What can I say about one of the oldest Goth/Black metal acts ever that can't already be said? I mean come on, who in the metal world hasn't at least heard the name "Rotting Christ", not only because they're respectable musicians, but also because their name is controversial. Rotting Christ, circa 1987, has had many realms to their music, starting as Grind, moving to black metal, and finally situating in Melodic Black Metal with a Goth side-dish on their platter. Whatever, lets continue...
AEALO - Basically deriving its name from a Greek word meaning warrior - is a highly emotional piece of work. I do feel much pain in Sakis' lyrics this time around, almost as much as A Dead Poem felt to me even. This album is a concept of what a warrior goes through in battle, which is very philosophical. When I first heard the album, I had gotten a leak of it through a friend who searches for this sort of thing. I will say that the album started out more intense as they have ever sounded, almost back to their oldschool Black metal stuff. It was really fast paced, often having a polka feel to the drums, and having the melodic, yet crunchy guitars that Rotting Christ so makes their own.
When the first poetic verse starts, AEALO screams vengeance from its fiery throat, and you feel anger. The album though, does slow and it does get very sappy towards the middle. It slows down and does many Greek folk melodies - having drum beats and female choir vocals. "Nekron Iashes..." is a complete folk song, and it hits the slow part of the album, but the album does take a dark twist talking about what a warrior goes through and his slow decent into insanity and depravity. The thing that I didn't like about the album is that they really didn't expound. All they did was get you amped - then let you kinda fall into a depression, and didn't leave you on any sort of note other then "well you're dead, life's shit, you die". It was a twist of emotions that I was not expecting.
The guitar work is a lot more theoretical and technical this time through, unlike Theogonia, which was very base guitar work. This album explores the artist's abilities a lot, especially Sakis' guitar solos. I will say that this album is on par with Sanctus Diavolos when it comes to high paced, melodic solos that never stop.
Rotting Christ have explored many types of philosophical, emotional and religious elements, but nobody, not even them, have explored the slow spiral of insanity that a warrior goes through in battle. Basically the album follows the same theme as Cradle of Filth's Godspeed on the Devil's Thunder, in the way that it shows a fresh warrior who slowly turns toward darkness, and finally dies. I do apologize for the comparison, but it's the only one I can think of right now.
You know, there's not much to say about the instrumental, or vocal aspects to this album. Yeah, it's a new album. Yeah, it's interesting, but it's still Rotting Christ - through and through. They've always got that sound to them that they will never change now that they have their niche. I will say that it was interesting to see a lot of the songs have folk stuff to them, which IS out of their sound, but still when the simplistic riffs come in, and the drums follow a similar pattern, and Sakis' growl kicks in, you know its going to be another Rotting Christ album.
Another thing that peaked my interest was that Sakis has changed his style of singing slightly. Instead of focusing on high end screams and a raspy voice so known to him, he tried back end vocals, focusing more on growling and melodicly screaming most of the time. It was a pleasant change, but still - Rotting Christ.
Overall, I will say this album is memorable, especially since the philosophy behind the album has never been done. Highlights include AEALO, Noctis Era, Fire Death and Fear, Pir Threnotai, and Thou Art Lord. I recommend you stay away from the cover on the song, because it's boring and drawn out till they curbstomped it a couple of times too many...American History X style.
Many of the songs sound similar (as always), but the album is good, and it's great to see that a class act black metal band still has it in them.
