Crematory have always been an odd band. There were to many departures, breakups, style changes... followed by "triumphant comebacks" the last one being quite an adequate one - it's the album "Pray" I'm talking about. They consider the band to be a "professional hobby" as they themselves put it before the concert - it's an oxymoron in my opinion but go figure out what these Germans are thinking. On top of all two of the band's founding members are married and have a kid that they bring with them on tours. It's nanny too...

Another thing is that their style is quite an unique one, as anyone who has dug in the genre should know. So unique I actually had no idea who listens to them. I can't recall having a friend who is some kind of a sworn fan. But onВ  the other hand Sofia's "Hristo Botev" hall was quite full on Saturday night. "Duude, I had no idea you listen to these guys" was something a lot of people who happened to meet there were saying to eachoether.

Usually a report for a show that took place in Bulgaria at some point becomes a sad opinion on be it the attendance, the sound quality or the organisation. This time attendance, as I already mentioned, was decent - around 2000 people is not bad for such a show and was in fact quite a surprise. Organisation was top notch, no matter that ArtBG are debutants in organising these kinds of events. The sound, despite the loud declarations of perfection that floated across the media earlier, was far from perfect, but still among the best achievements in that particular hall. So lets leave these things aside and focus on what the bands had to offer.

First onstage were the well known The Revenge Project who delivered a solid performance as usual. Their set was dominated by songs from their upcoming second album that are a little bit more dynamic. Old bonecrushing songs like "Anger To Dwell" weren't forgotten before they closed their set with the brand new "1000 Voices" that also has a video made for it.

Hyperborea are another kind of beer that was also quite solid. In fact way more direct and primal death metal. Besides tracks from the albums "Architecture Of Mind" and "Cryogenic Somnia" the dudes also performed the brand new track "Age of Hypocrisy" that was yet another ecpectedly brutal meatgrinder of a song. Both Bulgarian bands were provided set times longer that what I'm used to hearing from opening bands. Thumbs up for the organisers, as these quality acts do deserve this opportunity.

After a not so long pause one of Crematory's roadies jumped on stage and over the sound of loud applause announced that our asses are about to be rocked. A short keyboard intro was followed by the German band coming on stage and jamming the energetick "Remember" from their last album. This was followed by a trip through their considerable back catalogue with songs like "Ist Es Wahr", "Fly", "Pray", "Shadows Of Mine" and "The Fallen". My dream of hearing "Tears of Time" live finally came true.

For a band whose discography is dominated mostly by slow moody songs Crematory have quite the energetic stage presence. Matthias and Harald were constantly headbanging and running around on stage and it was quite the mirracle that they didn't collide at some pint. Especially seeing the guitarist drinking 3-4 beers through the set, knowing that they weren't his first for the day... Felix seemed to be having fun as well as he ran back and forth on the stage through the whole 2 hours of the set. Thye picture was complete with Katrin and Markus' kid that on stage as well bothering them both all the time. Quiter unique for a metal concert, but as I already mentioned they're an unique band...

Somewhere midway through their set they pulled out a Bulgarian flag that they kissed and waved for quite a while. Their set was closed by "When Darkness Falls" with the song's already awesome middle section being replaced by every thrash metal fan's wet dream - the machine gun double bass part of Metallica's "One", the intro of "Raining Blood" by Slayer and a short part from Sepultura's "Arise"... you can't help remaining speechless. There were also the inevitable encores with one of them being quite a surprise - "I Never Die" - probably the Crematory's heaviest song. The dudes close all their albums with a ballad and the show was closed by one too - "Perils Of The wind" performed by Matthias. Unique!

Report: Stefan Topuzov

Photos:В Boyana AtanassovaВ