Thou Art Lord – “Apollyon”

Unisound Records

Rating: 8/10

Greek black metal all-star band’s second full-length CD “Apollyon” is another load of good Greek-styled riffs and melodies, growly vocals and brutal drums behind a veil of mystic darkness, satanism and the ancient gods. Nothing new, true, yet a highly-enjoyable album for those typically Greek elements.

The CD starts with a song called “Hate Is Thicker Than Love” (an eyeclick to Impaled Nazarene’s “Blood Is Thicker Than Water”? Remember: IN’s singer Mika Luttinen is a very good friend of TAL; in fact he’s got a side-project with TAL’s Magus Wampyr Daoloth called Diabolos Rising/Raism) whose intro is Wagner’s “Ride Of The Walkyries”!!! (I don’t know if this is the right translation in English, I know the name in my mother tongue), followed by a massacring attack of speed, a synth passage with a spoken part and hissing riffs. IN fact this song is representative for the whole album: it contains speed, slower riffs, spoken passages, synth melodies and an undeniable inspiration in darkness and evil oaths. Another remarkable songs are excellent “Societas Satanas” (my favourite song) and ultra-fast “Excremental Magic”, both having great guitar riffs that remind me of Rotting Christ (guitarrist Necromayhem is from RCh). The strangest song is based on piano and synth over which a prayer to a so-called “bornless one” is risen. Mmh… The album finishes with their “In Blood We Trust” (sentence taken from the American dollars’ motto “In God We Trust”), that already appeared in their 7”. All in all, a great album of pure Hellenic black art.