We people love stories. And the main protagonists of this review have plenty those. Glorious, infamous, debatable and more often than not promising. If you are a Millennial or a Gen-Z headbanger, perhaps the name SCANNER does not ring a bell. Yet for us Gen-Xers that’s a symbol, nearly a myth.

The German (that’s also disputable form certain moment on) heavy-power act stems of a place rich in metal resources, mainly in their thrash reincarnation in the name of SODOM, yet the SCANNER trajectory of music career been way less glamorous compared to their Gelsenkirchen fellow citizen. Emerged in the mid 80-ties, when metal ruled the world and propelled to present days by the only original member, the legendary guitarist Axel Julius, the formation blasted the scene with their first couple of albums, that guaranteed a reserved place in the hearts of thousands of metalheads during the past four decades.  The band has completely split up and reformed twice over the years and an anecdotal fact is that shortly before the recordings of “Hypertrace” in 1987 Michael Knoblich (the vocalist in the debut) suffered a voice loss caused by health issues. Ralf Scheepers was considered as a replacement, but Knoblich managed to recover before the sessions. Anyway, Scheepers appears on the release, singing backup vocals.

Enough with the background check and please a bit more of patience, since the history lesson is far from over. On my personal account, the first ever live experience with SCANNER, dates from almost a decade ago, when in early 2015 more than 50 crazy Bulgarians invaded the Greek town of Solun (a.k.a. Thessaloniki), hiring a big bus on our own and provoking havoc and chaos of dismay in our favorite local spot “The Eight Ball” club. Man, this was a total madness unleashed and the band was equally dumbfounded to see more than half of the pit full with berserk Bulgarians on the prowl. A true testimonial about the status of SCANNER in the Balkans. This archive photo teleports us back in time to illustrate a frame of our extasy.

The bell rings and from history class we jump straight right into geography. The heathen horde assault evidently made some impression and certain impact, getting the band closer to our home turf.  Their first ever live appearance in Bulgaria happened at ¨Midalidare Rock 2022“festival, which was an open-air grand stage appearance, contrasting in scale and nothing to do with the intimacy of a small rock club in the heart of downtown Sofia. Finally, we arrive in present days and the calm Thursday night of 6^th of June, marks the sole Bulgaria appearance date as part of the 2024 COSMIC ENVY tour. Hosting the gig is the stage of “Live & Loud”, a venue witnessing the memorable performances of dozens and dozens renowned metal acts for nearly 20 years.

Being a regular business day, made me arrive on-site a bit late and frankly couldn’t identify if there was a local warm-up act as a third one before the two names already shining on the poster at the entrance. First on stage jumped out the Greek progressive heavy/power heroes FORTRESS UNDER SIEGE, coming from the ever-abundant capital scene of Athens. Never heard the name before, which called for an immediate reality check, proved the formation was founded almost 30 years ago and it usually goes, their debut album saw broad daylight barely in 2011. To present days the guys have 4 records on their account, with the 2023 one called “Envy”, making the co-headline tour title fully meaningful. And while name was foreign to me, it was massive delight to recognize the frontman face, holding proudly the microphone and hailing the several dozens of maniacs already present on the premises to come front stage and heat up the atmosphere. That was none other than Mr. Tasos Lazaris, widely known for his role in STEEL ARCTUS, a person dear to me, which managed to meet face to face during 2023 “Up The Hammers” festival in his hometown.

Аs more and more fans started to rally and with the show on, it was sometimes hard to both greet friends and follow everything that was going on at the stage area. Of course, getting drinks from the bar was a primary task and doing so under the loud sound of FORTRESS UNDER SIEGE surely enhanced the experience. What the boys delivered, was for a sure a solid, mature and comprehensive dose of power metal, with enlightening epic moments and compositions that felt thoughtfully mastered both in the studio and in front of live audience. Without fixating in minor detail, not knowing what to expect and simply going with the flow resulted to be the best attitude to approach the performance and I really enjoyed it to the fullest. Judging by the cheering, so did the crown and seeing several dudes walking around with a band’s shirt on was a proof that the next time this outfit is in town, they would have some base of supporters to raise their fist in the air and hail it welcome.

FORTRESS UNDER SIEGE setlist:

• Bring Out Your Dead
• Distant Voices
• Lords of Death
• Spartacus
• Look at You
• Atlantis
• Don’t Let Go
• Love Enforcer
• Ride The Thunder
• A Legacy in Stone

All of us present there felt really warmed up by the opening act and following the mandatory pint refill, everyone was anxious for the main act appearance. The small stage of the club was about to entertain a very big name, at least in our minds, like it did many times in the past, however there was kind of special feeling floating around, especially for these individuals that were about to encounter SCANNER for the very first time. Regarding us veterans, the omnipresent question and debate topic was how many classics there will be in the setlist, will the new album tracks sound the same live as they do in the recording and nonetheless, how many songs the encore will feature. Well, it was about time to get some answers!

SCANNER hit the stage precisely on time, provoking an outburst of screams, shouts and fists in the air, as it belongs to a headliner with such frantic following in the country. Frontman Efthimios Ioannidis assumed his central position, wearing his emblematic leather jacket, while the rest of the band sent a brief high five to the front row, where the most dedicated metalhead stood aligned. Opening with “The Earth Song” was not the smartest idea to come up with, however we forgave this frivolity in exchange for the next series of battering rams, including “Fu** The Bastards” and “The Judgment” to name a few. We started already feeling in familiar waters and the only weird bit for me during the first part of the show was that I felt SCANNER sounded a kind of different this time, not bad or anything, just with different set of energy vibe, way diverse than their open-air delivery or the emotional extremities that everyone went through nearly a decade ago. Conceivably it was only in my head, however couldn’t get rid of such intrusive thoughts until one of my all-time favorite tunes intro literally exploded in my ears.

“Ball of The Damned” and “Not Alone” catapulted everybody in brand new dimension of sweet memories of the past and days of dreaming on the chance to catch SCANNER live, one of these days when we all grow up. In my case dreams did come true and that was the third case of the phenomena, so guess I have to feel really lucky and blessed by the almighty Gods of metal. And I really did, taking the following couple of songs for a quick biological break and raiding the bar, fully ready for the final charge. Which came swiftly and without any compromise. Looking around to all those familiar and new faces felt really rewarding as once again I identified how well people resonate with the band’s output and what the vast majority are still missing by not paying the well-deserved respect and attention to this epic gang.

It’s climax time and the song sequence to follow brought the euphoria to really cosmic proportion. Simply said, that was the moment we all been waiting for and came along in this Thursday night to swear eternal allegiance to one of the godfathers of Teutonic power-speed metal. “Terrion” got us all headbanging like crazy and singing along that famous chorus line that became almost anthemic to our generation. “Scanner’s Law” (that ruled the night) came as much wanted breath catcher, setting everyone ready for the final round. There can be only one proper round off here and that is the holy trinity – “Warp 7”, “Buy Or Die” and of course the legendary “Across The Universe”. This finisher made the whole club sing with hands high in the air, with multiple repetitions and constant carry on riffs as if SCANNER wanted to promote this extasy for eternity. All good things come to an end and what a glorious wrap up that was. A night to remember and on top of everything, the latest album really brought this outfit back on the map, dusting off the scraps of previous hiatus periods and overexaggerated rumors of final split-up

Quarter of an hour after the last notes faded and the lights went down, it was the casual meet and great time. Full respect to all band members for being so genuinely friendly and responsive to each fan that addressed them for an autograph, photo or just a cheer with a cold drink in hand. This small club events are perfect for strengthening the camaraderie and consolidating the metal community, something that’s been my mission as well in the last 35 years. At the end, everything I can say for SCANNER is just too little. Simply said – SCANNER are one of us…

SCANNER setlist: