Children of Bodom/ Ensiferum/ Machinae Supremacy – Gagarin 205, 16/04/2011

The rain was pouring all day long on Saturday but that didn’t seem to be enough to prevent the Greek metalheads from attending tonight’s show with Children of Bodom in a sold-out Gagarin 205! Unfortunately it was more that enough for me as I wasn’t on time to catch all of Machinae Supremacy’s (6,5)  set, I came just when ‘Rocket Dragon’ was playing but what I can tell for sure is that they were really rocking and despite being  different in genre that the rest of the bands, they proved that they totally deserve the publicity they really hunger for, and it shows! They were storming their songs one after the other for half an hour and they were a very entertaining band to see.

Machinae Supremacy setlist:Truth of Tomorrow/ Force Feedback/ Rocket Dragon/ Indiscriminate Murder is Counter-Productive /Nova Prospekt/Through the Looking Glass.

Esniferum (7) was up next. One thing that caught me by surprise is that they have a quite big fanbase here in Greece, mosh pits and crowd-surfing were common thing during their powerful performance. The band was really tight and they did seem to enjoy what they do and they managed to pass it to the audience as well which was singing their songs with great passion and devotion. The highlights of their set were fan-favourites such as the new From Afar, Twilight Tavern and the final song Iron which really got the crowd going. Also thumbs-up to Ensiferum for having the best sound of the three that night.
Ensiferum setlist:From Afar/Into Battle/Token of Time/Twilight Tavern/Guardians of Fate/Lai Lai Hei/Ahti/Iron.

As soon the other bands wrapped up their opening sets and especially when the banner of ‘’Relentless Reckless Forever’’ appeared on the back of the stage, the anticipation grew bigger and bigger! The club was packed and ready to go and the crowd was already chanting for their favourite band. You have to experience Children of Bodom (8,5) live to understand why they are among metal’s biggest bands! They opened their set with ‘Not my Funeral’ and the crowd went nuts! It wasn’t until the the third song ‘Needled 24/7’  that Alexi Laiho greeted the Athenian crowd which roared back in return. They played a strong run of songs from almost every album (except ‘Something Wild’), the setlist was very varied in generall, focusing more on their newest album which they actually are touring for,  and the band gave their all! Apart from the guitar prodigy that Alexi Laiho is, the whole band’s musicianship and skills were exceptional but they were often buried by the bad sound which was one of the sideeffect of the show along with the band’s brief set( They only played for 1 hour and ten minutes)! ‘In Your Face’ and ‘Hatecrew Deathroll’ had the audience singing each and every word along with Alexi but also old-school Children of Bodom songs such as the selftitled one and ‘Downfall’ off of ‘Hatebreeder’ were enthusiastically accepted! All in all, it was an astonishing live show, definitely a night to remember and we surely proved as an audience tht we don’t have to wait another 10 year for COB to come back!

Children of Bodom setlist:Not My Funeral/ Bodom Beach Terror/ Needled 24/7/ Roundtrip to Hell and Back/ In Your Face/ Living Dead Beat/ Children of Bodom/ Hateme!/ Blooddrunk/ Shovel Knockout/ Angels Don’t Kill/ Follow the Reaper/ Downfall/ Was it Worth it?/ Hatecrew Deathroll

Lefteris K.