Band:	Rotting Christ
Album:	Sleep Of The Angels
Style:	Black metal, Gothic metal
Release date:	January 1999

01. Cold Colours
02. After Dark I Feel
03. Victoriatus
04. Der Perfekte Traum
05. You My Flesh
06. The Word Made End
07. Sleep The Sleep Of Angels
08. Delusions
09. Imaginary Zone
10. Thine Is The Kingdom

A year and a half after A Dead Poem, Rotting Christ brought to the world its twin emo and depressed brother, Sleep Of The Angels.

Both albums were recorded at Woodhouse Studios, with Samael's Xy handling the production, as well as the keyboards. A session bassist was used, so for the second time in a row the Tolis brothers were the only band members recording in the studio.

Despite having some more extreme parts, Sleep Of The Angels is overall a more accessible and "softer" release than A Dead Poem, which had nothing particularly extreme about it to begin with. But by 1999 much of the extreme metal had been "infested" by gothic and darkwave, as if bands had just discovered a scene that was already nearly 20 years old. Rotting Christ were following the herd at the time, in an effort to access more people and gain some popularity, since they had already lost a big part of their underground following. Their name was always going to be a problem though, throughout their career, in the United States and elsewhere.

Sleep Of The Angels is A Dead Poem's feebler sibling, with fewer guitars, more clean vocals, more keyboards and less inspiration. It feels as if Sakis saw the opportunity to take advantage of the momentum that A Dead Poem gave his band with its relative commercial success. The result feels forced and despite the inclusion of some very good tracks, the album sounds tame for the band's standards and lacking energy and spirit. It is also kind of monotonous, with little variety and although I've listened to it a lot over the years, I still sometimes get confused over which song is which.

Rotting Christ have had a few controversial albums in their career but Sleep Of The Angels is definitely the one that dichotomised the fans the most. I personally have mixed feelings about it, it sounds like it could be a good album if it was made by another band but in my mind it does not really represent Rotting Christ. That said, "Victoriatus" is an all time favourite of mine.

"I honor the past
I carry the future
I'll make it last
I live up to our culture"