Beast In Black / Firewind - The Garage Friday 24th February 2023

It was quite a show. There was already a fair bit of delirium in the room before the lights went down and the band immediately took the excitement up a further notch with their opener ‘Blade Runner’ – a rampaging power metal kick-in-the-balls number with a sci-fi twist burning through it. ‘Eternal Fire’ added a bit of gloss but it was the third number, the classic ‘Die by the Blade’, which best showcased the band’s signature sound; a thunderous fusion of anthemic metal with a liberal sprinkling of delightfully trashy euro-disco, and it really got the party started.

The band put on a hell of a show with a skull on the drum kit, synchronised guitar moves and copious crowd interaction. The stage set-up also included a couple of topless cyborg fembots contained within plastic cylinders, but sadly, like Derek Smalls in Spinal Tap, they stayed firmly trapped within their pods for the duration of the gig.

The set list was quite evenly drawn from all three of their outstanding albums and singer, Yannis, never missed a note on any of them in a quite startling performance. The pace only slowed briefly for ‘Oceandeep’, which is a typical phones-in-the-air ballad, but kudos to the two old-school geezers in the audience holding their lighters aloft. It was definitely an analogue action in a digital world but then, you can’t set light to your farts with a phone, can you? The intensity quickly ramped up again after that and the carnage really began with the banging ‘Hardcore’. In scenes reminiscent of ‘All Quiet on the Western Front’, hordes of young men tried to escape the senseless slaughter of the mosh pit by going over the top and crowd-surfing their way to an uncertain future at the front, although most of them seemed to have survived and come back for more.

‘Blind and Frozen’ is an archetypal Beast in Black classic and was chosen to close the main set before a three-song encore, which included the glorious ‘Cry Out for a Hero’ and the camp classic ‘One Night in Tokyo’, which is a sing-along straight out of the gutters of Takeshita Street.

The show was originally booked for The Cathouse but it was quickly upgraded to this bigger venue and that sold that out too, so the hall was absolutely rammed and so hot and sweaty that it was ‘taps aff’ for some berzerkers before the end. Even The Garage could barely contain the full fury and danceability of the show so the next time they return- soon hopefully - they’re going to need an even bigger venue.

Greece was definitely the word on this night. That’s where BiB’s Yannis Papadopoulos hails from and of course, that’s where the support act, Firewind, originated too. Gus G is still the main man obviously and he was joined by Herbie Langhans from Avantasia and Voodoo Circle on vocals. They’ve been through a few singers but Herbie might be their best since Apollo Papathanasio left. He sings well but often moves off to allow Gus access to the centre of the stage to showcase his top-quality turbo-widdling on the guitar. The band are at their best when the virtuosity is contained within their best songs, like ‘Ode to Leonidas’, ‘Rising Fire’ and the brand-new single ‘Destiny is Calling’, which was released on the day of the gig with an accompanying video. As usual, they finished with their cover of Michael Sembello’s ‘Maniac’ from the movie ‘Flashdance’ and received another very warm ovation from their many friends in Scotland. Apparently, they have a new album lined up and on the strength of the new tunes played, it should be a good one.

Overall, this was a very special evening on a UK tour which was totally sold out. The merchandise stall was doing brisk business and a particular favourite of mine was a pre-signed and sensibly-sized (A5) tour programme on sale for just £5. Beast in Black seem to be unstoppable just now and I hope we will see them dancing and head-banging further along their road to the very top over the course of this year, ideally with another detour to Scotland.

Tsemppiä ja Onnittelut!