Having not been able to attend this year's "Rockwave festival", the billing list of "Rock'em all" had me bursting with impatience to be present at the latter. I was pretty worried at first when I heard about the change of the venue but hopefully all is well that ends well. After an adventurous search for the place's whereabouts thanks to my stupidity (sorry Maria) and with Giannis' food in my hands (cheers mate) we finally arrived in site. It was quite a good choice by the organizers regarding the number of people present (round about 2.500 or 3000) with the usual stands for money deposit (see cd's, vinyl's and t-shirt's) but the big problem was the lack of more "box-office's" for coupons that would gain you access to the magic potion (beer, that is). Man, just one for 2000-3000 people. Especially at the intervals we were crammed like sardines in front of it, a chaotic situation.
It was that moment when I heard Pain of Salvation's "America" opening the festival. A strange choice if you ask me by the hosts to pick POS as an opening act, since it had firmly proved in the past that knows how to satisfy the audience and besides their latest release "Scarsick" is an astonishing album on every aspect. This band performed in broad daylight with awful sound. So awful, that the last song "Disco Queen" sounded like a cheap imitation of a reality talent show title track. Their setlist also included "Ashes", "Used", "Undertow" and "Handful of Nothing".
 Up next came Moonspell and the very thought of playing while the sun was still up spoiled our mood. The stage set-up referred to "Memorial" and soon after the first notes from "Finistera" filled the air and Moonspell's magic has just begun. Sadly, the whole atmosphere wasn't of much help and Moonspell were dressed like they were gonna climb The Alps. Wasn't long before the heat started to affect the attendees and the band, and the once energetic crowd started to turn into exhausted. "Atradicate", Night Eternal", "Opium", "Scorpion Flower", "Alma Matter", and "Fullmoon Madness" followed with the Greek sun still burning us relentlessly. Talk about irony!!! In general in Moonspell's case I'd prefer a dark scenery and a better sound, no less.
A band that has earned raving reviews from almost every corner of this planet, but not my cup of tea actually, is Meshuggah. Their unique style and rumors for terrific live shows piqued my curiosity. First of, they had an amazing stage appearance with the two guitarists thrashing the stage trying in vein to beat the bad sound (we're talking about bad sound big time, especially on the first 3 songs and only to think that Meshuggah have a bass sound by default). I must admit though that they're amazing musicians, no exceptions, and only by their grimaces you understand that something is wrong with these guys, mental-wise. I really can't say enough about the drummer and the vocalist. The setlist covered almost their entire course so far, leaving for the end the god-like "Future Breed Machine" that smashed everything in its way. Much congrats to these excellent band, which I guess indoors and with a better sound will take no prisoners. Many opened mouths that hot day will vouch for it. At least we had the chance to see live a band in its prime and that's really something. Setlist: "Perpetual Black Second", "Bleed", "Straws Pulled At Random", "Rational Gaze", "Future Breed Machine"
 Next up Lacuna Coil, and I am not pretty sure whether this one is in its prime or the climax of commercialism. They noisily set foot on stage with "The Edge" and soon after, everyone noted that (singer) Cristina Scabbia was tired and far for her studio interpretation. Was the bad sound to blame again? For a big part yes I think, but nobody seemed to care and do something about it. Generally Lacuna Coil put in a good effort, except for the singer (Andrea Ferro) who was jumping around clumsily. The songs they performed that night were "The Edge", "Fragments of Faith", "Swamped", "Fragile", "Enjoy the Silence", "Daylight Dancer", Heaven's a lie" and "Our Truth".
One of the most-loved bands in Greece is Iced Earth that didn't raise any eye-brows last summer when they visited Greece again with "Ripper" behind the mic, so the anticipation among the fans was great, and with Barlow taking on the vocals (again) became even greater. Funny thing, they played more that Venom (the headliners and I don't think this had happened again before, for all I know). The quintet entered the stage and started playing 5-6 songs without stop!!! Yeah, you read well, no rest for them and the fans for almost 20-30 minutes. Awesome! The setlist, rationally, included mostly songs of the Barlow era and only one that was sang by Ripper. Iced Earth were in a good mood that night and so were the Greek fans. Barlow was great once more, even with this bad sound. Hyper-kinetic as always all of them and Schaffer getting again too cocky about his guitar skills, but this time they left out statements like how true they are and how posers all the rest are. The highlight of their set was "Travel in Stygian". I wish they had more than 1 hour and 10 minutes at their disposal so as to offer us some more hymns. Doesn't matter, we can wait till next time, in a covered venue. Setlist: "Dark Saga", "Vengeance Is Mine", "Burning Times", "Declaration Day",  "Violate", "Pure Evil / Ten Thousand Strong", "Coming Curse", "Travel In Stygian", "Melancholy", "My Own Savior (Holy Martyr)", "Iced Earth".
Half hour interval waiting for the fathers of extreme metal to get on stage. I admit, I didn't have high expectations from Venom (Venom who??? Only Cronos is still present), but I didn't also expect to see such an unspeakable performance (due to the bad sound again). To give you a clue, you could make out most of the songs only by the lyrics and not the music. They kicked off with "Black Metal" and passed on to the fresh "Straight to Hell" with the crowd belauding them, but mostly because of their glorious past and great name and not really for that night's display (then again I may be wrong). The setlist was good, though too short for a headlining band (45-50 minutes tops). Some of the songs were "Welcome to Hell", "The 7 Gates of Hell", "Countess Bathory" and "Warhead". The new guitarist was impressive in appearance and full of energy running the stage from side to side. The new drummer is a traditional Venom drummer (a ham-handed one) and Cronos has turned into a muscular monster, but he's hanging on well, despite his age. Nice picture was whenever the green spotlight was turning on him making him look like Hulk. Summing up this wasn't the Venom I knew and expected to see. Setlist: "Black Metal", "Straight To Hell", "Welcome To Hell", "Bloodlust", "The 7 Gates Of Hell". "Don't Burn the Witch", "Countess Bathory", "Antichrist", "Buried Alive", "Warhead" Encore: "Witching Hour"
The bottomline is that this fest was a very good idea, with good bands, covering almost every metal genre, but you expect at least a good sound, something we didn't see throughout.
See you next year (I hope), wishing for something even better.
P.S. Many thanks again to Maria for her hospitality and great company.
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