Rotting Christ - Κατά τον δαίμονα εαυτού (2013)

Rotting Christ 

Κατά τον δαίμονα εαυτού 

Season of Mist

2013

The previous album of this greek kommando was a big disappointment for me. It had many great riffs, but arranged in such a... Modern way that I really felt that they were extremely fucked up. It simply lost it's power thanks to that. Happily the new opus Κατά τον δαίμονα εαυτού is much better.
First of all the band came to their senses and once again recorded riffs with no strange arrangment. Thanks to that this release is more similar to "Theogonia" and some previous works. Just listen to the opening track "Xibalba" and you will understand how powerfull is the new material! Extremely fast tempos with massive sound goes into calmer, more ritualistic atmosphere. I don't like most of the "modern" metal productions, but in some way it fits pretty good for this band. Even a sound of drums is not as plastic and irritating as on "Theogonia", so no objections here. The riffing is very characteristic for this band - melodic, yet without no doubt still very extreme. And I must say that the vocals of Sakis are as wine - the older the better hehe.
The occult atmosphere is present in every song - it is created mainly by choirs and sometimes some weird style of singing ("Iwa Voodoo"). It sounds unique, really, 'cuz I don't know many bands that use traditional greek music in their music. So this is in plus. The peculiar track is "Grandis Spiritus Diavolos" with lyrics written in latin and choir singing for almost all the song. It even doesn't sounds dark or obscure just... Peculiar indeed. Also on the album we can find one song which is completely from the outside of metal world - a cover of traditional romanian song Cine Iubeste Si Lasa. This song is very dark itself, but arranged with the usage of piano and electric guitar sounds even more haunted... I could write here more about every song, but I think you already got the proper impression that I worship those tunes? Yeah, this album really seems to haven't even a single weak song. Sure, some of them are more listenable than the others, but taking it all together the album is a pure musical masterpiece. It kicks ass when it is suppossed to do it, and it hypnotize you from time to time with outstanding, unique climate...
So generally speaking the diversity of this album is something that I really enjoy, because I can listen to it replay after replay without being bored. But I can't stand only one thing. Each song tells a story (or is inspired) by many pagan cultures, from many places of the world and scattered widely in time. Sorry to say, but for me it doesn't make any sense. I understand to use the symbols of max two different cultures, but we've got here slavic demon Rusalka, Voodoo religion, Mayan underworlds, persian Ahura Mazda etc. I was wondering if I should reduce the rating, because it's really annoying when you can't identigy yourself with the lyrics. But I decided not to do it - after all the music is very smartly arranged and it is quite homogenous. So I leave for everyone if it's good or not. Beside the lyrics the album is really outstanding and defenitely worth you attention.

Rate: 9/10
Vladyka

A videoclip for "666":

Tracklist:

1. In Yumen - Xibalba

2. P'unchaw kachun - Tuta kachun

3. Grandis Spiritus Diavolos

4. Κατά τον δαίμονα του εαυτού 

5. Cine iubeşte şi lasă 

6. Iwa voodoo

7. Gilgameš 

8. Русалка 

9. Ahura Mazdā-Aŋra Mainiuu 

10. 666