The arrival of the celebrated Greeks was one of the main events of that autumn, amid all the variety of concert happenings. When the phrase "Greek metal" is uttered, the first thing that comes to mind is ROTTING CHRIST. The very name speaks to the genre — yes, once upon a time this was black metal. But to confine the band within the boundaries of conventional black metal is impossible. In recent years their output has been described as nothing other than dark metal, and in general it is incorrect to pin down their genre, since naming bands whose music resembles Sakis's work is hardly possible. The guitar tone is far too clean, keyboards are used extensively, this is combined with excellent technique, while the vocals take the form of high growling, and beyond that the band's lyrics are explicitly Satanic — genuinely Satanic, not merely anti-Christian as with the majority of bands. In any case, the band holds a special status of its own, and regardless of one's preferences, they command respect from at least the majority of black metal and doom fans.
So then: as part of a mini-tour, the band visited a number of russian cities, passing through both russian capitals, Tomsk, Krasnodar, Rostov-on-Don, and Yaroslavl. My brief account concerns the concert in moscow on 29 October.
No fewer than 5 support bands were announced to warm up for the Greeks. They were: ACT OF GOD, IRATUS DOMINIUS, SINFUL, MIND ECLIPSE, CRYSTAL ABYSS. Of these, I was well acquainted with SINFUL and CRYSTAL ABYSS. I will say right away about the latter — I had long since concluded that the band was hopeless; personally I see and hear nothing in them beyond pretension. As for SINFUL — I was extremely curious to find out who was now singing for them, given that the former vocalist and bassist had ceased to be a member of the band.
The remaining bands I had not heard. Having been unavoidably delayed getting to the club, I missed ACT OF GOD from Perm; after them four more bands plus the evening's stars from Greece were scheduled to perform. Were scheduled — but things turned out differently: the ROTTING CHRIST set was moved forward to 7:30, and this was because if they had begun at 9 as planned, they would simply not have made it to the only available flight to Tomsk. As a result, they were placed third on the bill, preceded by IRATUS DOMINIUS. And this band genuinely impressed me — I had not heard such well-crafted true black metal in a long time. Three musicians from Minsk played extremely vicious, aggressive true black metal, and played it excellently, with great originality. In terms of sound I can draw a parallel with IMMORTAL's Pure Holocaust.
So then, the time came for the evenings main attraction. A brief tuneup, and drummer Themis remained on stage; the intro rang out, and Sakis, Andreas, and the session guitarist appeared. "Hello, we are ROTTING CHRIST." And for the next hour-plus, 250 people (the turnout was surprisingly modest) were able to enjoy this remarkable band. After the concert my only impression was this: ROTTING CHRIST is one of the few bands that must be seen live. No posturing, no corpse paint, yet an extraordinarily emotional and beautiful performance. Sakis himself was full of energy, with extraordinarily expressive facial expressions, and very friendly with it. How much he enjoyed the moscow reception is hard to say, but one can state with absolute certainty that he was deriving genuine pleasure from his music. It is worth noting that the vocals live also sound far more expressive and emotional than on the albums, and considerably higher in register. What was slightly disappointing — there was no keyboardist, and all keyboard parts had been recorded. Also disappointing was that the band did not play a particularly long set: after the intro, 10 songs were played in the main set, with two more songs after a brief pause. Both compositions from recent albums and older material were performed. There was room for aggressive battle-tracks — too many of them in my view — but slower compositions also featured. Personally I was especially pleased that "Athanatoi Este", "King Of A Stellar War", and "After Dark I Feel" were played.
I can say with certainty: when the band comes to us again — and I hope they will — I will attend without question, even if they play exactly the same set, because the performance itself delivers an enormous quantity of positive emotions.
After the Greeks' set a considerable portion of the audience left the hall and the club entirely — which was predictable. I listened to a few minutes of MIND ECLIPSE from Yaroslavl, decided that this interpretation of death metal was comprehensively not to my taste, and like the majority, left the hall.
The SINFUL set was marked by my surprise at discovering that founder, guitarist, and composer Taus had now also become the vocalist. First of all, enormous respect to the man for not losing his composure. But the singing, to be frank, is not quite there yet. Beyond an Abbath-like croak, not much else comes through. However, I repeat — I was extremely surprised; Taus has fairly quickly learned to combine playing and singing simultaneously, which is already worthy of respect. I departed after the second or third song, as nothing had fundamentally changed, and this band holds nothing of interest for me.
For CRYSTAL ABYSS I did not stay, for obvious reasons, and shortly left the club in excellent spirits from the brief but brilliant ROTTING CHRIST session.
Special thanks to Mendor for the accreditation provided.
Report by Alan
Setlist:
Satani The Wings Thy Horns Thy Sin Athanatoi Este In Domine Sathana King Of A Stellar War Visions Of A Blind Order Sanctus Diavolos Sign Of Evil Existence Archon Non Serviam After Dark I Feel Thou Art Blind Under The Name Of A Legion
— encore — You Are I Sorrowfull Farewell