Rotting Christ, the elder statesmen of Greek black metal, have brought 2024 a whole new album in the form of Pro Xristou. Long-term fans will enjoy everything on offer: fervent, furious riffs, hefty drums, and revelry in blasphemous delights – the album is dedicated to those last few kings and emperors who reigned before Christianity became the world’s dominant religion, hence the title.
The overall sound is as majestic and grandiose as we’ve come to expect from Rotting Christ, with stand out moments including the male vocal harmonies on ‘The Apostate’ – nothing like aping a monastic choir to drive home a song dedicated to the last pagan Roman Emperor, Flavius Claudius Julianus. Any one of these songs will make a solid addition to the band’s live show. Pro Xristou is also a very accessible album, with clean production, and no surprising experimental flares that break the immersion, giving new converts a decent gateway into the band’s back catalogue.
Unfortunately, it all feels a tad stale. We’ve heard this album before. Not in this exact combination, but it’s very much the same sound they’ve been mining since Κατά Τον Δαίμονα Εαυτού. ‘La Lettera del Diavolo’ and ‘Pix Lax Dax’ sound, respectively, like rehashes of ‘Elthe Kyrie’ and ‘Komx Om Pax’ from Rituals. Accessibility is fine, and a lack of outrageous experimentation is a relief, given how easily it can go wrong. This is perhaps due to the new guitarist and bassist joining the fold – better to adhere to a sound that’s a proven success than to push the envelope too far. But to play it as safe as they have done here is something of a let-down.
This is not to say it’s a bad album. Far from it: as with bands like, say, Judas Priest, if you’re a fan of the sound, you’re always going to have a good time with a new album because it’s more of the same after some time away. Absence, after all, makes the heart grow fonder. That’s definitely true here: Rotting Christ fans young and old are going to enjoy Pro Xristou no matter what because we know what we like and we’re getting more of it.
But while Judas Priest have proven that they still have the capacity to blow everyone’s minds after fifty years in the game, Rotting Christ haven’t quite managed the same feat. Compared to its predecessors, Pro Xristou lacks any real bite or showmanship, despite the grandiosity of its sound. There’s no real thrill to the sound as there has been previously. A little more heft to the drums, some more extravagance in the guitar solos, and this would have been a tremendous album.
So, while it’s good fun, there’s not quite enough substance to Pro Xristou to make it a truly stand-out album. But, because it’s Rotting Christ, it’s still a banger.
