Rotting Christ

ROTTING CHRIST is probably the best-known of all the Greek black metal bands.  That being the case, if they formed in 1987 (the same year as Necromantia), why did I choose to do an entry on Necromantia first?  The answer is:  Rotting Christ was not a black metal band when they first formed.  They were more of an old-school death metal meets grindcore sound.  With the early demos Decline's Return (1988) and Leprosy of Death (1988), as well as the split with Sound Pollution (1989), the grindcore sound is readily on display.

An example of Rotting Christ's early grindcore sound, this is their 1988 demo, Decline's Return

With the 1989 demo Satanas Tedeum, Rotting Christ's shift away from grindcore and toward black metal becomes apparent.  The sound really resembles a mixture of elements of all three styles: grindcore, old-school black metal, and old-school death metal.  That being said, it clearly belongs in the black metal camp, because it has a rhythm and pacing more reminiscent of black metal, and the lyrical content shifts away from the pathological and toward the blasphemous.  The vocals, however, were death/grind for sure.

"The Nereid of Esgalduin" is from the 1989 demo Satanas Tedeum

With their 1991 release--the Passage to Arcturo EP--the transition to black metal was complete.  With this, you get the mystical and blasphemous aura that is now forever-associated with the Greek black metal scene.  The style associated with bands such as Rotting Christ and Necromantia (sometimes called "hellenic black metal" after Hellas, that is, Greece) was not always about the necro, trebly sound that the Norwegians became associated with, but they had a style all their own nonetheless.

Off of Passage to Arcturo, this is "Forest of N'Gai"

Since that EP, Rotting Christ has released albums pretty steadily.  Their early albums--such as 1993's Thy Mighty Contract and 1994's Non Serviam--are excellent black metal albums that combine the rawness of the old-school style with the atmosphere of the newer, so-called second wave sound.  Non Serviam in particular manages to construct a classic black metal style and use symphonic elements without it sounding cheesy at all.

The title track off of 1994's Non Serviam

By the mid 1990s, Rotting Christ was beginning to go in a more gothic direction with their sound.  The songs from this time in their existence have little to do with good, quality black metal, in my opinion.  It really wasn't until albums such as 2004's Sanctus Diavolos and 2007's Theogonia that they returned to a more black metal sound, albeit with the incorporation of some folk elements.

This is an example of Rotting Christ's more recent stuff

Select Discography:

Leprosy of Death (demo) (1988)
Decline's Return (demo) (1989)
Satanas Tedeum (demo) (1989)
Passage to Arcturo EP (1991)
Thy Mighty Contract (1993)
Non Serviam (1994)

Next time: VARATHRON and the rest of the early Greek scene