Year: 2024
Total Time: 55:17
Label: Season Of Mist

Reading the world’s first album review regarding “Pro Xristoy” album on the pages of THEGALLERY.GR by my good colleague Dimitris Argyrakis (you can read it by clicking HERE), I confess that it piqued my interest in what the legendary ambassadors of the Extreme Hellenic Metal sound have to offer, after the fulfilment of 13 full-length studio albums and over 1300 concerts all over the world! So, I was given the opportunity to listen to ROTTING CHRIST’s new release and have my own conclusions, which I will share with you right now…

Starting with the cover, in the beginning I asked myself if this is really going to be the real cover or if it’s some kind of marketing ploy by the label. The famous saying “don’t judge a book by its cover” is DEFINITELY wrong here! As beautiful and full of symbolism is Thomas Cole’s painting “The Fall of the Empire”, it has graced the album covers of at least 7-8 (roughly counting, it’s definitely more) band releases. A wrong move, which predisposed me negatively before the start of the listening session. A second issue is related to the title of the record since it is difficult for a non-Greek speaker to pronounce and understand the obvious for the Greeks “BEFORE CHRIST” meaning, but in the end it is not that big of an issue…corresponding “greeklish” slung names are now used by many bands and of course from CHRIST themselves.     

Moving now on the album’s music…

The opening-self titled intro reminded me quite a bit of “Rituals” with its invocations and since it is of short duration, it gives way to “Apostate” naturally referring to the emperor Julian who is -badly- taught in the Greek schools as the Apostate… beats, chants and a riff I have DEFINITELY heard before!????. But yes, riff variation with “My Salvation” from Sakis’ solo album…. “Like Father Like Sun” comes next and gets my attention. This will be the first single to be presented. It follows the same pattern but in a more epic tone. Again, a very familiar guitar riff is in the air, I am asking myself why though….? Mid tempo rhythm, with an atmosphere reminding “A Dead Poem” vibes that satisfied me…

“The Sixth Day” is kind of the same having an “Ira Incesus” atmosphere, mid tempos, simple melodies, made for a stately bassist (I imagined Scoll with his incomparable style). In “La Lettera Del Diavolo” I finally heard Themis playing somewhat aggressively, but he too quickly calmed down and gave way to choruses and monologues. “The Last Farewell” is indeed a stately farewell, an exit, a “good trip”…  “Pix Lax Dax” with its “Δαιμόνων Βρώσις” intro had been on my radar from the start, to give the song its specific importance. But the invocation again taken from “The Apostate”, the choir singing was almost the same, the riff being the same again… shame. “There can’t be such synthetic poverty” I thought to myself, there must be some connection, but I didn’t find it! Fortunately, the situation is slightly varied by the participation of Androniki Skoulas, but still the composition does not escape from the same patterns. The rest of the album is completed with three filler songs. In “Yggdrasil” I was unfortunately caught by lack of interest, no matter how many times I heard it (and it wasn’t a few). Another minus here is the almost complete lack of guitar solos – to be fair – they could find some space in the album.

I should mention that it was not possible to listen to the deluxe version with the two bonus tracks and I apologize for this omission, but I don’t think it would have changed my opinion. I listened to “Pro Xristoy” many times, many hours, many days, at home, at work, in the forest, on buses inside and outside the urban train, in the car, reaching almost the same conclusion as its ending. “Pro Xristoy” is NOT a ROTTING CHRIST record. It’s SAKIS TOLIS solo project with a bit of ROTTING CHRIST! It would have been better if it was released as Sakis’ band second album, rather than being release under the R.C brand name. That’s how I see it in my humble opinion.

But I also see a paradox in this whole project. Commercially, “Pro Xristoy” will do very well, excellently I would say. It’s a release with good production, easy-to-listen songs (slow and mainly mid-tempo), without the “old school” Black Metal elements but capable of being used for a live show as sing-a-long. In general, it is an album that reflect to a wider audience. This release bears the label of ROTTING CHRIST, a legendary band and pillar of the global Black Metal scene and as such will be strictly rated by me… 

Rating: 5.5/10
Editor: Dimos Karadimos
Related Link: ROTTING CHRIST – Official Page