Rotting Christ - Genesis review
| Band: | Rotting Christ |
| Album: | Genesis |
| Style: | Black metal, Gothic metal |
| Release date: | August 26, 2002 |
| Guest review by: | Netzach |
01. Daemons
02. Lex Talionis
03. Quintessence
04. Nightmare
05. In Domine Sathana
06. Release Me
07. The Call Of The Aethyrs
08. Dying
09. Ad Noctis
10. Under The Name Of The Legion
11. Astral Embodiment [bonus]
This one has been a companion to me for a couple of years now, and counting. Not the optimal companion like a mix between a cat and a lemur would be, though. Yes, a cat-lemur would most certainly cause sheer annihilation of any physical device used for adorability measurement. Rotting Christ's Genesis is more like a raccoon. Not that raccoons aren't adorable, but bear with me here. And with "bear," I already have used up my annual allotment of animal references.
The Greek masters of gothy blackness have always been good at catching the listeners' attention right from the start, and "Daemons" is no exception. Their now-signature sound of jarring start-stop rhythms flies out of the speakers with Sakis Tolis whispering "Δαίμονες φλέγει γαρ περί μου" (daimones flegei gar peri mou) behind it. A quick attempt at translation yields mostly gibberish but I eventually settled for "demon's phlegm is upon me." Actually not a bad phrase for describing the whole album.
The problem with Genesis is that for every genius track on this album, there's a track which does nothing to lift it up from the icky sea of infernal spit. "Daemons" is followed by two not-so-interesting numbers until we reach the peaks of Genesis, namely the adventurous "Nightmare" which is a tense and expansive gem of progressive songwriting, and the synth-pop inspired but stupendously explosive "Release Me."
Between twin peaks there must be a dale, which in this case would be "In Nomine Sathana." It seems to work live for some reason, but the studio version is one of the most horrendously boring tracks this band has ever released. Yes, counting all their albums. It is bland, repetitive and mostly consists of a rubbish gang-shout-style chorus.
The pace picks up in the latter half, with "Call of the Aethyrs" and the epic final track being the highlights. Sakis' phrasing of the lyrics just barely makes "Call of the Aethyrs" a third peak (but then I would have lost all of my pop-culture references in the former paragraph). Speaking of the lyrics... Sakis' grammar has certainly improved throughout the years but this album is definitely for listening and not for reading. The lyrics work well enough to create interesting rhythms in the vocal section but check this out: "Another life for me to love for me to grow in sadness / It is the key inside me to have a good within in the name of madness"... Sure, the point comes across but even for someone with English as a second language like Swedish me, eyes start bleeding. Sakis set us up the bomb.
Hence the raccoon comparison. On the surface it looks great and adorable but try as you might to tame one, eventually it will start breaking into your sheds and pissing all over your floor. This is just not a consistent album, and while it contains some of Rotting Christ's better tracks, it also contains their worst. Listening to it is like riding on a sine wave, which is why I seldom refrain from skipping a few songs.
Rating breakdown
| Performance: | 9 |
| Songwriting: | 7 |
| Originality: | 9 |
| Production: | 7 |
Written by Netzach | 05.05.2015
Guest review disclaimer:
This is a guest review, which means it does not necessarily represent the point of view of the MS Staff.
This is a guest review, which means it does not necessarily represent the point of view of the MS Staff.
Comments
Comments: 5
Visited by: 67 users
| flightoficarus Stamp Tramp Posts: 1118  |
Could not agree with you more on this one. Some of the tracks here are quite possibly the band's best, while others are instantly forgettable.
---- Daily underground metal recommendations at Metal Trenches. Watch metal content on the Metal Trenches YouTube Channel.
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| Netzach Planewalker Posts: 1761  |
Written by [user id=28338] on 05.05.2015 at 01:49 Hah, makes more sense. Almost got it!
---- My "blackened synth metal" solo project: maladomini.bandcamp.com. Whenever I write something funny, weird, or pretentious... I learned English by playing Baldur's Gate, okay?
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| nikarg Staff Posts: 7516  |
Quote: The line is taken from Aleister Crowley's The Book Of Lies, Chapter 25 - The Star Ruby. The chapter describes some kind of ritual. Sakis has probably used a part that sounded cool for him to sing, although the word "Δαίμονες" (Daemons) in that book's excerpt is not directly connected with the "φλέγει γαρ περί μου" part that comes after but with the word "Επαριστερά" mentioned just before. In the book it goes like this: Επαριστερά Δαίμονες --> To my left, Daemons (see also Eparistera Daimones, the album by Triptykon)  Φλέγει γαρ περί μου o αστήρ των πέντε --> Because the five-pointed star around me is in flames
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| Netzach Planewalker Posts: 1761 |
Written by nikarg on 24.04.2021 at 10:11 Oh, thanks for sharing, I love reading about trivia like this! Daimon is basically Greek for spirit, no? I read somewhere it doesn't necessarily have the same negative connotations to "demons" as in English. I suppose here though the cover art suggests there might be demons
---- My "blackened synth metal" solo project: maladomini.bandcamp.com. Whenever I write something funny, weird, or pretentious... I learned English by playing Baldur's Gate, okay?
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| nikarg Staff Posts: 7516 |
Written by Netzach on 24.04.2021 at 14:03 You are very welcome! The word "Δαίμων" ("Demon", "Daemon", or "Daimon") in Ancient Greek referred to the "dealer" and more particularly the "fate dealer" (the ancient Greeks believed that their fate was very much decided by the gods, so the divinity that decided upon one's fate was called "daemon"). "Δαίμων εαυτού" ("daemon of oneself") was the daemon / patron deity that lived in every human being from birth to death and cared for that being's personal development and prosperity. For Socrates, the "daimonion" was his inner ability to communicate with the divine and he believed that the "daimonion" protected him and helped him predict the future (like a guardian angel, in a way). According to many sources, this heretic belief of his was what led to his imprisonment because it was considered blasphemy against the then worshipped gods (religion has always been close-minded like that, you know). The famous phrase "Πράττω κατά τον δαίμονα εαυτού" (the title of Rotting Christ's 2013 album) roughly means "to act according to one's own beliefs" or "to be true to your own spirit". It is engraved on Jim Morrison's tombstone, but you probably already know that. So yeah, in Ancient Greek the word "Daimon" had a different meaning. Today, in modern Greek, "Daimon" pretty much means "demon", an evil entity, and this is the way the word is used in this album (hence the cover art, I guess).
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