewell. If you take out the intro and pauses, we’re talking about an hour of music which is unacceptable for a headliner. I don’t know why they played so little but we all needed something more.
In conclusion, if you exclude this issue, the last day of Release left us with another nice memory in the summer concert map. The event was held to the high standards we’re used to, with the schedule being kept to the minute and the guys working there keeping the place as clean as possible, although there was no shortage of the idiots who had a bin two meters away from them and still threw their rubbish down because they’re fierce metalheads.
George Terzakis
Photos: Peter Papapetros
Pestilence 
Testament 
Behemoth 
