Year: 2024
Total Time: 48:00
Label: Floga Records
Three years have passed since the release of “ThanatOpsis”, THYRATHEN’s debut album, and the eclectic company of Corax S decides to release its second full-length work with the laconic title “Lakonic”.
The truth is that “Laconic”, although it evolves the sound of “ThanatOpsis” on one hand, on the other hand it steps very firmly in the past of the Hellenic Black Metal sound. This is no coincidence, since Corax was a founding member of the Black Metallers JACKAL’S TRUTH from Larisa city, Necroabyssious is a trademark of the band VARATHRON and Alexander of MACABRE OMEN is a constant figure in the epic Black Metal sound, three veterans who show to the younger generations how a quality Black Metal album is created!
The precursor single “H Polis (The Philosophical Poem)” with the nice introduction and the gradual building, includes purely “Greek riffs” and mid tempo rhythms, showing the path on which the rest of the album will move on. Based on the selt-titled poem by Constantinos Cavafis, it deals with the psychological pressure and entrapment of man in his futile attempt to change his life. The voice of anguish and despair crushes him, without giving a way of escape.
The rest of the songs will follow the same pattern, with their lyrical content dealing with “De Rerum Natura – On the Nature of Things” by the Roman poet and philosopher, Titus Lucretius Karos (known better as Lucretius). The melody is dominant everywhere, the guitars weave simple but strong veils, the rhythms do not over-speed. At the same time, the atmosphere is captivating, the despair is pervasive everywhere and the melancholy does not let you down, like in the bittersweet song “Matter, Void, Sperm” or even at the chant-y “Evoche”.
But the big thing in the hands of THYRATHEN is the amazing collaboration of the three singers. In addition to that, the music drags you away, not wanting to press the rewind button, so as not to miss the continuation. Among the pros of the album we should also consider the very good and clear production by Achilleas Kalantzis (just like in “Thanatopsis”), which allows this marriage of many voices, choirs and narrators not to clog. Also the cover of the album is the Memento Mori mosaic from the ruins of Pompeii and is exhibited in the Archaeological Museum of Naples.
Concluding, the outcome after listening to “Laconic” many times is that Black Metal does not need to be accompanied by references to horned demons, anti-religious positions or incitement to violent behavior. It can also be accompanied by the drama of the internal conflict with the confinement in the ugliness of reality and the repetition blocking the way of escaping. The mistakes of the past will be there and will forever haunt the actions of the present, preventing the creation of a new beginning. After “Thanatopsis”, THYRATHEN managed once again to make me read and ponder. This should not be taken for granted….
“You will always end up in this city. Don’t hope for things elsewhere:
there is no ship for you, there is no road.
As you’ve wasted your life here, in this small corner,
you’ve destroyed it everywhere else in the world”.
Rating: 8/10
Editor: Dimos Karadimos
Related Link: THYRATHEN – Facebook Page
