Band: Rotting Christ
Country of Origin: Greece
Genre: Atmospheric Dark / Black metal
Type: Full Length
Format: 2 12" Vinyls (45 RPM)
Length Approx.: 53:00 min.
Length Approx.: 53:00 min.
Release Date: 02-12-2016
Release Label: Season of Mist
IR Classification: Good (3.7 / 5)
Listen our review! (English)
The sound captured in "Rituals" is
cohesive and bizarre
Undoubtedly the Greeks Rotting Christ are an iconic band
within the genre of metal music, with twenty-nine years in their backs and
eleven previous recordings, they throw us their newest production entitled
"Rituals", containing eleven cuts very heavy, dark and loaded of cryptic
ambience, very ritualistic as it asserts the title of the album by itself, this
is an album hard to swallow in a single night once you hit the play button you
better be patience to listen song by song until the end with the most open mind
to perceive what they have been trying to play for the last decade an unusual
blend of extreme, obscure and simplistic metal.
There is nothing wrong with such formula, but
over the years tends to be something not surprising at all, the songwriting
excels in few songs retaining your attention and for a couple of minutes
banishes the monotonous and repetitive sound, due to the pungent riffage,
disturbing drums and throaty vocals, the Gregorian chants add a dark vibe and
mythic.
The sound captured in "Rituals" is cohesive and
bizarre from the beginning you can appreciate it "In Nomine Dei
Nostri" with rigorous fluid and crude recited prose immerses you in a
dense and macabre atmosphere, "Ze Nigmar" it just extends in the same
vein as the previous track with more corrosive guitar work, it is followed by
"Elthe Kyrie" fast riffage since the beginning turns to be very
infectious with the decadence inflicted and therefore, this is the most catchy
cut in the album, saturated in melodies and powerful vocals well mixed with
female clean vocals of Danai Katsameni she is an actress of the National
Hellenic Theater and she owns the piece in a unique way and leads to excellent
guitar solo, I will skip few song just to land in "Les Litanies De
Satan" is structured with slow riffing and fast marching drumming,
infusing an aggressive sense that allows Vorph (Samael) to infringe raw vocals
in french, "For a Voice Like a Thunder" featuring Nick Holmes
(Paradise Lost) delivering astonishing spoken words in the background interwoven
with the relentless guitar riffing and compact drumming to induce the
catharsis, "Devadevam" stand out for the use of Hindu style melodies
blended with some kind of atmospheric black metal and embedding of the pseudo
Gregorian choirs, "The Four Horsemen" you might think is a cover of
the classic Metallica repertoire, but definitely is not! is a mid pace track
with somber elements marauding between doom like passages and eerie ambient
sound effects beautifully crafted but distant and omnipresent, the closing
track is "Lok'tar Ogar" which work more as a filler for me, for the
repetitive elements already mentioned.
Tolis Brother's and company has delivered an
album that barely reach what I could describe above average, lacking dynamics
and repetitive at some point, with a handful of decent tracks that worth the
time to listen, I still missing the Rotting Christ of yore and I still playing
very often their four first releases, however if you like what they have been
playing during the last ten years, I'm sure you will disagree with me and I
will be happy if that happen.
Stay True… Stay Metal… Stay Brutal...
Track List:01. In Nomine Dei Nostri
02. זה נגמר (Ze Nigmar)
03. Ἐλθὲ κύριε (Elthe Kyrie)
04. Les Litanies de Satan (Les Fleurs du Mal)
05. Ἄπαγε Σατανά (Apage Satana)
06. Του θάνατου (Tou Thanatou)
07. For a Voice like Thunder
08. Konx om Pax
09. देवदेवं (Devadevam)
10. The Four Horsemen
11. Lok'tar Ogar (Bonus track)
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