Hordes of Bulgarians spread across the city of Belgrade lured by the upcoming Biohazard show in the Serbian capital. At least 150 people travelled the 400 kilometers from Sofia to there, in order to see one of the most awesome and unique bands in the world. The former Bulgarian president Petar Stoyanov was witnessed at the bulgarian-serbian border, but he said he'll miss the live because he has a woring dinner in Belgrade. 6-700 peope (not a small part of whom Bulgarians, as I said) on the other hand didn't feel like eating, but were expection an awesome concert experience. And they got it.

Around 15 to 9 Bulgaria's hardcore leaders Last Hope took the stage and delivered a lesson of furious classic hardcore for the neighbours. They began with the intro of their last album and "Overcome", then "Under the Flag", "Parasite"... Aca from Hitman came on stage for "Together", so we did show the Americans the Balkan hardcore unity. Last was the universal for all countries "Fuck Police". Our guys simply crushed with stage presence, good songs and overall class. The audience replied accordingly and peopel MOSHED through the whole set.

The next band was a local one but, excuse me, it didn't impress with anything. I didn't even catch their name as the posters flyers and tickets for the show said only Biohazard. Unlike during Last Hope's performance the Serbs made the crowd leave the venue and head to the bar. Even the few countrymen of theirs that remained inside were quite indifferent and just waited for them to end their set. And din't know who they were either.

This was only the apetizer, though. A 40 minute pause followed, as the sound was tweaked a bit for the headliners. The lights were shut down and the acoustic intro of "Failed Territory" sounded from the speakers. A Moment later Biohazard took the stage and opened with a punch - the first riffs from "Victory", followed by the cult "Shades of Grey". The band announced in advance that they will play only songs from the first 3 albums - the ones with the classic lineup including Bobby Hambel.

And then the classics started pouring one after another – “What Makes us Thick”, “Urban Discipline”, “Survival of the Fittest”, “Retribution”, “Five Blocks to the Subway” and so on. The four Newyorkers absolutely crushed! I hadn’t witnessed such stage presence before, honestly! So much jumping, climbing on the speakers, surfing the crowd while playing… Practically everything you can imagine a man with a guitar in his hand doing on stage was done by Biohazard. And lets not forget that this is a 20 year anniversary tour for the band. Bobby Hambel specially, besides not being the youngest man alive, uses a walking stick on the outside!

SKC (or the Students Culture Centre) reminds me of the Military club in Sofia – a hall that could fit a 1000-strong crowd, has a second floor with balcony and because it was built to be a hall it also has decent acoustics. And that’s why the sound was also on the desired level. Therefore the audience had no excuse to be grumpy. And this is something that didn’t even cross anybody’s mind. In some moments the whole hall was jumping up and down as one. And that’s not even mentioning the non stop mosh in front of the stage. During “Wrong Side of the Tracks” one of the wildest circle pits I had ever witnessed was formed. Insanity! And we can be proud that most of this was done by Bulgarians. Just like Last Hope’s guitarist Dobro was asking for on MySpace, we did show them the power of Bulgarian hardcore!

Earlier I mentioned Bobby Hambel. The dude was absolutely down to earth and was the only member of Biohazard that remained after the show and gave  every autograph he was asked for and took pics with everyone who wanted while sitting on one of the speakers. Before the show I saw him outside the stage chatting with fans as he bought some necklet that he wore during the whole show from a street merchant. And was the only one who had made the effort to learn how to say “thank you” in Serbian… This tour is in a way his return to the band and it is very cool of him to extend his hand to the fans.

The show ended by the mandatory last song “Hold My Own” which I don’t believe had anyone surprised. To see one of my favorite bands in its classic lineup playing exactly the songs I was drooling over for years since I first heard them was an unique and unexplainable experience. And I don’t doubt that most of the people in SKC felt like that aswell. To put it shortly – Peter Stoyanov kinda fucked himself up with that dinner, HA-HA!

Report:В Stefan TopuzovВ