Date: 17.10.99.
Rating: 3 / 6

This time ARCHONTES did something unexpected and I still can’t understand if this change was a change for good or for bad (hence the rating is 3 / 6).  So that is how it was:
A really cold November evening on the outskirts of Moscow (The choice of a club to play was not the best), no money for beer (my first sober gig) and a great hangover, since there was a heavy drinking session with Vae Solis’ editor-in-chief last night.  We approached the club about 30 minutes before the start of the show to witness half drunk metalheads not really realising what they came for.  By 7 o’clock the crowd seemed to gather - there was about 250 people witnessing the show - and this is where the story starts:
The crowd had to wait until 8 o’clock on the street, but the show planned to start at 7, because the band was still tuning their instruments.  When they let the crowd in, we had to wait for half an hour inside, listening to GAMMA RAY’s “Heading For Tomorrow” album on some really shitty equipment so, being a real GAMMA RAY fan, it took me 2 songs to understand what the fuck was playing.  And then the show began:
The sound was the shittiest I have ever heard on ARCHONTES concerts and probably on any other concerts I had ever been to:  It was impossible to hear the keyboards or the bass, guitar was heard only on solos, drums sounded really fucked up, but the vocals was actually fine.  I took an interview with their keyboard player after the show  and he stated that the soundman’s head should be cracked open, and the club should pay them money for such shit.
Their musical program was really good: 2 hours of pure, good quality power metal.  The first 3 songs came from their new albums and were actually nothing special, accept for the guitar solos - their guitar player is a real genius.  Then came an amazing ballad “In The Dark” which sounded much better than on the album, and things started to change for good.  The band and the crowd got warmed up (Andrei “Archont” - vocals - finished a bottle of beer and started to feel much more free) and the real show began.
All of the musicians showed themselves to be really professional and it was a great pleasure witnessing them (if the sound was not so shitty, the crowd more crazy and we didn’t have to wait for 1.5 hours for the start the rating would be 6 / 6).
In the middle of the show there was a fucking amazing drum and bass solo which totally shocked me by it’s professionalism and nice sound, and later came the guitar solo which was the best moment of the concert (Evgeniy Sevostianov played the best guitar solo I have ever seen or heard in my life).
About half an hour before the end of the show the singer finished another bottle of beer and the best of it began.  ARCHONTES played a medley of their first demo - “Concerto For Little Darkness And Orchestra…” which showed that their early creations were far better than the new material. At the end of the show a really pleasant surprise awaited the fans: the power metal version of one song by QUEEN and DEEP PURPLE’s “Smoke On The Water”. - plastic beer glasses were flying through the air and the crowd really went mad.
The show suddenly finished, but I have absolutely no regrets, apart from the fact that they hadn’t played their best song - “Gods Can’t Cry”.
Verdict: ARCHONTES is the rising star of world’s power metal, they became more professional over the years, although their early songs are still much better than the new ones, which again is purely my opinion.