Rockwave Festival series have taken place in Athens featuring great bands since 1996 with the interruption of a couple of years in between. This year Rockwave Festival occurs in two doses (24-26 of June and 8-9 of July) at Malakasa, 37 Km away from Athens. Among the positives of this year organization is that the stage has changed direction and the spectators area is tilted and 2 big videowalls have added allowing the ones who are backwards and on the left and right of the stage to watch better. Needless to say that there were many kiosks in the Festival area selling: clothes, accessories, CDs, magazines, food, refreshments etc.

The Festival begun at about 17:15 with the arising Greeks "Wastefall". Those who haven't listened to them before I could describe it as mixture of Progressive with a bit of Power Metal. Their main influences are bands like Pain Of Salvation, Dream Theater, Fates Warning etc. Very technical band with skillful performers and very nice their live performance. Although it was early enough and the sun rather hot, the singer-guitarist Domenik excited the audience, which responded at once. They played for only 30 minutes and apart from the 1st song that I don't remember they played: "Stunned To The World", "Lesser", "Eye" (new song), "Self Extinction Project".

Wastefall's show was ideal to warm up the audience for the next band, the "Black Label Society". They are very prolific since they have one release almost every year. Personally I partly appreciate their music; in other words some songs I like, some others not. However it proved that their live performance was much better then the quality of some studio releases. This band fits 100% to support Black Sabbath since they play Dirty Heavy "Motorcycle" Rock with many Doom influences and Zakk's voice has some similarities with Ozzy's. However they have their own characteristic sound emerging from the 70ties.

On stage they had some accessories like death's heads, chain decorated microphone column and many beers of course. Their heavy "motorcycle" sound spellbound the audience and drifted to their rhythms even those who were not dedicated to them before. I don’t know how many times have changed guitars the BLS guitarists especially Zakk. Among the striking moments of their live was while playing the very nice song "Suicide Messiah" a guy from the road crew entered with a hailer and sang in front of the microphone "Suicide". They played (unfortunately for us because we wanted more) for about an hour and some songs that were heard that night were: "Demise Of Sanity", "Genocide Junkies", "Suicide Messiah", "Stoned & Drunk", "Stillborn", "Funeral Bell", "Fire It Up".

After a necessary "filling" break to calm down a bit from the amazing BLS show, "Velvet Revolver" appeared on stage. Although they consist of famous and skillful musicians (the former Guns N' Roses: Slash, Matt Sorum and Duff McKagan, the former Stone Temple Pilots: Scott Weiland and the former Suicidal Tendencies and Wasted Youth: Dave Kushner) the final result doesn't sound satisfactory at least at my ears and many others from the audience. However many young fans seemed to enjoy their music. Scott Weiland declared when he just entered the stage they play "Rock' n Roll". In general I agree, with some Punk Rock influences though. Their Rock sounds a bit flat and obsolete despite Slash's remarkable guitar solos and the other musicians’ contribution. They played for about 70-75 minutes and the whole set was based on their only release "Contraband". They also played (as expected) two Guns N' Roses songs: "It’s So Easy" and "Mr.Brownstone". I wished BLS to have played at their position so as to have the opportunity to listen more from them.

This is the second concert of Black Sabbath in Athens. The first one was on the 21-7-1987 with Tony Martin at vocals. However this is the first time with the original line-up. And the 20000 spectators of all ages who have come today to see them were eager to listen how this re-union would sound. Would they against the time prove their indisputable abilities?

As soon as Velvet Revolver finished I moved as closer to the stage as I could in order to attend "Black Sabbath" better. Better was a matter of speech because when they appeared on stage at about 9:30 playing the first notes of "NIB" all hell has broken loose. The Absolute Panic!!! The audience was at a frantic state and no one could stop it. Already at the second song “After Forever” we have sweated so much that our clothes were so wet like having soaked in the sea. The “War Pigs” that followed was addressing to real war heroes since it was almost impossible to breath there let alone to take photos. The repetitive crowd surfers exploded like bombs over our heads.

Nice surprise by listening the first notes of the forgotten “Dirty Women”. Iommi literally “painted” at the extended solos of “Fairies Wear Boots”. Time for a multi-song medley mix consisted of “Symptom of the Universe / Sweet Leaf / Electric Funeral”. Enough, suffocation, time for a retreat, to go a bit backwards others I feel I ‘ll die. Iron Man came to demolish us while Iommi-Buttler launched their lethal fastest riffs and solos. Time for a trip “Into The Void”, while “Black Sabbath” sent us to other dimensions. Nice moment watching Ozzy whistling his harmonica at “The Wizard”. After having listened the notes we thought Sabs will play “Sabbath Bloody Sabbath” but they changed to “Paranoid” making us paranoiac. Ozzy thanked us and the band disappeared from stage. However the manic crowd asked for more and they returned for an encore, playing Children of the Grave with a little Sleeping Village in the beginning. That was all. Especially at these last two songs even the most distant spectator was headbanging. Ozzy couldn’t be in tune at this last song but this was a secondary matter. Black Sabbath farewell us definitely. As a send-off it was heard “Changes” from the loudspeakers on the way to the exit. Their 90-minute has satisfied even the most demanding fan playing both “greatest hits” and less famous songs.

We were ecstatic attending the first (both historically and musically) band of the world that has determined "Heavy Metal" and influenced thousands of bands. The most amazing is that today's Black Sabbath are not a relic of their glorious history but keep a lot of their energy to excite still thousands of people. The sound was loud enough but absolutely perfect. One could listen every single note from the bass of Geezer, Iommi's guitar or Ward's drums and realize their importance not only as composers but also as musicians.

Ozzy throughout the concert was moving up and down and threw two buckets of water to the audience during Paranoid. He was shouting continuously to the audience: “You are crazy”, “We love you”, “God bless you”. (On the one hand the god blessings and on the other one “My name is Lucifer please take my hand”). I haven’t attended any of the shows at their heydays in the early-mid 70ties but judging from this one I don’t think they have lost much despite the pass of 30 years.

Many (including myself) might disagree with some of the band’s (especially Ozzy’s) points of view and lifestyle (especially “The Osbournes”). In the Rockwave leaflet was written that they would arrive in Athens with a private jet. It was asked to have in their dressing rooms static bicycle, satellite TV, and video games. They arrived in the Festival Park in 4 limousines. I don’t know if all these have affected crucially the ticket price which was expensive enough (60 Euros) and this was one of the drawbacks of the origanisation. However on stage they are the “Masters Of The Universe”.

Black Sabbath Setlist

NIB
After Forever
War Pigs
Dirty Women
Fairies Wear Boots
Symptom of the Universe / Sweet Leaf / Electric Funeral
Iron Man
Into the Void
Black Sabbath
The Wizard
Sabbath Bloody Sabbath / Paranoid
Encore: Sleeping Village / Children of the Grave
Outro: Changes