Day two of this year’s Under The Quarry and we were there early on to see what the next seven bands had in store. A day that was mostly dedicated to the heavy/power sound, but with the appropriate alternative touches. The fans who came from the beginning I don’t believe they regretted it since again every band gave very nice things.
Kickoff with Dragon Skull, who were founded just this year and are in the process of releasing their first EP. The guys play very nice classic heavy metal, with an epic tone in some parts of their songs. They made a very good impression on me and I am very curious to hear what they will present to us from the upcoming record since the single “Death Dealer” is a very nice example of their capabilities.
Setlist: Dragon Skull, Barbarians, Death Dealer, Tyrant’s Doom
Continuation with Scream Collision who move in hard rock paths with very beautiful melodies, keyboards and I would say some prog influences. Their stage presence may have been quite static, I don’t know if they had some kind of stage fright or if that’s how they play in general, but their songs were great and personally I was pleased with their show. Their debut album “Memories”, on which their set was based, is a nice and interesting work to listen to.
Setlist: Mess Inside My Head (Memories), The Last Straw, Asylum, AWOL, Rigged Game
Sirius followed and things got…serious (sorry for that). Excellent classic heavy metal with riffs that don’t go unnoticed and extremely epic refrains. It may have been a while since they released something, since their discography only consists of the very good EP “Wings Of Fire” from 2017, but they are probably preparing something because they also played new songs. They also had a very nice surprise for us, as they covered “Thor (The Powerhead)” with great result and made the crowd in front of the stage shout in ecstasy and test their vocal cords.
Setlist: Unbound The Scream, Wings Of Fire, Thor The Powerhead (Manowar cover), Beyond The Sands Of Time, Fury Withing
The night had fallen for good when power metallers The Silent Rage took the stage. After their excellent performance a few months ago at Release Athens, they had a lot of appetite and energy to give their fans a special night and they sure succeeded in that. Michael Rinakakis stayed true to his favorite style with the leather jacket and gloves, although now the situation was definitely better than the scorching heat of Plateia Nerou. Well, it doesn’t matter what he wears, what people care about is that he continues to perform behind the microphone as he did that night, with the familiar epic high-pitched vocals. In addition to the songs from “The Deadliest Scourge”, they also played a new one from the next album which is in the final stages of processing and dedicated “A Piece Of Eden” to the audience.
Setlist: My Race Won’t Last, Stormwarrior, Sin Of A Pilgrim, Leading The Legions, The Serpent Lord, A Piece Of Eden
Next on stage, the veteran heavy metallers Illusory since they have been on the scene since 1992 although for the first ten years they had the name The Ivory Tower. The band was in high spirits, especially the singer Dee Theodorou, since it was a first-class opportunity to present their latest album “The Crimson Wreath” that came out last year. Just before closing, they gave their own message against any kind of fascism/racism with “All Blood Red” and they deserve lots of congratulations for the way they played that night.
Setlist: Besetting Sins, Ashes To Dust, Immortal No, A Few Days Make Eternity, A Poem I Couldn’t Rhyme, Bleak, All Blood Red, Pale Moonlight
Voidnaut was the band I was most looking forward to see on day two. I consider the amazing “Nadir” of 2019 to be the best debut of a Greek band of the last decade (at least) and until now I had not been able to see them live. And what I saw and heard was exactly what I expected, since the heavy-as-fuck riffs and the amazing groove of their music made even the concrete creak. It’s impossible not to bang your head with anthems like “Scarred For Life” and “This Pain Of Mine”. Killer show, in which they also put three great new songs, so something tells me we won’t have to wait too long for their next release.
Setlist: Back From The Grave, Hunted, Loose Ends, Control, Scarred For Life, Poisoned Mind, All My Angels Flew Away, This Pain Of Mine
Before our night with SiXforNinE came to a close, I remembered of that great performance they gave at Gagarin on January 4th 2020 and if I’m not mistaken they haven’t been on stage since then, denying them the opportunity to promote their excellent second album the “Parallel Universe” of 2019. Having the most fans in the amphitheater than any other band of the two days, it was shown once again how much they have evolved since the release of their self-titled debut in 2015. A flawless show, the highlight of which was the breathtaking performance of the nine-minute long “Counting Start (A Parallel Universe)”, which shows in the best way the great quality they have as a band. At the end, the alternative metallers played a song off the schedule as the crowd that remained kept asking for more. I think the evening could not have ended in a better way.
Setlist: Every Cloud Has A Silver Lining, Never Ending Road, Out Of The Blue, Life Devouring Demons, More Than Words Can Say, Counting Stars (A Parallel Universe), Bullet Of Its Course, Save Me, Sound Of Perfection, Sea Of Lies, All My Heroes Dead
After SiXforNinE, the floor was taken by Panagiotis Papageorgiou, who started the idea of Under The Quarry and is one of the people who run the festival. He told us that next year it will be two days again (or even three days) and he thanked us all for our support. Which is really needed. The festival takes place in a beautiful place, there is no entrance fee, it focuses on making people have a good time with bands that have good music, far from cliques, misery and other well-known pathologies of the Greek scene. A big thumbs up to those who helped make it happen and I hope that in 2023 we will experience the same and better. If I were to give a title to the festival, it would be from a System Of A Down lyric in one of the songs played between each band’s performances: “Everybody’s going to the party, have a real good time”.
George Terzakis
photoso: Themis Giannopoulos (where noticed) and bands’ Facebook sites
