Paradise of the Infernal Torment

Another of those small-time Greek acts dickering around during the onset of the scene, Darkest Oath practiced a mildly different sound than most of their contemporaries, but they wrote about a half dozen songs in all and then vanished. Two of these tracks are collected on the Paradise of the Infernal Torment EP, released through none other than, you guessed it, Molon Lave records, who can be credited for inundating the niche audience of the day with dozens of short players in varying degrees of quality. Some of those artists turned out to be incredibly resilient and long-lived, while others, including Darkest Oath, disappeared into the ether of imagination, though not without a few points of distinction worth mentioning.

Right away, the keyboards and doomed guitar melody that initiate "Ceremonial Whisper of the Ancient Goat" draw comparisons to other Greek bands like Nightfall, Varathron, Rotting Christ, Zemial and Disharmony, but the music very soon deviates due to the driving, mechanical drums that blast along at about mid pace over some predictable but fuzzy riffing. Much of the time, the keys will follow straight along to create a cheesy harmonizing effect that is mixed quite poorly. But the real standout of Darkest Oath are Necrochrist's vocals (yes, another 'necro-' prefixed bastard from Greece!), which are layered on not unlike Glen Benton of Deicide. However, within the context of Darkest Oath's composition, they stand out all the more, because you don't have the brutal riffing and Asheim drums to chip away at their robust, sinful insinuations. This is very demo level stuff, but I have to say that despite their sheer bulk, I actually sort of dug the demonic appeal.

That said, the music itself is rather too predictable to really pay much attention. Second track "Visions Through My Infernal Dreams" has a decent, frilly lead sequence tucked in the bridge, and Necrochrist keeps the pace pretty relentless throughout the 10 or so minutes, but I found myself either distracted by the vocals or not giving a damn about the overall writing. It earns a few points for not sounding quite like its better known peers, but certainly some of the riffs are redolent of Thy Mighty Contract or His Majesty at the Swamp; it's just the EP's primal, crude production and monotonous, mechanical backbone that differ from those more refined acts. In the end, Paradise of the Infernal Torment is naught more than an unnecessary commodity lost in a continent-sized crowd of superior black metal, but neither is it terrible.

-autothrall
http://www.fromthedustreturned.com

"Paradise of the Infernal Torment" is probably the most unknown piece in my Greek metal collection, which is a damn shame. The band “Darkest Oath” only released this EP back in 1994 and a demo two years later. Their short existence was probably the main reason for their obscurity in the metal realm. The EP has two tracks with an overall length of 10 minutes. Yeah, that definitely isn’t much, but it shows a band, which had great promise in the mid-90s.

“Ceremonial Whisper of the Ancient Goat” is the introducing track and it’s immediately recognizable as Hellenic Metal; the obscure atmosphere, flutes and guitar melodies are a trademark for the Greek sound. The first few seconds of the track sound like the band’s country mates “Kawir” but all of a sudden blastbeats and a fast tremolo picked single-note guitar line appear out of nowhere with a repetitive lead on top, more resembling the fastest moments of the early Varathron demos. The Kawir-esque folkish synths reappear several times later in the track. Overall, a great display of the band’s songwriting talent which is only tainted by the rather awkward acoustic middle break were a few notes on the guitar sound so wrong and out of tune that it hurts the ears – they were clearly trying to pull off an old Satyricon/Agatus-like folk break here, but obviously that didn’t quite work out.

The second song “Visions Through My Infernal Dreams” shows more melody in the guitar work but with added aggression in the dual-vocal attack. The background synths are omnipresent and always manage to add a healthy dose of atmosphere to the music. Repetition is the driving element here, as many of the riffs tend to repeat themselves very often, but instead of riff variation, the band included a few ripping solos, which was rather unusual for the local scene; very fast tapping and a nice bit of shredding show that these guys had a lot of skill going for them.

“Paradise of the Infernal Torment” was recorded in the famous Storm studio by the well-known producer George “The Magus” Zaharopoulos (Necromantia, ex-Rotting Christ) and their (in?)famous drum-machine sound clearly shows that. In the studio’s early days, they couldn’t afford professional drum recording and therefore they used the machine for various band’s recordings (Varathron, Rotting Christ, Necromantia, etc.).

Even though they recorded this in the then-fertile Storm studio, the band vanished into obscurity. Fortunately, what they left behind with “Paradise of the Infernal Torment” is a more than rock-solid EP with two must have songs for Hellenic black metal lovers.