Most gigs took place in middle Franconia (in Neustadt/Aisch and surroundings). Due to good contacts with other underground-bands, since 1997 there is also the possibility to enter stages in other parts of Germany from time to time.

The "legendary" first gig was at a newcomer-festival at our school  on july 7, 1995. The conditions were miserable: ENCRYPTION (then we were still called CRYPTIC of course) played as an opener, and because it was an open air gig, we still faced the light of day when entering the stage. Furthermore there weren't much metal-fans, but mainly classmates who didn't want to miss this event.

There was only a very small PA, and the thing called sound was a shame. We started our set with "Dismembered" which faded into "For Whom The Bell Tolls". Well, we couldn't expect more than some polite applause, of course, although there were some friends of us - partly already gone nuts because of too much alcohol - that dived in a nearby thorny hedge. From this direction you could hear screams and grunts demanding such songs as "As I Die"... But that's not the only reason that this first gig was one we will never forget: Norbert sang "For Whom The Bell Tolls" and "Drowned Maid" almost with the same grunt-like voice, and we posed and moshed until the very end - and all that in front of our our parents and our teachers! Everytime we watch the video of this gig we could almost burst into tears of laughter...

Almost all the next gigs went like that: ENCRYPTION were the only band that played Heavy Metal and therefore didn't harmonize with the other bands (in musical ways). Many poeple seemingly never ever had heard such a strange kind of music, which could be at once realized by the unbelieving and surprised expression in their faces. But nevertheless we were able to convince some people and so had a little bunch of fans that visited our gigs. At most gigs, we didn't get money for playing but could drink and eat for free... well, that was not very clever - some gig-promoters would have wished to have given us a little money instead of free drinks, as they had realized that we can celebrate until the late next morning and annihilate some amounts of alcohol...

All in all, we must state that the support gigs for well-known coverbands were quite cool, because so you had the possibility to play in front of a large crowd (500 people and more). But it didn't help the band itself, as there were very few metal-maniacs, and most people weren't interested in self-created Metal-stuff at all. So it makes more sense to play at a youth centre in front of a metal-audience, even if there are not much people attending the gigs.

One gig that is worth to be mentioned here is without doubt the IronIrony-Festival. Organized by PATH OF DEBRIS and ENCRYPTION, the festival took place on october 10 (at Kelheim near Regensburg) and october 11 (at Unternesselbach near Neustadt/Aisch), 1997. Besides the two organizers, there played BLACKEND, DESTINY and  DARKSEED, the last band as headliner. After the first part in Kelheim was not very successful, expectations for the second day in Unternesselbach were naturally not very high. But surprisingly the gig in Unternesselbach turned out to be one worth remembrance: there were much more fans attending the gig than expected (up to 250) and there was hell of an action before and onto the stage. Rossi from P.O.D. had the glorious idea of pouring beer and water over the playing bands; this action made Steve (P.O.D.) almost see red because he feared that his effect gadgets could be destroyed. But otherwise it raised the mood of the audience, and when Darkseed played, all boundaries broke up finally. Encouraged by Rossi, Jojo (ENCRYPTION) and Darkseed-roadie Daniel who entered the stage weaponed with a broom(!) as bassguitar (as a replacement for the ill Darkseed-bass-player) 20-30 banger entered the stage. There they (and of course we) posed end moshed and dived without end, and sometimes later, there were so many people on stage, that the Darkseed-guiar-players left the stage to play on in the crowd. After the Darkseed-singer finished the oficial Darkseed-set for "health" reasons, the show wasn't finished at all. There were played a lot of coverversions, and the whole thing seemed to be without end!
Afterwards there was a convoy of up to 8 cars heading for Dachsbach, where we celebrated in the house of the Klein family until sunday afternoon...

Another (maybe even the ultimate) live-highlight was the support gig for IRON SAVIOR and EDGUY on april 19, 1997 in Nuremberg. We were chosen for this gig in a competition organized by the German Rock Hard Magazine. Some things were quite chaotic: we had to place our amplifiers on stage in total darkness, because the fans already had entered the location, and we had to start playing at once without a soundcheck. Therefore there were a few sound-problems in the beginning, but nevertheless the gig was very successful. After the last track, the were even encore-shouts. Well, we only just didn't win the competition (the prize was the release of an own track on the forthcoming Iron Savior-CD), but we had much fun at the gig and got to know many interesting people.