It was a very hot night in the centre of Thessaloniki, to herald the first appearance of Mystifier in Greece.  I arrived at the “8ball club” just before the first band came on stage.

The venue was not overcrowded and most of the people were already waiting for the concert to start. The reason why people were there early was due to the rare appearance of Swamp, a great band representing the Hellenic Black Metal scene, based in Ioannina, hometown of the pioneers Varathron as well.

Swamp had chosen to appear at this particular gig as the frontman seemed to have a close connection with Mystifier in the past. It was an opportunity for anyone to get in touch with the true underground of the Greek scene.

Swamp didn’t need any kind of extravagance in their stage presence to show their music style, no corpsepaint, nails or anything like that, just an inverted cross hanging from the singer’s pants. So attention was given mainly to their music which had all the elements of the second wave of black metal.

The singer was the centre of it as he seemed to be living the moment of his appearance on stage after so many years. They played very well and I’m glad I had the chance to see them.

After a break of half an hour it was time for the Brazilian band Mystifier. The founder of the band Beelzeebubth took the stage last and the concert started illustrating from the beginning a raw dark atmospheric sound.

Every time we witness a band from Latin America, something special is expected, something closer to the real essence of black metal as the genre was at its formation. Mystifier is one of those bands that keep that old-school character.

They didn’t hesitate to show respect to the local scene in between their tracks, constantly mentioning band names like Rotting Christ, Varathron and Swamp. This revealed something mentioned before, Mystifier’s direct connection with the Hellenic scene and their great admiration for it.

Their album “Protogoni Mavri Magiki Dynasteia”, meaning “Primitive Black Magic Dynasty” in Greek could be easily inspired by this bond between the scenes. The highlight though was the cover they did on Sarcofago’s track “Nightmare” where the singer of “Swamp” joined them on stage with a flag of “Blasphemy”.

The crowd loved them and so did the band with them playing several more songs in the encore. It was a great show and I hope there will continue to be bands like those and such events that remind listeners what black metal really means.

Review and Photos: Sotiris Zikas