ATHENS, GREECE
CLUB:”GAGARIN”

19 OCTOBER 2002

After yesterday’s great show in Thessaloniki, I was preparing myself for another great show in Athens. With just 3 hours of sleep and a 500 Km distance to cover I took the decision to see Candlemass and the rest of the bands again in Athens for a second day in a row. Of course this would never be possible without Mats Bjorkman, the guitarist of Candlemass who helped me with all this…

At the time I arrived in Athens I knew that the show was sold out from some days before. The ‘Gagarin’ club can hold up to 1500 people according to what they told me.When I got there I saw about 150-200 people waiting outside,maybe looking for a ticket or trying to listen to the concert from outside?!Dark Tranquillity had already finished their set and I wasn’t lucky enough to see them again.Yesterday they were very good and today was another good chance to check this band live and mostly their great singer Stanne.From what other people told me Dark Tranquillity played the same setlist as they did in Thessaloniki yesterday and the highlights of the show were once again Wonders At your Feet(the opening track of their set),Monochromatic Stains and The Treason Wall from the new album and also the self titled song from the new cd as well,Damage  Done.All in all their performance was once again in high standards and their fans had a good time.

As soon as I found a good place to see the concert Entombed were ready to hit the stage.They also played the same songs with yesterday.This band has so much energy!The crowd was moshing all the time and the band played the one powerful song after the other.Once again they didn’t play my fave track Seeing Red but they did Chaos Breed and a couple more songs from the uprising cd. Alex was in good form and his riffs were excellent. They played for about an hour and some minutes and somewhere in the end of their set they did the self titled song from the Left Hand Path album!This was maybe the best moment of their show and even the ones who came to the concert just to see Candlemass,had fun. Petrov was encouraging the crowd to go wild all the time and his voice was angry and powerful during his singing. Their show ended in an exciting atmosphere. Now everyone started preparing himself for Candlemass.The frontrows got crowded in zero time and I was lucky enough to manage and get in the second row.In everyone’s surprise the usual candle-holders were absent from the stage.Ok this is not a reason to spoil the excitement but I think it has to be mentioned since I don’t remember candlemass playing with out these live. The drum set was changed to the one Jan uses.Everything was ready now for the show to begin! March Funebre was heard from the speakers…and the band hits the stage with Mirror Mirror! A great opener for concerts, fast and powerful song.Messiah with his monk costume was moving all the time and getting the crowd wild,not that they weren’t already!During the ending part of Mirror Mirror, the riff of Dark Reflections was heard.They made these 2 songs sound like one in 10 minute amazing performance. Next song needs no introduction…from the Epicus Doomicus Metallicus album,Under The Oak! This happens to be my fave candlemass song of all and it wasn’t played in yesterday’s show.Hopefully today it was in the setlist and when I the main riff was played not only me but everyone that was there went nuts. This song has so much emotion and there was so much power in the band while playing it.They still give their 100% in their live shows like they did before their reunion.When the song ended after 6 minutes which travelled us to heaven musically Messiah found a chance to speak to the crowd and said it’s wonderful for the band to be back in Athens, Greece and that they came back after just six months because it’s the best audience in the world and then he said thanks to us in Greek! The crowd couldn’t stop shouting ‘Candlemass,candlemass’ all the time! Between the crowd’s shouts he introduced the next song as a very heavy one…Ancient Dreams! This song is of course one of the heaviest songs of Candlemass. It’s slow and dramatic riff combined with Messiah’s melodic and emotional vocals was another hit of the night. Leif playing his bass lines in all his glory on the left of the stage, this man is a legend. After a magnificent 10 minute version of the song Messiah thanked us again in Greek and said how fantastic and how loud audience we are. Next was an all time classic candlemass song, Samarithan. Mats on the left of the stage along with Leif playing their parts with so much feeling and Messiah on the center of the stage giving his best while Jan in the back playing his drum parts and Lars on the right, this is a picture in my mind that I’ll never forget.

The middle part of the song with these awesome lyrics of a man who is becoming an angel. There was a magic feeling during this song and the band became one with the crowd. Messiah couldn’t be heard because of the crowd’s voices singing every single word.But it’s very difficult to find one song in a Candlemass concert where you can say that you don’t like it and you can find time to rest for a while. After Samarithan we had all given all of our energy but then Messiah announced At The Gallow’s End!! How can someone rest during such song?! Lars started the song with that awesome melodic solo and then the main riff was threw in by Mats and 1500 metal fans were headbanging. This song has changes from fast to slow parts and in the slow parts we could get some rest hopefully J After this song Messiah introduced the band members. When it was Leif’s turn he was introduced as the man who wrote all these great song and Mats as the man who played in the legendary Epicus Doomicus Metallicus album. And after Mats’s introduction he started the main riff of Bewitched. Lars’s solo was incredible in this song! During the middle part of Bewitched when the riff is played again they changed it into Dark Are The Veils Of Death! Another killer version of this fantastic song from the Nightfall album. When the song finished Messiah asked the crowd if they had any questions. He gave the microphone to one guy and he asked Messiah if he is god?! Messiah said “no,no,no..”.After this funny break he introduced Bearer Of Pain a song from the Ancient Dreams album. About after 10 minutes when the song finished it was time for The Well Of Souls. The opening track of the Nightfall album and I think that the only song they haven’t played from this album is Mourner’s Lament. Nightfall is such a great album that even Candlemass can’t decide which song to play from it and finally they decide to play all of them except the instrumental ones. Well Of Souls was great and with much emotion once again.After this song Messiah said goodbye although we all knew that the band would come back for an encore and after shouting ‘we want more’ for a few minutes the came back and Messiah said ‘it’s time for epicus doomicus metallicus!’ and the first chords of Sorcerer’s Pledge were played by Mats. Another killer song in an excellent version. In the ‘oooo’ part of the song Messiah left it for the crowd to sing and then the band started playing the final part in a very fast tempo and it was super great!

When Messiah asked us ‘Do you wanna die in solitude?’ we all knew which song was next…Solitude! Probably one of the most dramatic songs of Candlemass and the song with the most doomy riff ever.A riff that even Tony Iommi would wish he had written. During this song we saw members of Entombed stage diving! After this we knew that the show was at it’s end. Then Lars started playing on his guitar some traditional Greek songs and it was very cool! After a good laugh with this pleasant break while we thought there were no more songs left Messiah introduced Mourner’s Lament! This was exactly the song we wanted to hear and the version they played was heavier and slower than ever. Another crowd’s favourite is Black Stone Wielder and they started playing it but they didn’t play it complete but only for about 1-2 minutes. The show ended with this song in excitement and wild atmosphere.Leif Edling stage dived at the end of the show and he fell very near to me and I caught him along with the other people beside me.It was a little hard for him to get up on stage again because everyone was hugging him but the sequrity guys helped him. The band thanked us and left the stage. This was surely a great concerts with 3 of the best Swedish metal bands ever. All of them played great, the crowd was fantastic and we all wish to see them live again soon!  

Dimitris Theodoropoulos

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