Artist: Rotting Christ
Album: Passage to Arcturo
Year: 2005
Rel. Date: 2008-04-20
Genre: Black Metal
Label: Dying Music
Source: CD
Type: Remastered
Encoder: LAME v3.97 -V2 --vbr-new
Quality: VBR, 44.1kHz, Joint Stereo
Greece, once shocking the narrow minded populace
with nude statues. Now in the late 20th century
adds to this world dilemma once again within a
morbidly compulsive metal group this time. One so
mythical they make Merlin look like a birthday
party magician. And one whos name shocks even
more numbers. Which is so bluntly called Rotting
Christ.
Rotting Christ imports their first EP titled
Passage to Arcturo. With musical styles ranging
from Black Metal and Death Metal. P.T.A. sounds in
a similar fashion to country mates Varathron, and
Necromantia. Especially the Black Arts Lead..
split they mutated. And even going as far as to
influence groups like Italys Evol demos.
To give you an idea of how the production quality
is: The production on Passage is recorded through
analog devices. As well as the demo before this
Satanas Tedeum. And the album after this Thy
Mighty Contract is digital. Satanas Tedeum had a
lot of more quicker parts to it. While Passage
slowed down a bit, and added more melodies and
solos to their work. Thy Mighty Contract (debut)
dropped a lot of thick death metal riffs they were
doing on Satanas Tedeum and still retained, as
well as added more melodies characteristic of
Passage.
The instruments on this album are a perfect
example of the 90s transitional period from death
metal to black metal. Where R.C.s riffs relied
less on straight brutality but added throughout
their journey, heavy riffs with a slight more hint
of melody. Dual layers of melodic harmonies
intermix with palm mutes and distortion. To make
an ugly produced but oddly beautiful intermixing
aria of melodies. Guitars vary from single palm
muted tremolo picked riffs to power chord driven
slower segments. The dual guitars sometimes add a
higher note while the rhythm guitar plays a more
deeper riff. Another accent to add subtitles to a
foreign cd is the bass. Luckily for us it is
easily read and the acting stands out very
vibrantly. The bass guitar is played clean and
usually he plays a different rhythm then the
guitar. Which is heard equally as loud. When you
have heavy instrumentation you need a vocalist who
can carry a lot of weight (pun intended).
Necromayhem (Sakis) for the most part adds a
distinct deep growled voice. At certain points he
adds extra extended screams. And even during The
Mystical Meeting adds spoken words then ends it
with a deep vocal effect. To keep all of the
instruments in check and on time Rotting Christ
added the drums a little louder in the mix than
the guitars. The drum sound is rough as well as
the guitars are but on the other hand sound deep
and raw. The most stand out feature of his
drumming is all of the double bass he abuses. His
beats extend from semi thrash beats to slower
parts where he utilizes the double bass the most.
And usually for fills adds hyper snare rolls and
open high hat hits. All of these varied sounds
come together to create a dark oddity. To even
further their glorious dark vision Rotting Christ
added slight keyboards. They are used as a tool to
accent guitar riffs. For example on The Forest of
NGai the riff is ended in a high pitched
keyboard effect resembling a demonic choir.
More than likely why the lyrics for The Mystical
Meeting havent been fully printed is because
they kind of borrowed a few lines from the 80s
goth band Christian Death. Particularly the song
Mystirium Iniquitatis on their Only Theatre of
Pain cd. On the printed cd, Rotting Christ lists
the song as The Mystical Meeting (Dog Spleh
Esoht Sevlesmeht) Where in the song they dont say
this line but Christian Deaths line of Sevesmeth
pleh ohw esoht spleh dog. (1:07 in for reference)
Say it backwards and what do you get? And also on
the song Uncertain Journey also by Christian
Death. Ereth is on ytic of Dog. Nmad eht eman
of Dog It is hard to tell because of his accent.
But I cant even come close to figuring out the
third line?
The only predicament with P.T.A. is the mixing. It
is one of those cds where the music is perfect but
the production is hurting the cd. For example,
sometimes Sakiss vocals are hidden because they
are so deep. And other times the high hat might
not be heard during a crucial point. But on the
other hand every instrument is accounted for. Even
the bass guitar which is usually neglected in many
bands. The drums are heavy and for the most part
audible. The keyboards are used seldom when needed
and the guitars have multi layers to show some
complexity.
Rotting Christ have captured me on their first EP.
That being the first material Ive heard from this
long spinned supreme band. Going from a more
grind/death/thrash sound to a black/death metal
sounding band on Passage to Arcturo. I recommend
this short EP to anyone who wants to get into
early nineties transitional black metal.
Tracklisting:
1. The Old Coffin Spirit 4:54
2. The Forest of NGai 5:52
3. The Mystical Meeting (Sevlesmeth Esoth 4:36
Spleh Dog)
4. Gloria de Domino Inferni 1:37
5. Inside the Eye of Algond 5:57
6. The Nereid of Esgalduin (Bonus Track) 3:52
7. Vicious Joy and Black Delight (Bonus 4:19
Track)
8. Feast of the Grand Whore (Bonus Track) 3:16
Total Time: 34:23
