There are bands gathering many people, no matter how many times they come in our country. Once again - for the fourth time for Helloween and third for Gamma Ray - we saw these musicians in a great mood introducing their new albums in front of the Bulgarian audience. It is useless to mention that many people were expecting this show with impatience - a joint concert by one of the biggest names in the heavy metal scene does not happen every day. It was definitely worth the wait.

The beginning of the experience in this freezing November night was given by a surprising wait on the entrances in front of the Winter Sports Palace in Sofia. The time for letting the people in the hall and the one for the start of the show is traditionally neglected in Bulgaria, but this fact didn’t prevent the fans’ anger to be shown again.

After the admission process was normalized and the hall was almost full, 45 minutes after the announced hour for the start, on stage came the smiling Gamma Ray. A colorful blind with the images from the cover artwork of their new album “Land of the Free II” was adding a great feeling to this atmosphere. The band succeeded in creating it for her fans right from the start. And this start full of real classics - from the cult “Heaven Can Wait” through “New World Order” to the hymn “Land of the Free”. The time went by fast under the sound of the well-known songs and the fans were evidently cheering up. Of course, in such places there are always people who do not know why they are there - strangers who were irritating the fans with their static attitude to the concert that night...

In spite of such subjects, the mood was great all around the hall after the next dose of metal blasts by Gamma Ray. An hour was not enough for all the favorite songs to be played, but that was the time was left for the first band to perform its show. After a short break there was time only for a short encore marked by “Send Me a Sign”, and Kai Hansen & Co. waved goodbye. The view in the Palace should be obligatory mentioned, because this place hasn’t seen such a crowd recently on a metal concert. The interest about this event, part of the Hellish Rock Tour, was really stunning and free places were hard to find.

About 5000 people had taken their places when the stage set was changed with the attractive and strange dolls and many other attributes taken out from the latest cover artwork of the “pumpkins”. This night a DVD was not recorded, but the Bulgarian audience has the privilege to watch the full scene show which attended this part of the tour.

Helloween started their set surprisingly - with the long “Halloween”, after which the fans went mad. Andi Deris welcomed everybody who came to see the band again, and he did not forget to mention that he is feeling at home here. Afterwards the talking almost stopped. We went through the discography of the quintet on high speed. The quality of the sound was changing, but at this moment this was not so important. Special attention was put on the “Keeper of the Seven Keys” trilogy - more than half of the songs played were from them. The musicians were doing their job routine, the headbanging didn’t stop, and “A Tale That Wasn't Right” made the great amount of people sing one of their favorite ballads together.

Deris collapsed on the highs, Weikath did not bring out his cigarette from his mouth, everything was happening as expected… The previously drawn up scheme was interrupted “just” twice because of technical problems with the electricity on the stage. That’s why two of the songs received their short versions...

As expected, the concert was honored with two encores that gathered a bouquet of different compositions in an interesting combination. After this everybody expected both bands to go on stage to perform songs from the good old times together. And although the chosen music was the well-known “Future World” and “I Want Out”, it made thousands hands to be raised again in the air. And the sensation was not the quality of the performance, but the appearance of these musicians in a tandem, after years that passed in secret and manifested wrangles between them.

Everybody was pleased with what they saw that night. Some were here to see and hear the freshness of Gamma Ray’s music, others - to bang their heads to Helloween. Everybody got what they wanted. We can only hope that such bands will continue visiting us, because except full halls, such shows demonstrate that different characters and people can not only work, but have fun together.

Report: Boyana Atanassova

Photos: Victor Alexandrov

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