Greek power metal | Silent Winter in Tokyo
Silent Winter showed Japan they can compete with the best of the world’s power metal bands.
Silent Winter at Holiday, Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan on 17th May 2025
Greek power metal band Silent Winter came to Japan for the first time to promote its latest album, “Utopia”, with two Tokyo shows on a bill that included Marta Gabriel. Formed in Greece in 1995, band leader and guitarist Kiriakos “Akis” Balanos is the only member remaining from the band’s first era. After a long break, the band reformed in 2018 and has released three full-length studio albums since then. Apart from Akis, the rest of the current version of the band consists of newer additions. Vocalist Mike Livas has a rather characteristic voice that makes Silen Winter stand out from the many similarly sounding power metal bands. The band’s solid six-piece line-up means that they can create a proper soundscape live that equals what they produce in the studio.
They opened the first Tokyo show with “We Burn the Future”, a classic power metal song that got the audience going. The bulk of the setlist consisted of songs from the band’s most recent album, 2024’s “Utopia”. We also got treated to songs from the “Empire of Sins” (2021) and “The Circles of Hell” (2019) albums. Highlights of the evening included “Reign of the Tyrants”, “Heart Is A Lonely Hunter”, “Gates of Fire” and the excellent “Silent Shadows”. They closed the show with an excellent version of “Hands Held High”. This was a great first taste of this Greek band. Hopefully, they will be back on a Japanese stage soon. With the “Utopia” album and the Japan shows, this band has shown us that they can compete with the best.
