Review of the Album Called "Triarchy of the Lost Lovers" by Greek Death Metal Band Rotting Christ

Triarchy of the Lost Lovers is the third album by Greek extreme death metal band Rotting Christ and it was released in 1996. The album may have been the start of the band's modern sound and the melody is present enough that it stops becoming a standard death metal album. In the Song "Diastric Alchemy," it is noticeable that the riffing structure is similar to the band's 1999 studio album Sleep of the Angels. In this album Rotting Christ is like a black and death metal hybrid kind of band.

“King of a Stellar War” starts off this album and the riffing is constant throughout as there also seems to be a chanting kind of vocal stuff in the background. The secondary riff is one of the most memorable in the career of Rotting Christ. At this time in 1996 as some metal bands were experimenting, these Greek guys stuck to playing black and death metal that has delivered a winning formula pretty much since this time. The mid-section interlude in this first song is another bonus plus to an already outstanding song. Greece may never become as strong of a nation for heavy metal or they might but Rotting Christ has helped this nation establish some sort of foundation in the metal genre along with Septicflesh before Greece started to grow in the thrash metal genre. Sakis Tolis though he has a heavy accent, you can still hear him as he says “king of a stellar war.”

“A Dynasty From the Ice” with its complicated lyrics would be stylistically a kind of song that this band would incorporate in their next album called A Dead Poem. “Archon” in terms of its style resembles the first song King of a Stellar War. Again, Rotting Christ shows their musical genius by incorporating another different kind of heavy riff that fans probably would not see coming.

"Snowing Still"

"Snowing Still" is the next song and this one lyrically is about a mother that has just lost her son and she is dressed in black as the snow is falling outside. There is also the noticeable In Flames kind of quality to the guitar work in this album so it is not traditional black metal in the literal sense but a sort of middle ground between the two types of metal.

Special comment about the album Triarchy of the Lost Lovers

Triarchy of the Lost Lovers would also be the last album to feature the appearance of Jim Patsouris on bass guitar but I would say that he is more than pleased to see where the band has reached up until today.

“The Opposite Bank” repeats a few main riffs but the structure of the song is decent in its own right. It sounds a little like Opeth did in their early days but since Rotting Christ was formed before Opeth was it is accurate and reasonable to suggest that these Greek guys may have influenced them. Triarchy of the Lost Lovers is an album that represented a major step up for one of the oldest and most popular Greek metal bands.