ROTTING CHRIST — Passage to Arcturo (review)

ROTTING CHRIST — Passage to Arcturo album cover EP · 1991 · Black Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
3/5 ·
UMUR
"Passage to Arcturo" is an EP release by Greek death/black metal (later black/gothic metal) act Rotting Christ. The EP was released through Decapiated Records in May 1991. 1990 didn´t see any releases from Rotting Christ so the last release before this EP was the "Satanas Tedeum" demo from October 1989.

Stylistically the over a year long recording break, has meant a maturity in the songwriting, but "Passage to Arcturo" still sounds like the natural successor to "Satanas Tedeum" (1989). It´s maybe slightly more black metal tinged (the guitar sound on both releases have that thin black metal sound to them), but the music is still a combination of death metal and black metal elements. Labelling this a pure black metal release would be wrong (personally I think this release swings more towards death metal). Just listen to the vocals, which are predominantly death metal growling. The band again incorporate the occassional horror tinged keyboard part (and even piano on "Gloria De Domino Inferni"), which enhances the dark an occult atmosphere of the music. "The Forest of N'Gai" is an example of the use of keyboards, but they appear more frequently here than on the preceding demo.

"Passage to Arcturo" features a raw demo quality sound production, but it´s not bad sounding at all and you´re able to hear every instrument and vocal part in the mix. If anything the relatively lo-fi sounding production values only add to the authenticity and occult atmosphere of the EP. Upon conclusion "Passage to Arcturo" shows progress and development from Rotting Christ, and although it´s not a perfect release (the musicianship is still a bit untight, and the spoken work sections unnecessary and a bit cringe worthy), it´s a good quality death/black metal release. A 3 star 60%) rating is warranted.
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