Nightfall - Children Of Eve (Season Of Mist)
Hellenic scene veterans Nightfall once again lay down a furious 40 or so minutes of melodic black metal with their latest offering Children Of Eve.
The album foursome of Efthimis Karadimas (vocals), Kostas Kyriakopoulos (guitars), Vasiliki Biza (bass) and Fotis Benardo (drums), locked down at Bernardo's Devasoundz Studios in Athens and recorded this new record. While the line ups change every time it's Karadimas who continues to be the blackened heart of Nightfall.
Efthimis, Fotis and Thimios Krikos (Innerwish guitarist) produced, while Jacob Hansen mixed and mastered in his usual style, allowing the choruses and melodies to shine without sacrificing the extreme metal savagery, the fusion of gothic introspection and black metal malevolence and ongoing theme in Nightfall's music since back in 1991.
Often spoken about in the same sentence as Rotting Christ and Septicflesh when talking about bands who are at the cutting edge of the Greek extreme metal scene. Nightfall alongside those two others are also revered as veterans of the scene. Worthy of all the acclaim levelled at them, this unholy trio being the first Greek bands to sign to a international label. Pioneers of the genre there doesn't seem to be any stopping them on album number eleven.
Children Of Eve follows a familiar lyrical path for Greek extreme metal bands, distain for the Orthodox Church, the anger and horror of the increasing bastardisation of the holy doctrine to exert control a majored factor of the rage on this record but it's also got a personal level to it as Efthimis was diagnosed with depression, channelling his feeling of isolation through songs such as Inside My Head, the band have also established Metal Music Against Depression, to raise awareness
Unleashing their latest record with I Hate, Nightfall make an immediate impression as tremolo picking riffs, a double kick battery and those vocal snarls are backed by some haunting female vocals, which re-appear on the pulsating Seeking Revenge, Nightfall up the extremity though with an increasing death metal quotient on The Cannibal and For The Exiled Ones and full bore black metal on The Traders Of Anathema. None of the 10 songs here hang around, most are between 4 and 5 minutes Nightfall at the stage of their career now where they know just how to attack.
For more than 30 years they've been in the top ranks of the Hellenic black metal world and this isn’t going to change on the basis of how damn good Children Of Eve is. 9/10
Lloth - Archees Legeones (Theogonia Records)
Continuing to honour their founder who passed away in 2014, Lloth are not out to reinvent Hellenic Black Metal, more over they are paying homage to the greats of the genre by aiming their sound towards the recent Rotting Christ material. This means that there are flurries of black metal that sit in combination with death metal battery, the orchestrations in the background giving a broader scale but Archees Legeones (Anceint Legions) relies on simplicity to get its message across.
The production of George Emmanuel has it sounding cavernous, but still raw and powerful, the drum sound is really worth noting. Both guitarists are former members of Desert Near The End which gives them a groove. A groove that lets the head bang, the blast beats flow but always with a considered power about it, keys used for atmosphere and cinematics as they blend harsh black metal and booming cleans on the title track, while on Archerodas they have a swashbuckling swagger from folk metal, including shepherd pipes as the lyrics are all in their native Greek.
I will say that they do add their own touches but Lloth owe a huge amount to Rotting Christ and Varathon on Archees Legeones, if you like those bands, like I do, you’ll like this one just don’t go expecting anything radical. 7/10
Exilium Noctis – Pactum Diaboli (Black Lion Records)
The second album from Volos based band Exilium Noctis is another journey through intense black metal. Their debut was in 2022 but they have been honing their skills on stage since then in Greece’s fertile black metal scene and it seems that they are coming out all guns blazing on this second record.
A steady build of an intro track Adventus Tenebrarum, incites an occult atmosphere before All Shall Burn summons the darkness with classic black metal trappings. The title comes from Goethe’s influential tragedy Faust and the influence is felt throughout the record, that classical piece of literature dealing with selling your soul to the devil and the struggle between good and evil is referenced throughout the record with some samples of Jan Švankmajer’s film Faust used during Devil’s March.
These are all standard influences for black metal bands but Exilium Noctis make sure that they put them across with technically impressive black metal, on Fall Of Babylon the guitars bear their teeth as they intertwine and duel while on Decorum Cremator and Devil’s March, there’s a punishing approach from the mechanical rhythm section Deorum Cremator and Rise Of The Serpent bares it’s venom soaked fans in a strong climax. With a few guests from the Greek scene included, Exilium Noctis improve in all aspects on their second album, a technical black metal record that is an inviting descent into hell. 8/10
The Unconfessed – Madness From The Sea (Self Released)
Madness From The Sea is a record that is much rawer than the other records reviewed here. The Larissa band suffer in the production stakes but there’s a meanness in these tracks, a rabid attack of pained vocals, tremolo picking and progressive moments that are driven by some orchestration and backing choirs. It all shows ambition but not always spot on with the execution.
In the tape trading era this would hit the spot and will with many but black metal now, especially the Greek scene, is much more refined in terms of production so it’s a little bit of an odd experience listening to a record with the vocals so high in the mix. Away from that though Madness From The Sea has enough callbacks to Venom, Celtic Frost and of course Rotting Christ, Varathron et al to satisfy.
Savage and simple, The Unconfessed are perhaps a little unprocessed but fun enough if you want no frills blackened thrash. 6/10
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