All my years in the music industry I don’t remember any concert that was so adventurous in Greece. Will it happen or not? Well maybe the Manowar concert back in 2007 in March Metal Day. The timeline of Heir Apparent’s concert in Greece includes two official cancellations and three different singers and all these in a period of 20 days. The initial plan was that the group would come with the original singer, Paul Davidson. But Davidson could not come due to some problems. Then the leader of the band announced that singing with them in this mini tour would be Bryan Hagan. Hagan though could not get a passport so that idea was abandoned as well and the band came with Jeff Carrell in vocals. That was a last minute solution. Carrell stated: “They contacted me and told me: In five days we fly to Greece. Do you want to come? I said yes and they told me to learn 15 songs”.
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But let’s start from the beginning. The band that supported Heir Apparent was once more Everflow. The truth is that I had no idea of the band but as soon as they started I was completely amazed. The voice of the singer Markos Valavanis is absolutely great. The influences from Queensrÿche, Iron Maiden, and Judas Priest, are obvious. The band had no problem at all warming up the crowd.
The band with the great melodies and the outstanding vocals they managed to make the crowd start headbanging from the beginning. In the end of their set they had a surprise for us, as they played “Gutter Ballet” from Savatage. A very good band that you should really check. You want be disappointed.
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Setlist:
Sunsetter
Dream Within A Dream
Piece To Destroy
Through The Mirror
My Disaster
Soiled
Gutter Ballet (Savatage cover)
At about 22:00, Heir Apparent hit the stage to check their equipment. To be honest I was not sure what to expect after the concert in Athens but only about the vocals. And this is because Gorle, Peace and Schwartz had nothing to prove. And almost with no delay we heard the first notes of “The Servant” from “Graceful Inheritance” album. From the first moments it was obvious that we would be a part of a wonderful concert with a really great band of the past. And the Greek crowd knows how to support such bands. The sound was really good during the whole gig. Although Jeff Carrell had just a few days to learn all the songs he did pretty well with the help of his papers with the lyrics. Yeah it was not what we all expected but I think that some comments that I heard about disappointment, dishonesty and so on are at least unfair. The fact that a person tried to learn so many songs in just a few days that includes an overseas flight and almost no sleep at all, is honest enough. I have seen a lot of “singers”, that are 20-30 years in music business, that are way worse.
Let’s go back to the concert facts though. I went to the venue quite early and I was able to get a spot right in front of Gorle so I can enjoy from as close as I could a great artist. The man can play! No need for any crazy equipment of bazillion guitars he could do whatever he wanted. Of course at the opposite side, Derek Peace was excellent as well.
The quartet continued playing one hit after the other (of course that’s natural since every song that they wrote is a masterpiece). The crowd was very enthusiastic. I know a lot of people that have waited for years to listen to some of these songs live. Especially in “Tear Down The Wall” there was a total madness in the venue. Something really crazy was also the moment when Carrell went to the crowd as the band was playing the instrumental song “R.I.P.”. Only a few seconds between the fans was enough. They raised him to their hands and they got him to stage again.
The band was in a really good mood (ouzo may have helped in that) and it was obvious. They took photos of the crowd quite a few times.
The normal set ended with the Black Sabbath cover of “Heaven And Hell”. I think the fans sung louder than Carrell in that song! The band was ready to go off stage but the fans were asking for an encore so they returned and played “Young Forever”.
Concluding this small review I could say that this concert could be a real blast if there were not all these misfortunes. Greeks really like and support Heir Apparent and they know that the band can deliver a really great show under the right circumstances. And one last thing is the Jeff Carrell is a really cool guy and he deserves a lot of respect for what he did. He is the last one to be blames by anyone (if anyone blames anybody after this great concert).
Setlist:
En Trance
The Servant
Hands Of Destiny
AND… Dorgo Lived On
Masters On Invasion
Tear Down The Walls
The Haunting
R.I.P.
Another Candle
Keeper Of The Reign
Dragon’s Lair
Decorated
Cacophony Of Anger
Heaven And Hell (Black Sabbath cover)
Encore:
Young Forever
For Rockoverdose.gr
Apostolos Pantazoglou
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