Live Report From Opeth In Athens

The band of Opeth enjoys a great publicity here, especially the progressive era of the group. Every band that is positioned between atmospheric music and brutal metal seems to be very famous in Greece, bands such as Anathema, Paradise Lost are perfect instances of this trend here. Every time they release a new album, the position themselves among the top 10 best selling acts in Greece even above of mainstream pop idols.

When I entered the gate of the hall, I saw inside that the club was full of metalheads that were waiting for the band to appear on stage. The live venue is a new one and it’s called Fuzz. It is a large place and also includes enormous screens on the left and right side for visual slideshows. The only disadvantage is that if the club is full, you are in front of the stage and wanna reach the WC then you have to fly like superman in order to do it…lol

There wasn’t any support band so we had to wait till 21:30 that it was the official time for the band to appear to stage. Fortunately they were very precise to their meeting and the show started in time…From the beginning the sound was really good and loud so we all could hear what it was happening and the music was a listening pleasure for all of us. The band was in great mood because Athens was the last station of the tour and all the members were really happy for the end of this successful tour. They were joking with each other on stage and also trying to cover many songs that weren’t prepared for the show, it was entertainment for both band & audience. During the whole concert they were making comments on the 80s hair bands and tried to imitate them by doing various poses: the drummer was doing drum solos during the middle of the solo he was interrupting it in order to smile and pose for photo shots! Ha-ha…very funny attitude!! Regarding the music level, they played songs both from the extreme and progressive era but due to the live performance most of the tunes had an extra powerful level of loudness.