I don't remember exactly where I read it first, but when I took notice from a new black metal "supergroup" consisting of members from legendary bands such as Rotting Christ,Varathron, Necromantia, Thou Art Lord, Diabolos Rising and Ravencult for example, I was very excited how the final tracks would sound. Could the band fulfill the high expectations me and a lot of people have because of the prominent bandmembers and their glorious past ? To become concrete YOTH IRIA is Jim Mutilator (ex-Rotting Christ, ex- Varathron etc.), the Magus (Necromantia, Thou Art Lord, ex-Rotting Christ, ex-Diabolos Rising etc.), George Emmanuel (Lucifer's Child, ex-Rotting Christ) and J.V. Maelstrom (Ravencult etc).
Maybe I should start with an explanation about Greek black metal in general and how I always felt about it: Of course, the Greek bands always had their special unique sound, no one would disagree with that. I always defined Greek black metal as a higly original mixture between agression on the one and melancholy and mystic elements on the other hand. I think to bands such as the already here mentioned Rotting Christ, Necromantia, Varathron, Thou Art Lord, but also of bands such as Zemial, Agatus, Nergal, Nightfall, Deviser or Elysian Fields. Of course, not all these bands sounded the same, and a few others sounded totally different, but these trademarks were and are the lowest common denominator of the mentioned bands. I think, you couldn't play this style in Norway or Sweden. Visiting Greece for two or three times in my life, I felt that this special sound was and is inspired by the climate conditions (in contradiction to the cold scandinavian weather) and the ancient history of this country with its proud past. Drinking some beers in a Greek summernight you will realize that this sound perfecly fits in its enviroment.
YOTH IRIAs first release is an EP, consisting of three tracks, the third one is a Rotting Christ Coversong. The EP starts with the title track of the EP, "Under his sway", a six minutes long track, who combines the old Greek Black Metal sound with an perfectly fitting traditional heavy metal feeling, so the overall impression is best described as "epic". The next track, called "Sid-Ed-Gjinn" starts very bombastic, the female voice and the keyboards creates a very deep and athmospheric aura before the track explodes and picks up speed with a traditional fast black metal part. During the six minutes the listener will hear a lot of variations and different parts, this track persuades with its high diversity. The last track is the cover version of the old Rotting Christ track "Visions of the dead lovers" (released in 1993) and don't differ too much from the original, nevertheless it's an interesting approch to listen to this version- in general this track lost none of its magic after all these years !
Summarising the above, I only can say that this EP is a very strong release and I hope for a full-length album in the near future ! All the people who like the already mentioned bands in particular and Greek black metal in general must check this out, but of course all metalheads out there who like an intelligent symbiosis between aggression and melodies as well should take a listen, independently if they are more into black metal or traditional sounds. Please notice the awesome cover artwork too !The EP will be released via Repulsive Echo Records on 10" Vinyl, Cassette or digital download in the first two months of the new year, no CD this time.