By Brent Michael, Rock At Night Tampa Correspondent
Venue: The Orpheum, Tampa, Florida–May 7, 2017
Need hai
ls from Athens – Greece, not Georgia! Founded in 2003, they’ve released five albums so far, the latest being Hegaiamas: a song for freedom, released earlier this year. Currently, the band consists of original members Jon V. on Vocals and Ravaya on Guitars, and Anthony (who took a five-year hiatus 2005-2010) on Keyboards. Victor, Bass, and Stelios, Drums, both joined in 2013.
The band has been compared to Dream Theater and Wastefall, but obviously has been influenced by Savatage and Metallica (they recorded a version of “Jesus Saves” and “The Thing That Should Not Be,” available only on their Youtube channel) and also list Pantera, Fates Warning, Tool, Psychotic Waltz, Deftones, Nevermore, Porcupine Tree, Alice In Chains, Queensryche, and Anthrax as influences.
Thanks to my friend John Zahner of Stormbringer – and a founding member of Jon Oliva’s Pain – I was introduced to vocalist Jon before their show, and we chatted about our mutual acquaintances as I noticed he was wearing a T-Shirt from Jon Oliva’s Pain, which he later exchanged for a Savatage shirt that he wore for the show. My own knowledge of that group’s history goes back to when Savatage was Avatar, playing Busch Gardens in the early 1980s – about the time Jon was born! The band is doing a masterful job carrying that legacy forward, playing an energetic set as part of Evergrey’s “The Storm Within” Tour, which is going all over the USA and Canada this summer. The fact that their seven song album clocks in at an hour and 3 minutes attests to the fact that they aren’t a band looking to compete with the pop musicians and their 3:30 typical songs today, but rather are aiming at serious rockers who come to hear great music, and they deliver it well!
For more info, see Need or follow them on Facebook.
Check out the video from their latest album here: Rememory
Photo Gallery
When not in custody, I've been involved with music, photography, and writing my entire life. Ever since I was a young boy and played those silver tunes, I've had the beat, but being a drummer didn't suit me so I became a lead singer, which lasted a few years. Settling down, sort of, I translated my knowledge of audio and glib tongue into mobile emcee work, and my training as a photographer and videographer into a living in the wedding, party, bar/bat mitzvah, and entertainment industry. During this time I also managed to bamboozle my way into a master's degree in writing, worked for a couple of magazines (yes, I took photos for a nudist magazine!), have photographed hotels, done commercial work (shot the cover of Tablet and Capsule magazine), published a few articles, hosted some public access shows (a couple times in drag, but that's another story), and generally made a nuisance of myself until I landed here.
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