It’s Saturday night, April 22nd, 2023. We’re at Kyttaro club, in Athens, ready to watch live NECROPHOBIC, in a night of pure Death/Black metal coming directly from the beautiful but cold “metalmother” Stockholm!
The opening act of the concert was the Greek band PIRANHA (one year after its last appearance in the city, in May 2022), who has just completed a mini-tour in Larissa, Thessaloniki and Athens. A band that, despite being 36 years old (!!), has only TWO full-length albums, the most recent being the very good album “Arise From The Shadows” of 2020 (read THEGALLERY.GR’s album review HERE).
Significant representatives of the Greek Thrash/Death Metal scene who, during their 45 minutes on stage, performed their songs in a special way, combining speed, technical skill, heavy riffs and different musical elements in a complex sound, as we all heard in the songs “Unholy Lie”, “Dead Boat” and “Cancer”. Kudos to PIRANHA, and we hope we will soon see a new album from them! As far as we know they have already started working on something new and in September they will be doing another mini tour in the provinces, to places they haven’t been able to play until now… We wish them all the best!
A little later and after a short break for the usual beer drinking and chatting with fellow Gallerists, it’s time for the headliners of the evening! The Swedish pioneers of Death/Black Metal sound NECROPHOBIC returned to Greece for a second time, after their first appearance in our country, which was in 2012 at An Club. We are talking about one of the leading bands of the Extreme Metal sound. Founded in 1989, consistent in what they do, creative, with their latest album “Dawn Of The Damned” of 2020 maintaining the high-level compositions we have been used to since the beginning (read THEGALLERY’s album review HERE).
We met them at the hotel they were staying in the afternoon, and it was obvious by that time that these mean 50-year-old Swedes (they are so tall they could easily play basketball professionally!) had come to Athens with a demonic mood and ravaging energy, along with their professionalism! And this was proven on stage, the same night!
The band’s huge banner with NECROPHOBIC’s logo dominated the stage, while the Scandinavians came in the usual corpse-paint, as well as upside-down crosses, leather, studded belts and all the necessary accessories for an old-school Black Metal show! They started with the epic “Taste Of Black” from their 2002 album “Bloodhymns”! Anders Strokirk’s voice, creepy, heavy, oozed demonic breath in every instance, while Sebastian Ramstedt and Johan Bergebäck on guitars created those discordant melodies that make the Swedish scene stand out. The drummer Joakim Sterner, one of the founding members since 1989, still remains a guarantee of what to expect! At times, mosh-pits were created and the guitar player Sebastian Ramstedt, a while before the end of the concert, came off stay to play a solo among the crowd, who responded by clapping, to the well-known traditional zeibekiko of the “dawn of the damned” (…)!
The playlist of the Swedes satisfied everyone’s wishes, as it included songs from literally ALL their albums! They played songs from their historic debut “The Nocturnal Silence” of 1993 but also from “Darkside” (1997), “The Third Antichrist” (1999), “Bloodhymns” (2002), “Hrimthursum” (2006), “Death To All” (2009), “Womb Of Lilithu” (2013), “Mark of the Necrogram” (2018), “Dawn Of The Damned” (2020). Songs that stood out weres “Tsar Bomba”, “Blinded By Light, Enlightened By Darkness” and of course “The Nocturnal Silence” and “Darkside”, the perfect closing for an excellent night (and after two encores!).
The band seemed completely satisfied, with its members being in harmony and with a positive vibe! Excited to see the Greek audience going crazy, they gave 100% of themselves and even more, honoring the attendees. Nevertheless, the audience could and should have been more in this particular show (the back-to-back concerts every weekend in Athens could be blamed as well as the typical Greek metal fan-king of social media who is all talk and no cider). In addition, with their appearance, the Swedes honored the man who decided to bring them in Athens (p.s. let’s congratulate Kostas and those who organize similar concerts with bands of the Extreme Metal sound, taking their personal financial risks…) and of course they honored their own history!
The sound in Kyttaro was once again very good, with NECROPHOBIC having their own sound engineer, as every professional band should do (I tend to believe that Kyttaro along with Gagarin have the best sound of all the Metal concert venues in Athens), the lights were generic, the atmosphere was relatively clear without too much smoke, the beer costed €5 (the 330 ml) at the bar, which is quite expensive and the toilets were clean enough. The merch was more than plenty, with NECROPHOBIC’s T-shirts having the tempting price of €20 (including front and back print).
So, another historic live comes to be added at the impressive performances of Swedish Death/BlackMetal bands in Kyttaro club, after the recent epic appearance of SACRAMENTUM/BEWITCHED in the same venue!
Closing, I have to say that NECROPHOBIC, with no trace of arrogance or stardom, after the end of their performance, came down to the audience, without even changing their clothes. They talked, took pictures with everyone and had fun, even though they had a flight to catch early in the morning and had to wake up at 5.00 a.m.! CONGRATS to such musicians and such personalities who do not forget where they started from and what they stand for!
Wishing for similar and even better days!
Tracklist:
01. Taste of black
02. Spawned by evil
03. The call
04. The infernal depths of eternity
05. Into Armageddon
06. Sacrificial rites
07. Splendour Nigri Solis
08. Tsar Bomba
09. Revelation 666
Encore 1:
10. Blinded by light, enlightenment by darkness
11. The crossing
12. The nocturnal silence
Encore 2:
13. Darkside
Live Correspondent: Alexandros Soultatos
Translation/Rendering in English language: Sofia Bali
Cover Artwork: Alexandros Soultatos
Design & Editing: Alexandros Soultatos
Photos: Sofia Bali
Videos: Alexandros Galetti
Date: April 24th 2023
External Links: NECROPHOBIC – Official Page
PIRANHA – Facebook Page
Copyright © 2023 by THEGALLERY.GR
