Tracklist:
1. In
Nomine Dei Nostri 2. זה נגמר (Ze Nigmar)
3. Ἐλθὲ κύριε (Elthe Kyrie)
4. Les Litanies de Satan (Les Fleurs du Mal)
5. Ἄπαγε Σατανά (Apage Satana)
6. Του θάνατου (Tou Thanatou) (Nikos Xylouris cover)
7. For a Voice like Thunder
8. Konx om Pax
9. देवदेवं (Devadevam)
10. The Four Horsemen (Aphrodite's Child cover)
This is
the new album from the Greek extreme metal duo Themis Tolis and Sakis Tolis who
make up Rotting Christ. Considering
how much this band’s sound has changed over the nearly three decades it has
been around I was not sure what to expect from this release, and I would be
lying if I said I was more than a little pessimistic about it, however, my
grumpy elitism and pessimism was thankfully misplaced.
The
overall feel of the album is that each track is some kind of monolithic ritual
to summon some kind of dark, ancient deity. And the method being used to summon
this being is incredibly sharp and very catchy riff work from Sakis Tolis,
along with powerful drum work and a superb mix of spoken word, Gregorian style
chant, throat singing and some good old fashioned semi clean death metal vocals.
The albums overall sound is incredibly crushing and atmospheric in nature, and
is about as far as it’s possible to be from the kind of sound we heard on the band’s
first demo Leprosy of Death back in
1988.
In my
opinion the best track’s on this album are the second track Ze Nigmar and the ninth track Devadevam,
which features
some fucking sitar playing for crying out loud! However this whole album should
be listened to as one piece, as once broken down into tracks some of the power
and drive that the album delivers is lost.
Overall I think
that this album, despite all the shit it has been getting from the mainstream
metal press, is pretty damn excellent. It doesn’t lose focus, and concludes
very powerfully with a great Aphrodite's
Child cover. I highly recommend this album to fans of later Rotting Christ material and to most
black and death metal fans who like to have some experimentation of their
albums. Buy the album here and here
Mind, Blown!!!
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