KREATOR, CALIBAN, ELUVEITIE, Emergency Gate
7.02.2009 Sofia,В "Universiada" hallВ 

words by Stefan Topuzov, photo: Victor Alexandrov.

The German series in Sofia continues into Sunday. And if the previous night the love and Bulgarian-German friendship were the key moments, in Episode 2 they were: hate and aggression. The extreme kind!

And class!

For example class is what openers EMERGENCY GATE demonstrated. The start of their set was somewhat of a stepping on the wrong foot as frontman Matthias’ microphone wasn’t turned on.

This led to some rather humorous moments when we could only see the man trying to scream his lungs out and only heard the occasional back vocal. And did they stop? Did they panic? Did they start cursing the sound guy? No. The dudes continued as if nothing happened and the problem was solved before the song ended. This is how it is done!

The abovementioned Matthias didn’t feel any shy of trying to steal away the headliners’ show. The guy came down and performed half a song while running among the puzzled audience that wondered where to look – at the stage or at him…

Their music also wasn’t to be neglected. Modern metal, with SoilWork and newer In Flames being a possible reference.

Next are ELUVEITIE. My inner neglect towards folk metal was shattered to pieces. As I watched them tune their various instruments before the show I was expecting the shaking of their violin player’s Teutonic boobs to be the highlight, but how wrong was I…

The dudes come out and… MASSCARE! Pumped up modern metal, borrowing a lot from the more extreme specter of styles but also enriched by an extra layer of music added by the various instruments whose names I have no idea about.

And when their vocalist Chrigel mentioned that the next song is a moshpit one, one of the coolest spontaneous outbursts of moshing took place (spilling all the innocent bystanders’ beers as well). Awesome band!

It is not CALIBAN’s first time in Bulgaria so they knew what to expect. It was once again made evident that the band also has a solid fanbase here.

The moshing in front of the stage now really begins, not excluding the good ole’ metalheads and hardcore fans in one place misunderstanding – “I’m trying to headbang here and this dude swings elbows at me”. I hope the didn’t fight this time.

The dudes also play a brand new song from their upcoming album – “Coma” if I heard right). They also promise to come again on their own headline tour in the end of the year. Well, we’re waiting…

Soooo, now it’s only the headliners left. As we all know it usually takes them a while to set up the stage – remove a drum set, tweak the sound a bit. So there’s time. For what? For beer of course.

And so begins a quest for beer! Not as easy as it sounds, as it turns out (after waiting a 20 minute line) that they’re out of beer at the bar. So we head to the draft beer stands, wait another 20-30 minutes only to be told they’re out of cups.

It seems this is the new trend in Bulgaria’s concert life – running out of cups. It also happened last night at Sodom and Grave Digger. It seems that the crisis has hit plastic cup manufactures severely. Write “bring your own cup” on the ticket next time, damnit! Because it is not exactly the biggest fun when you’re trying to rinse someone’s cigarette butt off a used plastic cup you found lying on the ground, before you get poured one beer at the market price of three (not to mention the excessive foaming too).

So, I would have been pretty pissed if I wasn’t about to see one of the best bands there is.

KREATOR take the stage without a lot of fanfare and blast through the opening punch of “Hordes of Chaos (A Necrologue for the Elite)”.

And there is no stopping the onward – grinder after grinder – “Voices of the Dead”, “Enemy of God”, “Phobia”… all of them new(ish) songs that prove that Kreator are a band that is happening right now.

You just can’t help having the classics as the highlight, though. Before that part of the set Mille Petrozza speaks for the first time (actually screams. It’s funny how his German accent isn’t evident only as he screams) and explains how we’re a bit to receive a bit of EXTREEEEMEEEEE AGGRESSIOOOOOON!!!!!!

Only a bit as after the intro of the song the power on the stage stops. Apparently some part of the equipment found KREATOR’s show to be a bit too much.

After all under the intriguing mess of chants for the band and curses for the ones responsible for the problems the situation is solved in like 5 minutes.

And so, where were we? Oh, yes – EXTREME AGGRESSION! Massacre! On steroids! And it continues with “People of the Lie” and “Pleasure to Kill”, which as Mille explains is no metaphor.

The end of the set is one of the most awesome ones possible. Just as they stop playing the thrash cannonade “Betrayer”, Mille waves his hand (once) and says “thank you, good night!”

There is of course time for some extra songs and KREATOR come out again in order to finish us off. “Amok Run”, “Riot of Violence” and the last one “Flag of Hate”, dedicated to the people of Bulgaria, who according to Mille’s sources knew how to hate. As a whole political correctness wasn’t invited last night. Cult!

So, we witnessed a uniquely awesome show. Three class support acts that were in the now, topped by a timeless thrash metal classic. KREATOR once again proved why the German scene is divided in two – KREATOR and the rest.

INTERVIEWВ Mille Petrozza

GALLERY

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