HATEBREED, Last Hope, Smut и Vendetta

16 July, 'Pork Pie', Sofia

words by Stefan Topuzov, photo: Nikolay Iliev - Ursus

As I sit down to write this report I come across some of the saddest news possible.

Last night, just as we all had been lining up at the entrance of Pork Pie Club in Sofia, filled with excitement for the upcoming show, some thousands of miles away, in a London hospital Jon Lord from Deep Purple took his last breath.

May he rest in peace. A great musician.

I put on 'Pictures of Home' and I do my best at focusing my thoughts on the show, which was HATEBREED's second appearance in Sofia, Bulgaria.

And the concert indeed was a very positive one.



VENDETTA whose position as the opening act had provoked a small wave of Facebook mutter, are the first band that comes on stage at about 7:40 PM.

The band's members apparently have no problems with their egos and do what they usually do, despite not being in the position of the night's main course. And even though people are still coming in as the band plays its set, at some point things start to look like a hardcore show.

By the end which comes with 'Hate City,' the moshpit is as crazy as it should be. When a band is good it doesn't matter if they play first or not.

“It is always hard to play after Vendetta in Sofia, because they simply crush,” admits Smut's vocalist Gorge Ilovski as well.




Despite the fact that the Macedonian band at first was butchered by the sound guy and also had to play in front of a audience that was completely unfamiliar with their music, if not apathetic to it, Smut managed to translate the emotion of their new album 'Memoarite na skrseniot covek' live.

It is the first time they play those songs live – Smut haven't performed even in their home country for almost a year now. But they obviously haven't forgotten how it's done since their playing is as tight as ever.

The second band of the night with an awesome new album is LAST HOPE.

And it is exactly tracks from 'More Than Ever' that dominate their set.

By the time they come on stage it has already started to get dark and pretty much everyone who had the intention of seeing Hatebreed was already in the club.

So LAST HOPE's show turns out exactly as it should with all the usual extras – circle pits, a wall of death, appearances by Alexander 'Shuta' Parvanov, a switch of drummers for 'Reality Check' and powerful chants of 'There's no justice, there's no peace, there's no freedom, fuck police!'

LAST HOPE!



I look at my watch as HATEBREED come on stage. It is 22:00 PM. This means there's only an hour left for the headliners. (The show is allowed to continue only until 23:00.)

It did go on for some ten minutes over that, though.

But just as guitarist Frank Novinec had told me a month ago, this still means the band could play about 30 songs at least.

And HATEBREED do take advantage of the opportunity to play a gigantic number of songs, making sure all the fans are happy, both new and old. In between more recent tracks like 'Defeatist' and 'In Ashes They Shall Reap' the band manages to go as far back as 'Under the Knife.'



JAMEY JASTA interrupts the audience's applause a couple of times, pointing out that it is the people in front of the stage that should be applauded.

He also promises that HATEBREED will make sure they visit Bulgaria again while they are on tour in support for their upcoming new album.

There are two things that stand out in their performance for me.

First – this is a metal band and has been one for a while. Both musically and as stage presence (there's also barricades in front of the stage). Second – Jasta looks an awful lot like Alexander 'Chikata' Boyadzhiev from Last Hope as gestures and his preference of clothes.

The sound at the show is also very powerful. The feeling that I am being kicked that I felt when I first listened to Hatebreed more than ten years ago, is definitely evident at the concert.

And this is what everybody came for.

GALLERY