Caelestia – Revelations In Black (Eclipse Records) From Athens, Greece comes
Revelations In Black the new album from Caelestia, their third album overall it’s their first since 2017 and features drummer Marc Reign who has previously played with, well, everyone but mainly acts such as Destruction and Morgoth. His addition has brought them yet more ferocious aggression and a broader scope than before because of his skill.
Caelestia, like fellow Greeks Septicflesh, combine sweeping symphonic elements with a mixture of European and American death metal, the musical power harnessed by produced Zack Ohren who makes sure that each moment of this technically impressive death metal can be heard, from the thick groove from Stelios “SD” Tragos (bass) and blistering drumwork of Reign, through the virtuoso guitar prowess of Andrew Geo and Bill (Vassilis) Thomas.
Acoustic beginnings give way to the rumbling
Buried while the atmosphere builds for the consuming grind of
Jutlan,
Wolves brings the Gothenburg double kicks and some US style aggression as vocalist Pantelis “Lordwinter” Daskalelos’ has some massive gutturals right from the depths of hell, barking even when they take a more doom driven route on
Fall Of The Demon King. A band like Caelestia bring a lot of expertise to their music but with this third album they have shifted to a much higher level, the metallic assault, the symphonic elements, the varied compositions there’s something for fans of all death metal fans on
Revelations In Black.
8/10Ambrotos – Atrocious Chants (Satanath Records & WP Productions)Black metal bands from Greece, there’s quite a lot of them but Ambrotos has return after four years with their new album
Atrocious Chants. Featuring a realigned line up with a new vocalist and the addition of keyboard player joining the founding guitarist and drummer to make this new version of Ambrotos it’s most vicious.
Atrocious Chants is a concept record which explores the depictions of Satan in Medieval and Byzantine narrative surrounding the fall of Constantinople and how faith was used as a way of persecution above all else, influencing conflicts that have been inflicted on humanity due to religious differences.
Because this is conceptually driven black metal, it means that Ambrotos can shift their focus away from glacial blasts to heavy chugs, through ambient moments and then back to the black metal intensity as tracks such as
The Age Of Torture,
Horned Gods and
The Black One display.
Hellenic black metal has a certain expectation to it and Ambrotos exceed this expectations with this conceptual records.
7/10Heretic Cult Redeemer – In Oculum Chaos (Serpent Sun Records) Athenian four piece Heretic Cult Redeemer have been placing Satanic blessings on the world since their covenant began in 2009.
Through three previous full lengths and two splits they have been refining their Avant Garde black metal taking it into realms only visited by the likes of Dødheimsgard and Greek bands Acrimonious and Serpent Noir, both of whom have previously featured members of Heretic Cult Redeemer.
If you’re not familiar with what Avant Garde black metal is then this is good place to start as it’s a style of extreme metal that draws from various genres and musical styles to make it’s point. Yes there’s tremolo picking and blast beats but many of these songs have a foreboding atmosphere, irregular time signatures, jazz flourishes and angular noise.
Add to that some varied and unhinged vocals and you’ve basically got what Heretic Cult Redeemer, having steadily built into the band they are today’s since their debut, In Oculum Chaos is as wild and chaotic as it’s title. 7/10
Cleavercult – A Throne Made By Human Parts (Self Released)
Brutal death metal that comes from Northern Greece. Comprised of guitarist Nikk aka Hellmaster 666 of Temple Of Katharisis, vocalist Valantis Cannibal and bassist Alex, they formed in 2020 to play the most disgusting form of death metal they can influenced by Cannibal Corpse, Dying Fetus and Deicide.
Kicking off with the explosive sub 3 minute assault of Deadly Reflections, this record is full of the standard brutal death samples, on Disgusting & Deformed a scream of “You’re Going To Die” begins another sub 3 minute blast of guttural growls and grinding riffs.
Most of the songs on A Throne Made By Human Parts are below 3 minutes but for me that’s probably about as much brutal death as I want, short, sharp, stabs of extremity that arrive and then leave just as quickly, created for maximum intensity you want from blood spilling brutal death without sacrificing complexity. 7/10
