Last Tuesday, Le Gueulard Plus and Damage Done Productions treated us to a generous line-up: Scar of the Sun, Oceans, Equilibrium and Septicflesh, four metal bands with very distinct universes but a common goal: to get our necks popping and make us jump all over the place. Spoiler alert: the objective has been achieved.
SCAR OF THE SUN
The evening got off to an early start with Scar of the Sun, a Greek modern metal band straight from Athens. In front of a room that was still a little sparse given the time of day, the band served up a melodic metal set tinged with appreciable touches of death metal. The show lasted just under thirty minutes, but that was enough to convince us to discover their discography in greater depth.
OCEANS
The German band Oceans took to the stage. There's no need for a microphone when you've got the vocal power of Timo Schwämmlein, who kicks off the hostilities by vociferating the intro to PARASITE at the top of his lungs. The Nu Death metal band had come to defend their new album, HAPPY, released earlier this year, which was surprisingly rich in content and experimentation. Despite the insane energy of the charismatic singer, whose vocal performance was flawless, the crowd in the pit was unfortunately still a little shy, which didn't stop us from enjoying the new live tracks, including the excellent BREED CONSUME DIE and its unifying chorus. As for the setlist, we regretted the absence of I Sing Alone, but consoled ourselves with The Awakening, which always makes an impact. Oceans are one of those bands whose evolution is very interesting to follow, and their live performance is more than validated.
EQUILIBRIUM
The room fills up a little more when the Germans from Equilibrium arrive to the sound of percussion, before moving on to Legends, a brand-new track that we were lucky enough to discover live. The folk metal band hadn't released a new album since Renegades in 2019, but tonight they presented their new single Gnosis, released earlier this year. It wasn't until the indestructible Born to Be Epic that the crowd finally broke loose and the moshpit began! It has to be said that the Germans' music is festive, and it was hard to remain static in front of the ardor displayed by the band and the infectious enthusiasm of its new singer Fabian Getto (who joined the band in 2023). The party continued with the classics Blut im Auge and Shelter, and the temperature in the room rose a notch.
SEPTICFLESH
It was time for the evening's big name to take to the stage. Tonight's bill was sold out, and it soon became clear that the audience had mainly come for the headliner. Spiros “Seth” Antoniou quickly took possession of the crowd, served by his undeniable presence and impressive guttural voice, in his usual role of charismatic leader. The Greeks, who haven't released anything new since 2022 with Modern Primitive (review), served up a generous setlist drawing on their post-reformation discography, with extreme metal and grandiloquent instrumentations for an epic rendering... Although, of course, without an orchestra, the grandiose effect is lost (the Gueulard Plus is not the Odeon of Herod Atticus, in Athens, where the band performed at the end of September with the Athens State Orchestra). In the crowd, mosphpits and circle pits followed one another, as if all the tension held back until then had been released under the singer's numerous calls, in his role of ancient tyrant, to “destroy everything with him” (as usual, we lost count of the “destrrrrrroy” after two minutes, for lack of a sufficient number of fingers). We left the concert soaking wet and sticking to our jeans, proof that we'd had a great evening.
