Varathron - The Crimson Temple (2023)

I haven't been enamored with everything Varathron has ever put out (Crowsreign, I'm looking at you), but they've always struck me as the Greek black metal band which took what it was doing most seriously, and the result is usually a work of depth that keeps me coming back for years, whether we're discussing the earlier albums or the underrated modern epics like Untrodden Corridors of Hades and their last one Patriarchs of Evil. So I know immediately without even hearing a note of The Crimson Temple that I can trust what Stefan and company will manifest into the world, and this time it might be an album that many could consider a consummate Hellenic black metal work, one that can withstand almost all scrutiny and hopefully match the timelessness of its lofty forebears.

Note, I'm not saying it's the best, or my favorite for that scene, but if you had someone who wasn't in the know inquiring about the distinction of this niche, The Crimson Temple does it all and then some. Not a 'starter kit', mind you, but an album which is probably accessible to those new to the sound. You have the incorporation of glorious metal melodies into the hammering black substrate, with rhythmic patterns that wouldn't be foreign to their fellows like Rotting Christ. Necroabyssious has just one of those iconic rasped vocals, one of the best in the medium, capable of some sneer and sustain but usually just barking along to the beats and guitars with the utmost occult class. The drumming is great, tribal and ritualistic and definitely helps enhance the more folksy moments of this album, whether they be nestled into the harder tracks like "Crypts in the Mist" or the amazingly festive intro "Ascension". Choirs and other native style instruments are non-intrusive and tastefully implemented only to the elevation of the material.

Most importantly, this is super consistent material, and while it all feels coherent in style, they can throw you for a few loops like the slightly doomier, awesomeness "To the Gods of Yore", the charging force of "Immortalis Regnum Diaboli", or the aforementioned tribal bits which take you back to the ancient times which weigh heavy on Varathron's imagination. All this with a glorious, bombastic production which does justice to all of the instrumentation without being overwrought. Are these always the catchiest guitar riffs in their catalog? Not necessarily, and I'd also add that this is hardly the darkest of their works, I feel like Untrodden Corridors of Hades takes that crown, but this is just so brazen, exotic, and magnificent busting out of my speakers that I couldn't care less. Hellenic black metal royalty retained.

Verdict: Win [8.5/10]

https://varathron.com/

Varathron - Glorification Under the Latin Moon (2020)

Live records come and go from more popular acts stuffing up their contracts or feeling an overzealous need to shower such products upon the masses, but getting to hear one from the mighty Varathron is a treat, because it's just not something I'd expect. Recorded in Brazil back in 2019, this one also stands out because the band includes a full run though its classic His Majesty at the Swamp album from 1993, with a few other formative tunes on there ("Genesis of Apocryphal Desire") and then a few newer pieces. Fine by me, because this is not a band that has lost its touch, and efforts like Patriarchs of Evil, Untrodden Corridors of hades or Stygian Forces of Scorn are just as formidable as the efforts they produced during the rising tide of Hellenic black metal 20-30 years ago.

To top it off, Glorification Under the Latin Moon actually sounds pretty damn good, without ever sounding over-mixed. The drums, synthesizers and vocals are all prominent, but the guitars also shine through, especially since they're so melody-focused and the effects on the rhythm and lead tones just pop right into the atmosphere. This sounds like it was truly a treat to experience, with a solid chunk of picks from their most recent work Patriarch of Evil ("Tenebrous", "Saturnian Sect", "Ouroboros Dweller") all sounding fantastic, and then what everyone was looking forward to, a 40 minute odyssey into Greek black metal nostalgia which sounds like it belongs back in the dingy crypts of antiquity, and I mean that only as a complement. Stefan's vocals sound so gnarly and awesome, a natural product of that Tom G. Warrior gruff rawness, and the keys and guitar on tracks like "Son of the Moon" and "Unholy Funeral" really dazzle. I mean, guilty admission here...I probably enjoyed hearing these tracks in the live format even more than I did listening to them on the studio incarnation of the album almost 30 years ago...

In fact, this might be the best live Greek black metal album I've ever heard? Lucifer Over Athens from Rotting Christ was pretty solid, but this is just amazement. I mean Juanjo's cover art alone might be worth the entry price, giving it a vibe very similar to Walpurgisnacht or the first few Necromantia records. That the performance and selection is so great is merely icing on the cake. Varathron is not a band that makes many missteps (Crowsreign debatable), and this is top shelf. Hear ye this or suck!

Verdict: Win [8.75/10]

https://www.facebook.com/varathron

Varathron - Patriarchs of Evil (2018)

It can't be any coincidence that, ever since Rotting Christ started to take a downward swerve in quality, their countrymen Varathron have really picked up their slack and gone on what must be the most consistent and memorable run of their career, first with the excellent Untrodden Corridors of Hades and following EP The Confessional of the Black Penitents. It's almost like they snuck into the Tolis brothers' minds one eve and devoured their dreams and aspirations, then converting it into their own creativity. I jest, but boy has this band translated this classic Greek black metal style into something truly splendid and fulfilling through the sorts of albums you want to listen to front to end repeatedly, picking out the details each time as they deliver nothing other than solid, worthwhile riffs.

Again, this is not super blasting black metal territory, they can pull that trick out of their collective hats if they need to, but this is more about the varied, slower riffing which draws a lot from thrash metal, but due to the exotic note and chord patterns, the raspy vocals, the choirs and synthesizers and the mighty drumming which feels like the advanced course to Celtic Frost or Therion's foundation. Considering the amount of musical satisfaction you get, they rein a lot of the tracks in around 5-6 minutes, with the exception of the finale, "Ouroboros Dweller (The Dweller of Barathrum)", that clocks in over 8. Within such a humble span they get a lot accomplished, each set of riffs feeling like it tells a complete, grandiose story, and it does, a saga of magic or mystery which transports your mind back several thousand years despite being conveyed to you with instruments that weren't used in this format until fairly late in the 20th century. While the great lyrics often delve into the 'evil' that the album title hints at, Varathron is musically pretty consonant and warm on this record, and I think it'd honestly make a great gateway for fans of epic heavy/doom metal looking to break into the black metal field but striving to avoid the cliches they might not like of lo-fi production and cold Nordic blasts (their loss!) It's just that universal of a sound, despite being part of such a tight regional style.

All the instruments sound clear and effective, and the band can seamlessly mix in acoustic passages to heavier riffs, while Stefan Necroabyssious' primitive grunts are far more effective than you'd think from his range, somehow managing to sound just as distinct and glorious as the brighter melodies of the instruments, only with that crude edge. I don't know that the riff level here is such that every pattern is insanely catchy by itself, but combined into the whole of Patriarchs of Evil, there are few notes here that I'd really want to change. It all serves the mystique of the band's occult explorations well enough that you can forgive an occasional dud, and I admit that this is one of those albums that has continued to grow on me since I first started listening. I'll rate this one even higher now than I would have one year ago, and I think it's very close to being on par with their last (and my favorite) full-length, missing only by a fraction which I'd attribute to just having a stronger connection to that mildly darker experience. But stylistically this is on point, and an essential Greek black metal disc for anyone into their past works or those of their better-known, ailing countrymen.

Verdict: Win [8.5/10] (storms and dead suns)

http://varathron.com/

Varathron - The Confessional of the Black Penitents EP (2015)

As loved as Varathron's first two albums are in the Greek black metal canon, it was the band's decades-long transformation into the atmospheric, epic, dynamic juggernaut Untrodden Corridors of Hades which proved my favorite of their releases, and still quite loyal to the sound they helped develop on their national scene. So needless to say I was quite looking forward to the follow-up, and The Confessional of the Black Penitents EP isn't quite that in its scope, I was at least satisfied to hear that they were largely going to continue the sound from that underrated gem the year before. There isn't a ton of new material to pore over, even though it's 40 minutes of material, but the two 7+ minute new metal tracks are more than satisfactory and could have easily been tacked onto the end of the prior album and contributed even further to its greatness, with only minor tweaks in production.

Heavily varied, constantly interesting, majestic Hellenic black metal, with many know is performed out in a slower fashion than their Scandinavian counterparts, though Varathron can bust out a blast at any second they desire and maintain the same quality. It's all about the mystique, the representation of ancient Gods, temples, and the occult, cultivating nostalgia for fallen times while simultaneously resurrecting it forward to future generations. Grand melodies play out against thundering currents of drumming while a humble rasp leads it all like a tour guide through a violent midnight bacchanal. You can always tell that this crew is putting constant effort into how to piece together their tracks, and I can't imagine any diehard for the classic sounds of Rotting Christ and Varathron not falling for "Sinister Recollection" and "Utter Blackness" upon first listen, they are so well composed and such a dependable manifestation of that scene's cult sound. As for the titular intro piece, it's just some strumming strings with a few rasps above them that let you know the feast is about to begin, and I don't know that it stands on its own quite as much without what is to follow.

Now, if the EP were just this new material I'd rank it accordingly alongside the previous album, but the remaining tracks are from a live gig in Larisa, Greece...and they also sound pretty damn good. The mix is quite clean, permitting you access to the intricacies of the picking, the bass and drums and vocal slather without anything wresting dominance away from the rest. The material is also very level sounding even where it's drawn from such a big spread of their career. "Unholy Funeral", off His Majesty at the Swamp, sounds just as impressively potent as "Kabbalistic Invocation of Solomon" off the last record, and everything fits in so well to the performance, from the choirs and dark ambient back-scapes to the metallic core of the band. The result is that this whole damn EP is worth hearing and owning. You won't find the studio tunes or live cuts elsewhere, everything is quality checked and if you've been into any of their stuff ever (sans the lukewarm Crowsreign) then they've got you well covered.

Verdict: Win [8.25/10]

http://varathron.com/

Varathron - Untrodden Corridors of Hades (2014)

Some part of me was clinging to the assumption that the Untrodden portion of the album title would pan out in the actual composition of the latest Varathron full-length. While I can't say that to be true of the sound here as a whole, since classicist elements like chants have been utilized pretty often in the medium, including efforts from their better recognized countrymen Rotting Christ, this disc does such a superb job of fusing them into the grimier black metal roots of the first few Varathron efforts that I feel the adjective applies, at least to their own legacy. Untrodden Corridors is in fact quite the triumph. Whether it errs on the side of traditional caution, or storms fully into the embrace of its lavish, incendiary production values, this is definitely a work of maturation which becomes greater than the sum of its individual components, and creates an overall satisfying experience I'll be repeating time and time again.

Apart from Crowsreign, I've never been disappointed with a Varathron album, and that remains the truth here. Considering the general length of the tracks, which is around 7-9 minutes, they truly flesh out the songwriting so that there are always pleasant surprised waiting around each corner, whether that's a more melodic, thrashier picking progression or a creepy atmospheric passage with cleaner guitars and grisly, background snarls ("Arcane Conjuring"), you feel like you're being transported through the various chasms of the mythic Greek underworld, Stefan Necroabyssious your demented tour guide, with a voice that lends just as much charisma to a black metal recording as Martin Walkiyier once did to the infernal thrash/speed of the British Sabbat. The guy oozes both menace and a narrative nature which resurrects the many tragic figures of his kingdom's folklore, and it's nearly as much a pleasure to listen to anything he does as to pick and choose among the guitar riffs. There is a definitely a portion of this disc which seems to play it safe, particularly some of the more blasted rhythm guitar accompaniments, but otherwise they are always exploring...in general, the slower the guitar and mid-paced guitars or breakdowns being the most curious.

Bass lines sound fantastic, meaty with just the perfect amount of distortion so they don't spin out of control, as you'll hear on the tune "Leprocious Lord" in which they carry Necroabyssious's carnal presence into those wonderful, popping melodies during the chorus. Easily one of the best tunes in Varathron's entire catalog, and it is not alone here in that regard. Love the percussive technicality of the guitars, constantly shifting up the setting and story of "Death Chant", or some of the pure double bass batteries accompanied by these forced, unusual melodies ("Delve Into the Past"). Kokkinos' drums are absolutely incredible here, throwing interesting and energetic fills everywhere in time with the many significant twists and turns the songs take; a performance on par with many of his peers in the more popular touring European black metal juggernauts. Both electrified and cleaner, expressive guitars on the album also sound amazing, scintillating, and highly responsible for the eclectic yet universally dark mood of the record as a whole.

Kind of like what Behemoth has done with The Satanist, Varathron has also done with Untrodden Corridors of Hades. A veteran band, that some might long have written off as passing their prime, suddenly and unexpectedly arriving at The Top Of Their Game. Production is extremely professional sounding but not glossed over or sterilized...this is a rich, shadowy, voluminous, evil, threatening  Underworld populated with ideas...not all of them unique to Varathron, but enough engagement in these depths to provide a long listening cycle, and as much as I liked its predecessor Stygian Forces of Scorn or their classic debut His Majesty at the Swamp, I have to be honest in that this new record has given me an entirely new appreciation for the Greeks. Not perfectly memorable throughout, but the best I've heard from them yet. Absolutely worth owning. Well done.

Verdict: Win [8.75/10]

http://www.varathron.com/

Varathron/Desolation - Darkness Has Landed EP (2009)

Darkness Has Landed sees a natural team up of the Greek legends Varathron with another long-standing Hellenic band (Desolation) which performs with a brand of death metal not unlike Deicide or Vital Remains, with some thick, thrashing riffage. The cover here looks enticing, a pagan ritual of seduction and sacrifice under the watchful goat and its horns, but the music is unfortunately not that great from either party. No big deal, really, since there were only about 500 of them made and most will just be experiencing the music through the internet.

Varathron can certainly survive this, and their piece is the better of the two, a vicious atmospheric black metal track called "To Thou Who Condemn the Light" with full, deathlike vocals and an air of that classic Greek atmosphere from their earlier albums like Walpurgisnacht (or Rotting Christ). Once it surges into the speed metal licks at its core, and the grandiose atmosphere of the final minute, it really starts to shine like their great Stygian Forces of Scorn album (the same year), but it feels a little tilted towards its latter half. As for Desolation, well, this is a band that have existed since about 1991 in various forms, but never really released anything until theri 2006 effort Eternity of Hell. And now they're back on hiatus. They once had members like Sakis Tolis in their ranks, plus a bunch of dudes from other Greek death metal bands. This song is wholly average, and it had already appeared on the album of the same name...

If I can say something good for them, it's that they offer a lot of variation. The acoustic intro transforms into a pummeling blast beat with melodic speed rhythms under ghastly growls, and they go into a few walls of melody near the bridge (one nice dual muted descending pattern at about 3:00 doesn't rescue it). But nothing really stands out here, not the vocals nor the riff selection, and I'm afraid "Eternity In Hell" is not about to win the veterans much in the way of an expanded fan base. But it's not bad, and the production is pretty tight. At any rate, the coupling of these tracks is sort of a given, since they flesh out a similar expanse of atmospheric territory, but the quality of the former and redundancy of the latter don't make for an engrossing experience, and the cover feels superior to the musical content in the end.

Verdict: Fail [4.75/10]

http://www.myspace.com/varathron
http://www.myspace.com/thetruedesolation

Varathron - Crowsreign (2004)

Crowsreign is considered a bit of an odd duck in the Varathron discography, but I can't agree that it's really all that strange or surprising. The Greeks had been building up to this immersion of atmosphere and modern, cleaner aesthetics, and thus decided to go all out and transform their sound into one more commonly associated with the melodic death metal genre than the rawer, Hellenic black glory of their earlier material. If you had access to their previous release, the 1999 EP The Lament of Gods, then you could see and hear this coming from a mile away, but despite its advanced level of polish, Crowsreign is simply not as charming or resonant as that, and certainly not in league with their first two full-length efforts.

Like their countrymen Rotting Christ and Necromantia, Varathron desired to reshape and redefine their presence in the underground, and so they diversified their sound. The album involves a lot more piano than past works, in addition to more acoustic elements. There are also a ton of these cleaner, schizoid sounding vocals that seem to serve as a strange narration through many of the songs. Sometimes, as in the into "Evil Gets an Upgrade", this feels as if it might make for compelling accompaniment to some fringe theater piece, but then, just as quickly, the band breaks into "There is No God", which transforms a typical melodic power metal guitar line into a storming, melodic black/death sequence and then continues to layer in the synthesizers as the vocals explode into an expansive, death metal growl. This is a pretty honest approximation of much of the content: passionate bursts of metal aggression alternated with tranquil segues, and then Gothy ligaments like the disturbing chant of "Darkness Falling" or the piano sweeping of "Emerging from the Immortals" and its dabs of synthesized choir.

There are several moments of swagger when the pagan, pompous riffing comes together to an appreciable climax in which you can tap your feet, bang your mug on the countertop or whatever the hell floats your fancy, but despite the sheer variation throughout the track list, there are painfully few points of note that you'll remember 15 minutes after the record ends. At 64 minutes, there is a substantial amount of fat to be trimmed, and much of this could be suctioned off from the 12+ minutes of "The King of Asine". I mean, it CAN'T be a good thing when a pure classical interlude like "Spirit of the Tomb" is superior to the rest of the content on the album, but to my regret, that is truly the case with this one. Crowsreign is an accumulation of ideas, reaching out for a broader audience, but finding none. Safe enough to turn away the long time listeners that were fond of the band's roots, but not catchy enough to expand the base either. Surely this isn't the worst deviation we've heard from a band, and in fact it's rather competently executed, but the band themselves even decided to turn this vessel back around half a decade later with Stygian Forces of Scorn (a considerably superior offering).

Verdict: Indifference [6/10] (a lake of fallen feelings)

http://www.myspace.com/varathron

Varathron - The Lament of Gods EP (1999)

Varathron would close their 90s run out with their most varied and atmospheric work yet, The Lament of Gods, though it would also be their last release for half a decade. At this point in history, it had become pretty clear that the band was not going to see the broader success of countrymen Rotting Christ (and to a lesser extent, Septic Flesh), but alongside the infallible Necromantia, they provided a strong second tier of Hellenic extremity for those with the time and curiosity. The four originals on the EP feature a solid range of roughly mixed guitars, Stefan Necroabyssiou's most brutal vocals (at times even reminding me of Martin van Drunen), and by far the most audacious use of keyboards on any of their recordings, placing both a cheesy charisma and psychedelic spin on the music which occasionally draws a comparison to Tangerine Dream or the Greek-born Vangelis.

"Fire Spell/Forbidden Lust" is an adequately epic opener, with steady, mid-paced riffs drawing back to their His Majesty at the Swamp period, conjoined with trippy, punctual synth lines that ride the verse. It picks up the pace accordingly through the bridge, with glinting keys and a faint but audible clean guitar line over the flowing bass, for a slight progressive rock vibe. "The World Through Ancient Eyes" threads sweeping ascending/descending pianos through sparse yet driving black doom guitar chords, with an effective breakdown in which the pianos move into the lower registers for a convincing, Gothic release. "Beyond the Grave" is also a hugely atmospheric piece, while "Warriors Nightmare" rolls along with a Rotting Christ, majestic gait before it morphs into a desperate charge itself. Lastly, the Greeks offer us their rendition of "Nuns Have No Fun" from Mercyful Fate, complete with Gregorian chanted intro and more of the shiny synthesizers that they used in "Forbidden Lust", which are admittedly corny but fall in line with the spirit of the Mercyful Fate EP original (1982).

It's obvious to note why some would take issue with The Lament of Gods, for the production is rather lo-fi and sounds as if were recorded in a retrofitted bathroom at best. This has not always been a problem personally in appreciating underground black metal works, but I can't help but think that a cleaner alternative with louder guitars would have more impact than what we're given. But you can still hear just about everything, and the loose and progressive spin the band has put on the compositions would have made for a fascinating future direction, though it's not quite what would manifest five years down the stretch in the divisive Crowsreign. Anyhow, if you weren't offended by the rugged engineering behind His Majesty at the Swamp, you could view this EP as its toking, acid-dropping little brother, hallucinating back into the ancient past. A consistent curiosity, if not exactly a Cyclopean effort.

Verdict: Win [7/10] (through my lifeblood it courses)

http://www.varathron.net/

Varathron - Genesis of Apocryphal Desire (1997)

I'm often lauded or loathed for my general hostility towards metal (or really any musical) compilations, but my opinion stands that the best are those used to gather rare or unreleased material for fans that had no real access to it in the past. Varathron's Genesis of Apocryphal Desire is one such exception, a grasp into the band's 1989-1991 era with a few unreleased tracks from the mid-90s tacked on as a bonus. Despite a few redundancies, it stands alongside the band's first two full-lengths His Majesty at the Swamp and Walpurgisnacht as the quintessential trinity of go-to efforts from this overlooked treasure, though I must warn that much of the material contained herein is not necessarily in the same distinctly Greek style as the 90s full-lengths.

Of special importance to me here are the band's demos, Procreation of the Unaltered Evil (1989) and Genesis of Apocryphal Desire (1991), which are included in full and make up for most of the compilation's play length. Procreation... has a darker, death/thrash vibe to it, but supports strong riffing, ghoulish vocals and trippy effects in "Necranastasis", and a more glorious gait in "Dawn of Sordid Decay" that inevitably explodes into the faster black/thrash riffing. I've already made my feelings clear about "Genesis of Apocryphal Desire", an amazing black/thrash tune that appeared on the One Step Beyond Dreams EP, but the same-titled demo also includes a few of the tracks from the Necromantia split ("La Reine Noir", "The Tressrissing of Nyarlathotep"), and a pretty crisp and excellent death bludgeon called "Seven Endless Horizones" which stands as one of my favorites for this particular release.

Beyond these, there are a trio of tracks previously unreleased. "The Great Seal of Graal" is a morbid, swaggering black/doom piece recorded far back in 1989, which is genuinely dark, though I did not enjoy the snappish, under produced drums. "The Mystic Papyrus", from 1993, has a style to it redolent of their debut full-length His Majesty at the Swamp. The verse rhythms are not exactly distinct, but I enjoy the melodic canter of the bridge and the ensuing break into double bass driven melodic death muting. "Deep Beneath an Ancient Dominion" is the third and best produced of these, not to mention the most recent, from 1995, and has a very similar tone to what you'd hear on Walpurgisnacht, or the Rotting Christ efforts Thy Mighty Contract or Non Serviam. Again, not too memorable, but good enough that it's a boon in conjunction with the remainder of this material.

Admittedly, Genesis of Apocryphal Desire could be somewhat more complete if they had incorporated the rest of their half of the Necromantia split (like "The Cult of the Dragon"), and the A-side of the One Step Beyond Dreams EP, but as it stands its still a good value if you're fond of the band's studio output. The demos show a mildly darker Varathron that might have been, had the band leaned further towards their grisly death/thrash origins, but you can clearly hear the evolutions through the years by comparing this to His Majesty at the Swamp, and that is the best purpose something this can ever serve. Of course, this all hinges on the assumption that most who check this out will not own all of the constituent sources. If so, this is easily ignored.

Verdict: Win [7.5/10] (the visible disorder)

http://www.varathron.net/

Varathron - Walpurgisnacht (1995)

Largely content with the style they achieved on their debut His Majesty at the Swamp, Varathron set out for more of the same with the follow-up Walpurgisnacht. Most of the differences here come from the cleaner production. The album sounds nowhere near as dry as its predecessor, and there is a margin more depth to the actual songwriting, with a more varied range and more pronounced atmospheric passages in several of the tracks. That said, though, they still sound quite similar to their countrymen Rotting Christ, and nowhere near as vile or memorable as Necromantia, whose own sophomore album Scarlet Evil Witching Black was perhaps the hottest and most hellish album the Greek scene ever produced.

But Walpurgisnacht has its place, and I found myself content with the dynamics here, from the tranquil Gothic metal inflections of "The Dark Hills" and its whispered prose, to the harrowing thunder of "Birthrise of the Graven Image" and its incessant charge towards a glory riff in the bridge that wouldn't have been out of place on Non Serviam or Thy Mighty Contract. Where the band goes all out atmosphere, like the majority of "Mestigoth"'s militant bombast or the elegant, soothing seductions of "Somewhere Beyond Seas", or the piano ("Redeunt Saturnia Regina") or acoustic ("Sic Transit Gloria Mundi") interludes, they show a seasoned depth that many bands in the black metal genre of the early to mid 90s would have been afraid to explore, transcending well beyond the boundaries of the medium. But the balance is best channeled into "Under the Sight of Horus", a tune which ranges from lush vistas of forsaken paradise (synths and clean guitars) to thunder and momentum.

There are a few guest solos here from Sotiris of the equally atmospheric Septic Flesh, a trait that further cements the unity these core Greek bands held with one another. I also really enjoy the freakish cover art: biblical, bestial, symbolic and mysterious all at once. From a production perspective, it sounds better than anything else the album ever released until Stygian Forces of Scorn, many years later. Fans of Rotting Christ up to and including Triarchy of the Lost Lovers would do well to check it out, and even through Walpurgisnacht is hardly Greek royalty, its a potent enough successor to one of the scene's cult favorites.

Verdict: Win [7.5/10] (we put our souls between)

http://www.varathron.net/

Necromantia/Varathron - Black Arts Lead to Everlasting Sins (1994)

Though the version I'm reviewing here is the 1994 Unisound CD reissue, The Black Arts/The Everlasting Sins was originally an LP release from two years prior. It's also one of the most formative and important releases in all of the Greek pantheon, despite the divided attentions one might suspect from any such pair of artists. In particular, I would have to cite Necromantia's 'side' of the split as the most eerie and accommodating material they've written in their career; Varathron's contribution is worthwhile, and some of their best, but the first half hour of this album is about as good as the black metal scene has ever been from this country, and you should track it down at all costs if you've even the faintest interest in this scene.

The Necromantia songs are culled from their 1992 demo Vampiric Rituals (excepting the tracks "Faceless Gods" and "La Mort"), and its simply astonishing how perfectly crafted and atmospheric the duo can write with simply the drums, bass and Daoloth's horrifically realized vocals. "Lord of the Abyss" is this droning, soupy admixture of bass guitar and evil that shrivels the heartstrings of morality as it steers towards a hellish apex deep in the bridge with spooky piano strikes and the contribution of a guitar lead. "The Feast of Ghouls" begins with a moody organ and then erupts into a faster, blacker pace with more vomited, incredulous vocals; while "Evil Prayers" is a sparser, tribal chanting with synthesizers and whispers, and "Lycanthropia" is under two minutes of arching, nightmare growls adjoined to winding guitars (rare for their music) over a steady bass-line. "De Magia Veterum" is the one Necromantia track not on the original LP version of the split, a 10 minute sprawl of loosely organized energy, maniacal laughter and hideous unrest: as if the band laced a hookah with arsenic and angel dust, took a few hits, and danced about their studio in a dark, Dionysian revelry...with the record button on.

As for Varathron, their work here too is drawn from a demo, Genesis of Apocryphal Desire (1991) which is coincidentally the title of one of their best songs. The version of that actual song and its neighbor "Descent of a Prophetic Vision" are repressed on the CD version from the One Step Beyond Dreams EP (also 1991), so if you've had a hard time tracking that down, this is a better place to own it, collected within such a company of greatness. I've already reviewed that in the EP form, so the draw here would be the powerful synthesizer intro "The Cult of the Dragon", the slowly accelerating black/thrash piece "The Tressrissing of Nyarlathotep", and the gloomy "La Reine Noir" with its Slayer-like ("South of Heaven") melodic spikes. This material is manifest at a natural bridge between their thrashing, nasty roots and the slower, atmospheric direction they'd use for His Majesty at the Swamp, clearly in the vein of friends Rotting Christ, so those who regretted the decision to move away from the thrashing holistic madness of "Genesis..." will be thrilled to be met half way.

Obviously, I do like the Necromantia half of the split far more than the other, so that drags its value down mildly away from perfection, but kudos to both bands here for assembling demos that just feel so 'right' together. This serves better than almost any other recording in its field as an introduction to what Greek black metal was all about. Perhaps you could purchase this and Thy Mighty Contract and receive a more complete perspective, but it would also stand alone. The crude demo-level production works admirably in both cases, and the compositions reek of refreshing imagination and even a tinge of innovation (not so much in Varathron's case). There's a bit of redundancy, sure, like "Lord of the Abyss" appearing on Crossing the Fiery Path, but most in the audience won't have easy access to the demo recordings that comprise most of its play length. As it contains more content, and great content, the CD is preferred to a rip of the original LP. At any rate, this is certainly one of the best 'split' releases that I've been privileged to possess in all of metal music, and there's no reason to avoid its dim and diabolic whims unless you're a fucking poseur and a half, or naturally...deaf.

Verdict: Epic Win [9/10] (your corpse is my rebirth)

http://www.myspace.com/necromantiaband
http://www.varathron.net/

Varathron - His Majesty at the Swamp (1993)

It might come as somewhat of a surprise that I find Varathron's full length debut to be a disappointment. Not that it's a bad album, per se, because in fact, His Majesty at the Swamp is pretty damn good. The letdown stems from the fact that where the band showed such a distinction from their Greek peers on the One Step Beyond Dreams EP, this album is more or less barking up the same trees as the better known Rotting Christ on their Passage to Arcturo and Thy Mighty Contract albums: generally slow, plodding black metal with straight thrash or heavy metal rhythms tucked into a grim vocal atmosphere, backing synthesizers and other cheesy effects used to give it that unquestionably Greek environment.

There are some marginally faster passages scattered through this album, but the skin shredding, pick me up thrash/black of "Genesis of Apocryphal Desires" is entirely absent. Considering the close relationship Varathron have with their brother band, it's not so stunning. Even here, there remains some crossover, with bassist Jim Mutilator serving in both (though Themis Tolis, who performed on the EP, has been replaced here by 'Wolfen', who may or may not be the same person for all I know). So forgive me if I consider this to be a companion piece to Thy Mighty Contract: aside from Necroabyssious' broader, more bloodied vocal presence, that is precisely what it is. Even the composition of the guitars begs a comparison. The late, accelerated melodic picking in "Lustful Father" is similar to what Rotting Christ would mutate and recycle for years (it's even written by Sakis Tolis himself); while the slower, doom-driven pieces like "Unholy Funeral" and "Son of the Moon (Act III)" are also highly redolent of their kin, not to mention the parched production.

That being said, I still really dig the atmosphere here. The synthesizer and whisper-strewn title track intro is admittedly pretty freaky, while the songs are suitably dark and dreary. A few of the riffs in "Nightly Kingdoms" and "The Tressrissing of Nyariathoth" show a slight Celtic Frost inspiration, with tiny grooves amidst their loosely thrashing gait. The fact that the tracks were recorded in three separate spans of time does have an effect on the album's consistency, and the varied sounds do tend to jerk the listener out of the experience, but the composition itself is level throughout. If I had to pick a favorite it would be "Flowers of My Youth", which is perhaps the closest in pace and atmosphere to the previous EP, at least the slower sequences there in "Descent of a Prophetic Vision". However, the album in its entirety is reasonably cool if you're into the primitive, old-school sound from this country.

Rotting Christ, Necromantia, Nergal, Zemial, Thou Art Lord, and Varathron: they all seem to creep along at their own stride, mindless of the ripping, rasping velocity being spun out of the rest of Europe. His Majesty at the Swamp takes its time drawing you in, but it inevitably gets there, assuming the listener's affections are not so easily broken by the crude production values here. I can't say I enjoyed the songwriting quite so much as Thy Mighty Contract in the long term, but you can very easily get lost in this if you're seeking a parallel. The memorable artwork and grimy sound engineering only add to the flavor, that of frosted moors and mist shrouded sadness and revenge.

Verdict: Win [8/10] (footprints in the weeping ground)

http://www.varathron.net/

Varathron - One Step Beyond Dreams EP (1991)

Varathron was another of the formative Greek black metal acts, with a cycle of development which paralleled Rotting Christ. It's not all that much of a surprise, seeing that two of the members of that band played on this recording (drummer Themis and bassist Jim Mutilator), and the thrashing death fundamentals from which both bands sprung also play a heavy hand in the composition. However, where Rotting Christ's Passage to Arcturo took a decidedly slower, more atmospheric approach to this newfound territory, the mighty Varathron countered with some faster, vicious, and far more exciting material that was quite frankly exciting.

While it is doubtful that many would be able to get their hands on a copy of the One Step Beyond Dreams EP, limited to about a thousand copies, the material has fortunately been re-released through later collections like the 2004 reissue of Genesis of Apocryphal Desire. So now there is really no excuse not to experience it. The original 7" consists of but two tracks. The slower piece, "Descent of a Prophetic Vision" features some churning Celtic Frost inspiration which later transforms into a bursting bridge of thrash acceleration and a gloomier lead sequence behind which the music sounds similar to something off Passage to Arcturo. But "Genesis of Apocryphal Desire" is the real reason to listen, a hook-laden transgression with an addictive influence from Possessed and Slayer in the central riffs. This is easily one of my favorite Varathron tunes in their entire history.

Themis' drums are ferocious and far exceed the energy on the Rotting Christ EP, while frontman Stefan Necroabyssious coughs out a garbled, violent guttural style with all the grace of a knife bearing serial stalker. The guitars are mixed very much like an underground thrash demo, or Reign in Blood: crisp and clear and evil enought to carry the force of the brutality like a hatchet to the listener's face. "Descent..." is not quite so punishing or memorable, and it doesn't deserve the A-side, but the riffs there are at least pretty tight. Obviously, being so brief (six and a half minutes), the EP doesn't create the same fulfillment as the full-length His Majesty at the Swamp, but was a feral enough introduction to one of the brightest burning fires in all the Greek scene, it served its purpose.

Verdict: Win [7.75/10] (object of diabolical art)

http://www.varathron.net/

Varathron - Stygian Forces of Scorn (2009)

Varathron are one of the original occult black metal bands out of Greece, and stand as minor legends alongside their countrymen Necromantia and Rotting Christ. In the past decade, their output has been rather widespread, with a nine year gap between Walpurgisnacht and Crowsreign, and another half decade until this. Fortunately, there has been no impact on the quality of music the band is releasing: black metal with some melodic and symphonic elements, a dark and ethnic pulse coursing through the sinister veins.

"Behind the Mask" opens with a grim, epic choir, soon consumed in an onslaught of melodic riffing and harsh vocals which straddle the fence between black and deathstyles. "Legends of Demusar" follows with some percussive riffs below a descending, fallen angel choral pattern. I loved the balance of Necroabyssious' vocals behind the verse. "Legends of Profane Wrath" begins with some fine, melodic chugging not unlike mid-period Rotting Christ. Though the album has many memorable moments, some of my other favorite tracks included the sorrowful "Where the Walls Weep", the epic "Lord of Illusions" and the cruising melody of "Sacred Ahlat".

The album sounds extremely cool, with crunchy guitar rhythms and melodies that pop straight out at you. The bass weaves beneath the compositions like a mystic weaving his fingers into occult magick, and the vocals kick ass. Stygian Forces of Scorn is on par with most of the band's back catalogue, so whether you're a long-term fan or into fellow greeks Rotting Christ I'd advise you check this out.

Verdict: Win [8/10]

http://www.varathron.net/