Rotting Christ – Triarchy of the Lost Lovers – Review

Rotting Christ

Triarchy of the Lost Lovers (Century Media)
by Chris Dick

Oh lovers of light, prepare for thy downfall! From the Hellenic shores of Greece arrives one of the longest standing contemporary black metal outfits: Rotting Christ. While their name implies the obvious, Rotting Christ are all about professionalism and, more importantly, black metal. To throw this band in with all the misdirected black metal bands of mainland Europe would be a faulty maneuver; Rotting Christ know how to write coherent, melodic songs. And, yes, they do have black metal personalities with names like Necromayhem, Mutilator, and Necrosavron, but these theatrics are easily overlooked when you hear Triarchy for the Lost Lovers, their first for Century Media. Comparisons are abound between Rotting Christ and Samael: They’re both trios, they both began on French label Osmose, yet landed on Century Media, and they both know their instruments. The similarities end there. Rotting Christ write in a completely different style. Rotting Christ, like many other well-known Greek metal bands, play with precision and accuracy. Each track on Triarchy displays a penchant for varying tempos, harmonies, timpani-like drumming, fire-breathing vocals, all heavily submerged in dark imagery. As you might expect, the lyrics are of Saturnine origin, but there’s a certain amount of intelligence and vibrancy in them, as if you’re reading a magical spell. When the final notes of “The First Field of the Battle” penetrate your final cranial defenses, you begin to feel that the whole affair must have been divinely intervened by some subterranean power. If you’re looking for just the right contemplative metal album, Triarchy is the record to play.