siLLy puPPy It’s hard to believe that a black metal band like ROTTING CHRIST has been around almost thirty years now having formed all the way back in 1987 starting out sounding like most other early second wave black metal acts of the day. However despite their nascent extreme metal sounds of the early years, even then they had a knack for blending melodic developments with crushing riffing brutality. Fast forward to 2016 and the band which is now reduced to brothers Sakis Tolis (vocals, guitars) and Themis Tolis (drums) as the core creative force have aligned themselves with bassist Van Ace and guitarist George and they have at long last unleashed their long awaited followup to “Κατά τον δαίμονα εαυτού.”

RITUALS is their 13th full studio release and pretty much takes the epic atmospheric approach on black metal in yet another direction. While the previous album focused heavily on folk fusion aspects incorporating non-metal instrumentation such as bagpipes and horns, RITUALS sticks to the traditional metal arrangement of guitars, bass and drums along with some sick production and delivers yet another highly brilliant fusion feast of extreme darkened metal. This one also has a handful of guest vocalists including Vorph from Samael, Nick Holmes from Paradise Lost, Magus from Necromantia, Kathir from Rudra and traditional vocal appearances from Danai Katsameni and George Emmanouil. I lied. There actually is one bagpipe appearance on the traditionals.

RITUALS starts with “In Nomine Dei Nostri,” a strange black metal stomping chant that sounds like cheerleading Orks in the halls of Mordor. The album generally speaking begins sounding like a continuation of the previous album and precedes into folk musical styles not of the Greek and Balkan styles and finishes sounding more like in the doom and goth metal realm at times reminding me of My Dying Bride. The album simultaneously takes the approach on “Κατά τον δαίμονα εαυτού” and marries it with the early sounds of the band. While the previous few albums had an intense delivery that married the fast and furious with the Balkan folk traditions, RITUALS seems like it delivers more Scandinavian folk styles with ROTTING CHRIST’s early second black wave approach for much of the album. There is also a traditional Indian track “Devadevam” sung in Sanskrit i assume and “Elthe Kyrie” features Girogos Nikas and Konstantis Mpistolis delivering an intense guitar solo exchange.

While not a symphonic album per se, all the extra instruments on board adopt a symphonic veneer with lightning fast guitar chords acting as atmospheric generators, vocalists counterpointing the main melodies and of course the black metal usual suspects of blastbeats, shrieked vocals and crushing guitar riffage. Additionally there are also poetic spoken word segments such as on “Les Litanie De Satan” from Charles Baudelaire’s “Les Fleurs Du Mal.” RITUALS sees many languages on board including their native Greek, Hebrew, English, French and Sanskrit. The rituals of course embrace their usual Satanic themes and goes down a similar path of Behemoth’s “The Satanist” in more than a few ways however in a much more diverse musical manner. While i’m certainly not interested in such themes personally i also don’t mind other’s obsessions with such occult themes. The lyrics like many extreme metal albums are impossible to comprehend without reading the accompanying liner notes so it is the music first and foremost that keeps me interested.

Many of these rhythms have a marching rhythm followed by a cacophony of black metal exchanges and the production is top notch as is the songwriting. Personally i don’t like this as much as the last few albums as i feel it has lost some of the overwhelming intensity and originality that those albums incorporated in mixing the black metal aspects with the Balkan folk elements which worked so well together. While the approach on RITUALS may not muster up enough mojo to dethrone those albums as my absolute favorites in the ROTTING CHRIST discography, RITUALS is a strong album in its own right keeping a satisfying pace from beginning to end with absolutely no unnecessary tracks derailing the flow of the album. ROTTING CHRIST is an exemplary example of an extreme metal band that i much prefer the newer more sophisticated sounds in comparison to the past comparatively less developed albums. For those who are keen on this newer era of RC’s career then RITUALS will not disappoint as it packs a serious enough punch to satisfy the black metal addicts while creating newly constructed atmospheres with the help of an army of colleagues to ensure a larger than life creation.