Acherontas: Amarta अमर्त (Formulas of Reptilian Unification Part II) (2017)

Apparently, the language in the title is Hindi and translates to "Amart" and means immortality.  No, I am not sure why a Greek band would be using a Hindi word, and no, I really have no fucking clue what that happens to do with "reptilian unification".  Maybe David Icke knows.  Probably not, he's not exactly the world's foremost expert on anything, other than crazy.

This album is a sequel to the last one and builds on much of the musical ideas present in that release.  The album feels less like a musical release and much more like an audio story put to music.  With the differing vocal styles, it feels like a complete and cohesive concept album.  That would not surprise me given that it is a sequel album. 

The music is complicated to put it mildly.  Do not go into this album expecting some catchy hooks and sing-along choruses.  There is none of that here.  The music is dense and the songs are often lengthy.  There is little variation in the pace of the songs, but there is so much going on that that that really does not matter.  The instrumentation is certainly impressive and the band does well to build an eerie atmosphere throughout the release.

Acherontas is primarily building on what they did on the last release.  The result is an impressive and entertaining listen that absolutely requires listening to it in its entirety in one sitting.  This is not a release to pick and choose songs, it is a cohesive unit and it sounds best with that understanding.

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.