Live Report: Rotting Christ, Varathron
Place: Lycabettus Theater, Athens, Greece
Date: June 29, 2024
Live Correspondent: Eleana Reppa

It’s Saturday, June 29th, 2024. A historic day with a double celebration and commemoration of the Greek Metal scene it took place at Lykavettos Hill of Athens, a favorite location for many people…

It was the celebration for ROTTING CHRIST’s 35 years of career! Not many introductions are needed for the band, as everyone knows that it has deservedly conquered one of the top positions in the global Metal scene. A double celebration for the band, with their frontman Sakis Tolis, celebrating his 52nd birthday on stage, and the audience in a festive mood, full of energy and love, wishing him the birthday song!

The concert started exactly at 19.30 with the Black Metallers VARATHRON from Ioannina city, ROTTING CHRIST’s fellow travelers in the Greek Black Metal scene since the late 80s, a great and pioneering (for the time it started) band in the Extreme Metal scene. The warm-up of the night was dynamic, with the audience getting into the first moshpits early on, during the song “Cassiopeia’s Ode”. 

The highlight of their sixty-minute performance was Necroabyssious’ (their singer) performance in “Son Of The Moon” (a song included in the band’s debut album “His Majesty At The Swamp”) with the crowd, who knew the history of the song, responding with full support. Overall, VARATHRON’s performance was dynamic and decent, being visibly appreciated by fans of the Black Metal genre.

At sunset and while the clock showed 21.00, the long-awaited moment has arrived, with ROTTING CHRIST on stage, ready to flatten everything, in an explosive performance lasting about 150 minutes!

“And the seven angels have escaped”… The stage opens with the much adored 666 (Χ Ξ Σ), with the crowd cheering, having already been “possessed” at the very first minutes! We continue with one of the most recent releases and Sakis Tolis gets the crowd going, screaming “Are you ready??!”. “Fire, God And Fear” song is played, coming from the band’s previous album “The Heretics”.

They continued with the favorite “Κατά τον Δαίμονα Εαυτού” and the first moshpits were formed. Then we return to the “Aealo” album with the self-titled song and after that “Demonon Vrosis” is heard. We move on to the band’s most recent release entitled “Pro Christou”, from which only the song “Like Father, like Son” was played. Once again, the audience shows its support and love, warmly embracing this new song.

A thrill comes for the older fans of the band, with a pleasant retrospective of the past and the album “Triarchy Of The Lost Lovers” almost listened to in its entirety, with a special climax with the songs “King Of A Stellar War”, “Shadows follow” and “Archon”!

The historical retrospective continued with the songs “Gloria De Domino Inferni” and “The Forest of N’Gai” through the historic EP “Passage To Arcturo” of 1991, reminding that since 1989, ROTTING CHRIST were pioneers of their time, being a clear influence for the later bands of the Extreme Metal sonnd. 

Our beloved frontman Sakis continues unabated in crazy for, with a wild mood as he asks the audience to create the biggest moshpit ever in the history of Metal!… “1,2,3..!” shouts Sakis, bouncing around the stage, with the pyros creating a hellish atmosphere, while a merciless marathon of “battle” and crazy circle pits starts… The anniversary night goes on with songs like “Among Two Storms”, “Athanatoi Este”, “Nemecic”, through the historic “Theogonia” album, “In Yumen-Xibalba”, and the energy of the audience is permanently in fight mode, with intense jumping and screaming!

This rich and totally satisfying setlist concludes with a performance of “Under The Name Of A Legion” through “Genesis” album. Of course, the audience waited for their last word, with the tireless Sakis Tolis asking the audience if they could hold out a little longer! Needless to say, they hadn’t had their last word yet, and the encore starts 35 years back in time, with the untouched “The Sign Of Evil Existence” and the historic “Thy Mighty Contact”!

After almost 2.5 hours, along with the grand finale comes the confirmation of why ROTTING CHRIST had, has, and will have a special place in our hearts! The stage turns into a big group hug, with the crowd going up at the stage, together with the band.

The distances are broken down and everyone is left together to the melody of the liberating “NON SERVIAM”.

Singing, dancing, jumping, bouncing, banging, screaming, screaming… and everything on the stage, around the stage, and even beyond, all over the crowded Lycabettus theater!

The great celebration ends here, but it will remain forever engraved in our minds and hearts! Justified and deserved, the specific performance of ROTTING CHRIST is a leading presence of the band that is at the top of the Greek Metal scene, even after 35 years! Only pride and love can be felt for this band! Thanks for everything!

Live Correspondent: Eleana Reppa
Translation/Rendering in English language: Vasiliki Kalogera
Cover Artwork: Rockwave Festival
Design, Editing & Text Correction: Alexandros Sultatos
Photographs ROTTING CHRIST: Manolis Varouchas – Official Page
Photographs VARATHRON: Sofia Bali
Videos: Giorgos Thomadaki
External Links: ROTTINGCHRIST – Official Page
VARATHRON – Official Page
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