Rotting Christ is one of those bands that go on releasing quality albums to very little fanfare. It's almost a given that they'll get an 7 in Terrorizer and most will move on to the next band. Still, Thy Mighty Contract, A Dead Poem and 2004s Sanctus Diavolos are still great pieces of extreme metal and 2007 sees the release of the band's ninth album Theogonia.

For a while now, Rotting Christ has been mixing elements of black, death and epic classical type of music particularly on Genesis and Sanctus.... Things are not too different on Theogonia but the songwriting has been tweaked and the band is sounding heavier and darker than they have in a while. The early lo-fi black death metal of Thy Mighty Contract is a distant memory and although the band use a few black metal sounds on the album it plays a pretty small part in the proceedings.

The band use a fair amount of ethnic Greek sounds and some classical sounding keyboard bits and while this isn't new for the band it works better here than on any previous release. There's also a modern chug on this album which bands today seem incapable of avoiding. Still, Rotting Christ does it well and the modern thrash riffs sit comfortably next to the black death avant garde leanings of the band.

Any band that's throwing in this many disparate influences always runs the risk of falling flat on its face but Rotting Christ have managed to combine these sounds to great effect. Most of the songs on the album are mid-paced with some nice grooves happening and bring to mind Therion on Symphony Masses, which is always a good thing.

While the left, right combination jab of openers Sign Of Prime Creation and Karavnos Kivernitos is impressive, there's some real depth in the songwriting with just about every song on the album possessing a certain epic feel and memorable arrangements.

If you've heard the last couple of albums by the band then you know what you're getting because Theogonia is essentially a refinement of the ideas on Genesis and Sanctus... If you've never heard the band before check this one out because Theogonia is a masterclass in writing epic extreme metal.

Label - Season Of Mist

Year - 2007