The Wrath of Kosmosistis

Around about the time they released a few compilations of their old demo material, Greek's unholiest black metal dirt merchants also gathered their strength for a new assault. Anyone familiar with their more recent album Obsessed by War, or the demo material will know what to expect here: crude, spewing streams of disheveled black metal in the vein of Blasphemy or the grimier Scandinavian recordings of the early 90s. Despite that, though, The Wrath of Kosmosistis is undoubtedly the most structured and polished work I've heard from Unholy Archangel. The songs feel like actual songs rather than vomit splattered upon a tape reel, and though they're not necessarily strong, they get the point across.

Like their demos, you get this enormous contrast between the clean sounding ambient pieces and metal content. "Zeus Worship" features some flutes with a narrative ritual, and "Desecration of Judeochristianism" is a swelling if monotonous marriage of synthesizer and low pitch male choir voices. The black metal tracks "Storming Attack of the Makedonians", "Makedomonions War Supremity", "Release the Typhon" and "The Katastrofik Wrath of Kosmosistis" are more or less one trick ponies, blasting along messily while the growling, tortured vocals drone out the band's Hellenic pride for ancient violent. A few of the tunes feature breakdowns with muted riffs that feel like an attempt to shift the tempo, but these are quite weak, really, and like a lot of acts in this mold, they could use a greater level of variation when composing, because the faster black riffs just don't amount to anything memorable.

Still, I can't say that this is necessarily a bad recording, it's just trite and typical of the deep underground of the genre, where black, death and raw thrash all tend to blend into the same category of extremity. The production is nothing to write home about, but if you've heard some of their other work, then it's a step up. I love the concept of Hellenic war metal, I just wish it were delivered in a more interesting context.

-autothrall
http://www.fromthedustreturned.com

Greece is one of those far away lands that still holds an element of mystery and adventure. With a rich history and such paradise-like landscapes one would think that such a place that looks like the Garden of Eden would be one devoid of anything evil.

Wrong.

Where there is light, there is darkness. And Greece is no exception to this rule. Over the years the Greeks have provided us with such excellent acts such as Varathron, Necromantia, Rotting Christ (just to name a few) who have offered splendid works of of the horned one. Well, the flames of Hades have gotten a little hotter and they have unleashed possibly their most demonic and evil incantations; Unholy Archangel. What one gets here is nothing short of the lovely melodies borught forth by acts such as Blasphemy, Sarcofago, Hellhammer, etc. At first glance one might seem that this is redundant, but there IS a slight twist here: Lyrically instead of just being completely being Anti-Christian for the sake of it, they actually praise their own culture and throw in Greek Mythology and Historical references which is refreshing from a lot of wannabe-Scandinavian losers that completely flood the underground these days. I give credit where credit is due and Unholy Archangel deserve much for worshipping their own pre-Christian Gods. Most of the songs seem to run fairly well with the occasional riff popping up here and there. I can't really say there's any 'standout tracks' because this type of music doesn't rely on that. It's raw, ugly, blasphemous, mentally deranged, and doesn't fuck around. Either you get it or don't. If you can't seem to grasp that concept then these guys will have a feild day summoning the Greek gods and enjoy watching them shove lightning bolts and tridents up your rectum and then throwing you to the hands of a pissed-off Minotaur.