Acherontas: Faustian Ethos

It shouldn’t be surprising that Acherontas has a new album after only a year since the last release. The band is constantly working and the ideas they’ve been developing since Ma-Ion, Formulas of Reptilian Unification have definitely found an audience. For those unfamiliar with the band, they are a Greek black metal band completely committed to developing a sound and style steeped in the various magical traditions, including (according to Acherontas’s bandcamp page) “Ancient Summerian Mysteries of Drakonian Blood.� I don’t profess to understand the depths of these ideas, but I do know that the band has slowly been working them out in their recordings over the last few years, pleasing die-hard fans along the way. For more casual fans, Acherontas also hits the mark because they stay more or less true to 90s-style Greek black metal, including its fascination with larger spiritual ideas. Broadly speaking, Acherontas is good at writing songs that both unflinching and bold. I haven’t followed Acherontas very closely, but I liked their last album Amarta pretty well. It balanced a variety of sounds that gave additional layers to their larger thematic goals. That album was stronger because of those layers. This album, which really began while Amarta was in development, takes a different approach, even though it is part III of this current project. The band admits that Faustian Ethos was never meant to be an exact sequel to Amarta, but I still missed the variety in sound and style. On this album, the band sticks closely to their aggressive black metal sound. As good as it is, it is often less engaging than it could have been.

Track Listing:
1. The Fall of the First Pillar
2. Sorcery and the Apeiron
3. Aeonic Alchemy
4. Faustian Ethos
5. The Old Tree and the Wise Man
6. The Alchemists of the Radiant Selpulchre
7. Decline of the West �" O lereas kai o Tafos
8. Vita Nuova

Added: August 4th 2018
Reviewer: Carl Sederholm
Score:
Related Link: Band Facebook Page
Hits: 1054
Language: english

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