Rotting Christ - A Dead Poem (1997)

Like any band that's been together for over twenty years, Athens, Greece based band, Rotting Christ has gone through a multitude of changes. Beginning life in the late 80's when the Tolis brothers, Themis & Sakis were between the ages of 15-17 the band pumped out a few demos in the grindcore vein before eventually embracing the rising black metal movement in the early 90's and unleashing their legendary debut, 'Thy Mighty Contract' in 1993. By time they released their third album in '96, 'Triarchy of the Lost Lovers' the band was changing and a year later they released this album, 'A Dead Poem,' which by most peoples claims is a Gothic metal release and also their sell out record... but honestly I dig it quite a bit, and always have.

Basically with this album the band took the dark atmospheric edge of black metal, slowed down the speed considerably, they produced the record adequately, wrote amazingly catchy and melodic riffs/solos and used their countries mythology as a source of lyrics.

Songs like, 'Sorrowful Farewell' or 'Among Two Storms' are powerful and catchy little numbers, which I've loved for years and the inclusion of Fernando of Moonspell as a backing vocalist on Among Two Storms only makes the song better. 'As if by Magic' has a beautifully heroic opening to it and 'Between Times' has some of the best synth work I've ever heard, which by the way is played by Xy of Samael fame. I wouldn't hesitate to say this is my all-time favorite Rotting Christ track as its absolutely incredible from start to finish.

Through the record Sakis' vocals are full of emotion, but sort of a tortured and melancholic sentiment as his unique raspy vocals guide you through these sinister compositions. The drums are performed decently, obviously not very fast, but still well done, the bass is present and the synths are very foreboding, monumental and atmospheric in their delivery. But in the end its all about the guitar and Sakis as the lone guitarist on this album never sounded better. As I already said his guitar work is catchy and certainly tasteful and very melodic in character and if melody is your thing in music you'll absolutely adore his brilliant riffs and solos on A Dead Poem.

The initial US pressing of this release also contained a bonus compilation titled, 'Darkness we Feel,' which I guess was Gothic metal bands from Century Media's roster. Interestingly some exclusive tracks appear on this comp., namely a Borknagar track called, 'The Quest' from an upcoming album named, 'The Graven Domain,' which as you may know was later changed, but The Quest never re-surfaced anywhere else. There's also a Lacuna Coil demo track from '96 called, 'Shallow End' and its interesting since growled male vocals appear within and I don't believe they had any of that on their early releases, but I could be wrong. You also get great tracks from Ulver, Tiamat, Sacramentum and Unleashed. A nice little bonus, indeed.

In the end A Dead Poem brought serious attention to Rotting Christ while their black metal purist fans from the past just made it their life's work to bitch and complain about how they used to be good, of course probably never even giving this album and honest chance. If you missed this one then definitely give it a chance as I feel its Rotting Christ performing at tip top shape.