Acherontas: Ma-IoN (Formulas of Reptilian Unification) (2015)

I know, it has been such a long time since I did a box set from a Greek black metal band.  Acherontas though is quite a bit different from their countrymen in Rotting Christ, Thou Art Lord, Varathron and Kawir.  There are some very vague musical similarities, but for the most part, the approach to the music and the content is entirely different.

Acherontas formed quite late compared to the bands listed above, and that is a primary reason that Acherontas is so very different from those other bands.  This is the band's fifth album since forming in 2007, a fairly impressive sign of productivity. 

This album is quite lengthy, at over an hour, and several songs are eight or more minutes in length.  That is a lot of room for some kind of wild ideas, and Acherontas definitely proves to have a few of those.  The music of Acherontas is much more atmospheric, and I would say ceremonial than other bands from the scene.  Whereas many other Greek bands take their lyrical subject matter from mythology of their home country, Acherontas's is far more esoteric, dealing with mysticism, Gnosticism, and the occult.  And the music reflects that, sounding much more like the soundtrack to a Satanic black mass than the more riff-based music of their peers.  There are extended sections where the sound is limited to light percussion and chanted vocals, giving off an extremely eerie vibe.  This genuinely disconcerting atmosphere is present throughout the album.

I was not familiar with Acherontas prior to picking up this box set.  They are not at all what I thought they would sound like, but far from being a disappointment, this is actually a very good thing.  This is much more interesting than another Rotting Christ clone.