Rotting Christ

Genesis (Century Media)
by Vinnie Apicella

True to form and significance of the title, Rotting Christ has created the most groundbreaking record of their career, and without even a trace element of permissive female lust or cinematic FX. Followers of Amorphis, Tiamat, or even Sentenced, please take heed, aural evil need not lose its essence by way of progressive intent. There can be a beauty in darkness without narrowing the vision of a future past. Rotting Christ’s music has evolved over the years, without question, at times wallowing a step or two deeper in the Gothic realm where many are wont to explore, yet extreme in their elegance, they’ve retained the core of what’s kept them one step above others of the extreme music realm they helped create nearly a decade ago.

While the guitars remain firmly entrenched in your face, layer upon layer of multi-tracking radiates the surrounding musical depth amplified by percussive ambience, mournful chanting, and magnified choruses. Genesis is a look back as much as a step forward, seeing RC return to their original logo, for starters, while recapturing the intensity that marked their humble origins with a simply unsurpassed self-production job. Genesis is memorable and yields an immediacy in impact, whether from the circuitous guitar presence of “Daemons” or “Lex Talionis,” the quickening double-bass onslaught of “Release Me” or “The Cell of the Aethyrs,” or the epic grandeur of “Under the Name of Legion,” no stone is left unturned for this long-awaited classic-in-the-making.
(2323 W. El Segundo Blvd. Hawthorne, CA 90250)