Metal Gates Festival 2018- sold out edition: short review

16-18th of november @Quantic

All three days of the second edition of the Metal Gates Festival 2018 edition was sold out. In the first day you could have listened bands like Machiavellian God, Tenebres, Darkest Horizon, Adimiron, Vulture Industries, Shining and Doomas. Unfortunately I didn’t catch all of them, but I managed to arrive when Darkest Horizon played their last song, I hope to see the guys in the near future to form an opinion about their live music. Admiron played a pretty nice prog metal and even if I am not a fan myself of the genre, they convinced me to listen to them more.

Vulture Industries is one of the few bands I really appreciate both for their appearance and music. A nice theatrical show combined with a bit of madness and a lot of energy. This was the second time I saw them and I must say that I liked them better now. A better sound and the voice was really good.

Shining, one the most controversial bands around, couldn’t have a normal show…as most of you probably know their show is based off of powerful riffs, melodic riffs, strong screams and blood. This time with a different line-up consisting of two members of Mayhem and Cradle Of Filth, the band still managed to do a nice show as they always do, but it was kind of short for those fans who have waited for them to come back to our country.

Saturday was a day mostly based on “doomers” starting with Ocean of Grief, a band from Greece which I actually enjoyed quite well. They formed in 2014 and have an EP and an album released this year. A performance which was quite memorable, too bad they played very  early. After Ocean of Grief, Distorted Force and  A Taste Of Fear had their performances.

Abigail’s show kicked ass! For me it was the second time I saw them live and I’ve noticed a more sensible note, a better sound, a perfect mixture between instruments and voice. Too bad that this genre does not have so many fans in our country.

Moving further to one of my favourite moments of this festival: October Tide. A band which really doesn’t need any further presentation. I’ve followed these guys for the past ten or eleven years and it was love at the first listening. I felt a lot of emotions and I was really thrilled that I had the chance to finally see them live. A performance which I will never forget. Honestly I cannot express my happiness in words, because it wouldn’t be enough. These guys will have my eternal gratitude for making such a ‘touchy’ music.

Draconian– this band changed since Lisa left and it was pretty hard (for me) to accept that another girl took her place. Honestly, despite everyone’s opinion, the show didn’t blow me away. I like Heike’s voice in other projects better (Lorelei and ISON).

The latest band of the evening was Crimena which was a cold shower(but in a good way) after such a full day. A band, which despite the few people who remained in the venue, did a very nice show which made me jump and headbang during the entire show. I do honestly think that these guys will be somewhere in the top in the next few years !

Sunday and the latest day of the festival had Damage Case, When Plagues Collide, Aeonian Sorrow, 1914, Clouds and Rotting Christ as headliners. Aeonian Sorrow are a female fronted band from Greece. It was their first time in Romania and they seemed to enjoy it. A quite good performance yet a typical funeral doom sound with two vocals (harsh and soft) which actually made me add them to my ‘must listen more’ list.

Clouds, as October Tide definitely has a special place in my heart. A band which just released their 3rd full length “Dor” and now the band looks more like a family with more than half of it being Romanians. They also had a few special guests for this show : Mikko Kotamaki main vocal for Swallow the Sun, Mihai Ilie from Abigail, Gogo Melone from Aeonian Sorrow (which definitely has a very good voice; I do think when she sang with Clouds the voice was even better and I could hear it well) and Andrei Oltean from E-an-na. With this line-up changes, Clouds sounds really good now and I really liked the dialogue Daniel did  with the public; the moment when he took the Romanian flag upon his shoulders, being proud of what this band means and what it means for the audience was very special. A quite remarkable show, with a lot of emotion and I actually can’t say which song I liked better. I hope they’ll return to Bucharest soon.

The last band of the evening and also one of the three headliners of the festival was Rotting Christ. A band which again needs no introduction, who was in our country many times before and is still very well received  by the audience. With more than 11 albums and despite changing their style a bit, Rotting Christ always makes impressive shows. This time it was the same, but I still think that the sound was a bit too loud.

Thanks to Final Step Productions for another great festival and to Quantic for helding the event. See you next year !

A full gallery of pictures can be found on our facebook page here

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