Varathron: Patriarchs of Evil (2018)

I mentioned a couple of days ago during my post on Kawir that there would be another album by a Greek black metal band soon.  Well here it is.  This is just the second release by Varathron in my collection and I really must have missed something.  The previous release I had was a compilation of the band's demos and it must not have clicked enough with me so I never picked anything else up.  I have missed a lot.

Varathron manages to perfectly capture the sound and atmosphere of Theogonia-era Rotting Christ here.  This is a perfect example of why I love the Hellenic black metal scene so much.  Varathron's riffs take influence from heavy, thrash and melodic death metal.  The production is terrific, making each instrument and riff clear.  The drumming in particular stands out, with intriguing fills in between keeping time.  There is never a dull moment or a bad track throughout and the band manages to keep things fresh and interesting by not falling into any sort of predictable patterns.  Between the energetic riffing style, dark atmosphere and the grunted vocals of Stefan Necroabyssious, the album really does sound like the Gods of Olympus are angry and taking their fury out on the world.

I am absolutely blown away by this album every time I put it on.  I have definitely missed out on something by not exploring this band more thoroughly.  This album definitely stands up well to the best albums by Rotting Christ.  If I had heard it just a few months ago, this would likely have finished very high on my best of 2018 list.