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Concert Review – Rotting Christ (Lee’s Palace, Toronto, ON, 03/05/2023)

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And the city of Toronto became part of a global cult of melodic and ritualistic Black Metal thanks to the undisputed music by the almighty Rotting Christ. 

OPENING ACTS: Gaerea, UADA and Carach Angren

I must confess I was a little worried about what would happen to the GAEREA, UADA, CARACH ANGREN and ROTTING CHRIST concert at Lee’s Palace in Toronto last night, as part of their amazing Under Our Black Cult North American Tour 2023, mainly due to the shitty weather that has been punishing the United States and Canada in the past month or so. If you go to Gaerea’s official Facebook page, you’ll see they had to miss a few concerts in the US due to the nasty weather conditions, and after the heavy snow storm that hit Toronto this Friday I wasn’t sure if the concert was actually going to happen. Fortunately for all of us Torontonians who headed to a sold-out Lee’s Palace last night the weather was perfect for this time of the year (it wasn’t even that cold), and not only the four bands played, but they all kicked some serious ass.

My only complaint is once again related to the time the doors opened, already after 7pm, and the time Portuguese Black Metal entity GAEREA hit the stage, at 7:30pm sharp. This means a lot of people who were still lining up outside of the venue until around 7:40pm missed the first few minutes from Gaerea’s performance. Why can’t the venues open their doors at least one hour prior to the first band, and come up with a faster way to check ID’s and tickets so that fans can enjoy all bands they paid some good money to see? Anyway, Gaerea were phenomenal during their short but powerful concert, playing only songs from their 2022 opus Mirage such as Salve and Laude while their mysterious frontman kept mesmerizing us all with a unique performance that reminded me of a darkened mix of Iggy Pop and Depeche Mode’s Dave Gahan. It was a dark, atmospheric and evil performance by the quintet, and I can’t wait to see them return to Toronto in the near future.

Setlist
Intro
Deluge
Salve
Mirage
Urge
Laude
Outro

Band members
*Information not available*

After a very quick break, it was time for American Melodic Black Metal horde UADA to pulverize our damned souls with one of the most atmospheric concerts I’ve seen in a while, playing long, intricate and visceral songs the likes of the title-track from their 2020 opus Djinn, plus The Purging Fire and Cult of a Dying Sun, with the strong smell of incense from the beginning of the show generating a captivating ambience for all fans at the venue. Jake Superchi was insane on vocals and guitar, headbanging manically while also growling like a beast for our total delight, while his band members, particularly drummer Josh Lovejoy, kept the music flowing majestically until the very last second. UADA are already gearing up for their first South American tour this October, which not only  means those guys are becoming bigger and bigger in the metal scene, but also that if you live in one of the South American cities they’re visiting in a few months you can rest assured you’re in for a fantastic treat.

Setlist
The Purging Fire
Djinn
Snakes & Vultures
Cult of a Dying Sun
Black Autumn, White Spring

Band members
Jake Superchi – vocals, guitars
James Sloan – guitars
Nate Verschoor – bass
Josh Lovejoy – drums

The third opening act of the night, Dutch Symphonic Black Metal demons CARACH ANGREN, also brought forth an ass-kicking concert, perhaps not as detailed or melodic as Gaerea or UADA, but full of energy and absolutely phantasmagorical. Blending songs from all of their albums with their latest opus Franckensteina Strataemontanus, from 2020, the duo Seregor (aka Dennis Droomers, who’s by the way in a relationship with the stunning Sandie Gjørtz, the frontwoman for Danish Melodic Death Metal outfit Defacing God) and Ardek (aka Clemens Wijers), with the support of the butcher Bastiaan Boh on the guitars and Gabe Seeber on drums, delivered a very theatrical concert for the crowd in Toronto, inspiring the fans to ignite some circle pits and even a wall of death with their devilish music. The only thing that bothered me a lot was the lack of a bassist while Ardek had two keyboards, but as weird as it might look the band has a lot of chemistry onstage and you end up forgetting about that minor detail right after the first song.

Setlist
Electronic Voice Phenomena
The Ghost of Raynham Hall
The Carriage Wheel Murder
The Necromancer
Bitte Tötet Mich
Operation Compass
Franckensteina Strataemontanus
A Strange Presence Near the Woods
Monster
Bloodstains on the Captain’s Log

Band members
Seregor – vocals, guitars
Ardek – keyboards, piano, orchestrations, backing vocals
Bastiaan Boh – guitars
Gabe Seeber – drums

ROTING CHRIST

It was around 10:20pm when the main attraction of the night, Greek Black Metal institution ROTTING CHRIST, showed Toronto once again why they’re one of the most important names in the history of extreme music, and will always be a reference to any metalhead who’s into the darkest side of metal. It’s beyond impressive how the iconic Mr. Sakis Tolis and his brother Themis Tolis are still so energetic on stage after so many decades on the road, hypnotizing the crowd and making every single one of their concerts simply memorable. In addition, I need to mention bassist Kostas Heliotis and guitarist Kostis Foukarakis also added their share of heaviness and electricity to the show, headbanging nonstop, interacting with the fans, and of course, playing all songs to perfection.

I was finally able to witness the guys playing songs form their awesome 2019 album The Herectics live, those being Fire, God and Fear and The Raven, and both were superb. However, their classics including the opening tune 666, Kata Ton Daimona Eaytoy, Elthe Kyrie, In Yumen-Xibalba and Noctis Era were the most electrifying moments of the show as expected, generating intense, unstoppable mosh pits for the delight of everyone who decided to brave the storm that became the main pit. And how not to love Rotting Christ when they worship our buddy Satan by playing on the same night the songs Apage Satana, Societas Satanas, and the majestic Grandis Spiritus Diavolos? That was superb, and the energy flowing between the band and the crowd was insane.

Whenever the mighty Rotting Christ takes the city of Toronto by storm again, I’ll certainly be there. It’s one of those must-see shows by a band that loves what they do and that loves to witness their fans going mental during their live performances. The temperature inside Lee’s Palace was so hot that some people had to wait after the show was over for their shirts to dry from all their sweat before enduring another cold winter night in Toronto, but after all was said and done everything was totally worth it. Sakis is an unstoppable metal beast, the city of Toronto loves him, and hopefully next time he’s in the city with his horde they can play in front of an even bigger crowd. And until that day comes, we should all keep these words deep inside our herectic hearts… NON SERVIAM!

Setlist
666
Kata Ton Daimona Eaytoy
Fire, God and Fear
Dub-sag-ta-ke
Apage Satana
Elthe Kyrie
Demonon Vrosis
Societas Satanas
Non Serviam
In Yumen-Xibalba
Grandis Spiritus Diavolos
The Raven

Encore:
Noctis Era

Band members
Sakis Tolis – vocals, guitars
Kostis Foukarakis – guitars, backing vocals
Kostas Heliotis – bass, backing vocals
Themis Tolis – drums

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Album Review – Rotting Christ / The Heretics (2019)

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Heretics, atheists and rebels, it’s time to burn in the fires of the dark and occult Black Metal masterfully crafted by the greatest Greek institution in the history of heavy music.

“Since man cannot live without miracles, he will provide himself with the miracles of his own making. He will believe in any kind of deity even though he may otherwise be a heretic, an atheist, and a rebel.” – Fyodor Dostoyevsky

It is not a coincidence that our review number 666 exhales blasphemy, heresy and, above all, first-class occult Black Metal and a lot of fire. Hailing from Athens, the capital of the beautiful Greece and the heart of Ancient Greece, here comes the greatest Greek metal institution of all time, the almighty Rotting Christ, spitting fire upon humanity with their fantastic and very atmospheric new opus, entitled The Heretics, their thirteenth studio album and a beautiful follow-up to their excellent 2016 release Rituals.  Recorded at Pentagram Studios in Athens, mixed and mastered at Fascination Street Studio in Örebro, Sweden, and featuring a stunning artwork by Ukrainian designer Vyacheslav Smeshko and cover art by Greek artist Maximos Manolis, Rotting Christ’s new album is absolutely incendiary, going against all types of religion, church and creed.

And when I say incendiary I’m not exaggerating, as pretty much every single song from The Heretics mentions the world “fire”, proving the band’s mastermind, vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Sakis Tolis and his brother, drummer Themis Tolis, knew exactly what they were doing when turning what it truly means to be a heretic into their unparalleled Dark Metal. All lyrics are obscure, austere and rebellious, which together with all beautiful intonations by guests Stelios Steele and Dayal Patterson, as well as an array of guest musicians such as Irina Zybina (vocalist for Russian Pagan/Folk Metal bands Alkonost and Грай), Alexis Karamelis and Melechesh Ashmedi, makes the experience of listening to The Heretics truly hypnotizing, enfolding our souls in darkness and fire while the music remains as heavy, intricate and epic as we got used to from the Tolis Brothers. In other words, are you ready to burn in the purifying fires of the Dark Metal blasted by the one and only Rotting Christ?

The imposing In the Name of God brings forward a very atmospheric start, with the words by Russian philosopher Fyodor Dostoyevsky spoken by guest Stelios Steele setting the stage for the crushing wall of sounds created by the Tolis Brothers, always in the name of fire, not to mention how its headbanging riffs will inspire you to break your neck in half, while Vetry Zlye, also called “Ветры злые” (which translates as “evil winds” from Russian), is another beautiful composition by those Greek metallers with the help of guest vocalist Irina Zybina and her mesmerizing voice, getting closer to what the band did in Rituals and with the drums by Themis sounding as imposing and demolishing as we like it in classic extreme music. “The mind is universe and can make a heaven of hell a hell of heaven”, and it’s with those words by English poet John Milton that Rotting Chirst kick off another thrilling hymn titled Heaven and Hell and Fire, showcasing austere, cryptic lyrics (“Beyond the burning fire, heaven and hell / Today I give you choices: life or death / I offer you desire, I sentence you to death / Today I give you a choice, I give you Hell”) that perfectly match with the song’s flammable, classic and very melodic musicality, with Sakis once again being a beast with his riffs and unmatched roars.

Hallowed Be Thy Name is a mesmerizing and extremely obscure hymn by led by Themis’ pounding beats, with Sakis extracting those low-tuned, Stygian sounds we love so much from his guitar and bass. Put differently, join their mass and burn with them, also savoring the words by William Shakespeare powerfully declaimed by Stelios, putting a majestic end to the song. Following such enfolding tune we have Dies Irae, where Sakis’ work on the guitar is the perfect example of how heavy and harmonious a riff can be at the same time, as well as the song’s background choir bringing even more thunder to this already potent song; whereas in I Believe (or “Πιστεύω”), which is based on a poem by Nikos Kazantzakis, a giant of modern Greek literature, the instrumental pieces are a bit too “polluted”, but nothing that makes the song boring or not enjoyable. Moreover, it should work a lot better live as it has the potential to generate huge circle pits due to its frantic pace. Back to a more visceral mode, we have the fabulous Fire God and Fear, with the words by French philosopher Voltaire (“Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.”) generating a stunning paradox with the birds gently chirping in the background in the beginning, before the scorching riffs and thunderous drums by the Greek brothers of metal urge us all to bang our heads nonstop. Hence, this is by far one of my favorite songs of the entire album, where we can savor that classic Rotting Christ sonority with a welcome contemporary twist.

Rotting Christ The Heretics Box Collector

The Voice of Universe is another song that will reach deep inside your mind and soul, with Sakis vociferating its insurgent words (“The angel, I won’t serve again / I won’t have a place anymore in heaven / It’s my own soul, it’s my own mind / And can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven.”) while Themis keeps blasting his trademark tribal beats, and when you think those Greek metallers couldn’t sound more mesmerizing and brutal at the same time they deliver the excellent The New Messiah, featuring an excerpt from Matthew 24:11 (“And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray.”), with the guitars and all background elements and voices filling out all spaces in the air. And lastly, as the icing on the cake we have the magnificent, somber and ferocious The Raven, based on what’s probably the most famous poem by the iconic american writer Edgar Allan Poe, offering our ears over five minutes of cutting riffs, Black and Doom Metal drums, and endless poetry, with highlights to the sensational job done by Stelios Steele, giving life to Poe’s renowned lines. Actually, if you have some spare money to purchase any of the special editions of the album, you’ll also be able to enjoy the bonus tracks The Sons of Hell and Phobos (also called “The Sons of Hell, Pt. 1 & 2” by some people), two dark and demolishing tunes that make it worth the additional investment, or in other words, two excellent samples of modern-day Black Metal infused with epic and atmospheric elements.

In summary, The Heretics, available for a full listen on YouTube and on sale from several locations such as the band’s own BandCamp page and the Season of Mist webstore (and if I were you, I would go for the limited edition deluxe wooden boxset as it comes with several awesome perks), is definitely an album that will touch your heart and soul, taking you on a fascinating musical ride through the woes of religious wars, Zoroastrianism and the eternal war between good and evil. That’s what the unrelenting Rotting Christ offer us in their top-of-the-line new opus, and may Sakis and his horde continue to burn us all heretics, atheists and rebels with their dark and occult Black Metal for many decades to come.

Best moments of the album: Heaven and Hell and Fire, Hallowed Be Thy Name, Fire God and Fear and The Raven.

Worst moments of the album: I Believe.

Released in 2019 Season of Mist

Track listing
1. In the Name of God 4:13
2. Vetry Zlye 3:14
3. Heaven and Hell and Fire 4:52
4. Hallowed Be Thy Name 5:06
5. Dies Irae 3:45
6. I Believe 3:42
7. Fire God and Fear 4:49
8. The Voice of Universe 5:22
9. The New Messiah 3:07
10. The Raven 5:23

Deluxe Edition/ Limited Edition Deluxe Boxset bonus track
11. The Sons of Hell 4:18

Limited Edition Deluxe Boxset bonus track
12. Phobos 4:12

Band members
Sakis Tolis – vocals, guitars, bass, keyboards, percussion
Themis Tolis – drums

Guest musicians
Giannis Kalamatas – guitars (live)
Van Ace – bass (live)
Stelios Steele – poem intonation on “In the Name of God”, “Hallowed Be Thy Name” and “The Raven”
Alexis Karamelis – backing vocals on “I Believe”
Stratis Steele, Alexandros Louziotis, Giannis Stamatakis & Theodoros Aivaliotis – vocals (choirs)
Nikos Velentzas, Stamatis Ampatalis, Vasilis Koutsoyflakis & Manos Six – percussion
Irina Zybina – female Vocals on “Vetry Zlye”
Dayal Patterson – intonation on “Heaven and Hell and Fire” and “Fire God and Fear”
Melechesh Ashmedi – vocals on “The Voice of Universe”

Metal Chick of the Month – Marjolaine Bernard

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Behind shivering drops of my soul… Dancing under a dry sky the void’s pouring inside…

Let’s take a flight to Paris, the capital and most populous city of France, where among several activities and attractions you can visit the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre Museum and the Notre Dame Cathedral, or simply find a traditional French café on the famous Avenue des Champs-Élysées to enjoy a nice, traditional croissant. If you’re a metalhead, there are also some excellent metal pubs and venues for you to go, such as Le Black Dog, James Hetfeeld’s and Le Cavern, and if you’re lucky enough you might enjoy a live concert by Wildpath, a female-fronted Symphonic Power Metal band formed in Paris in 2001 where, since 2008, our metal chick of the month has been giving life to their lyrics. I’m talking about French vocalist Marjolaine Bernard, a very talented and young musician who will certainly attract the attention of fans of melodic female voices like Floor Jansen and Tarja Turunen.

Born on June 4, 1983, Marjolaine started in the world of music at a very young age, first with the piano, then by joining a choir after watching a children’s concert, and since then she has never stopped singing. Furthermore, our French girl has been singing metal for a long time, being part of different small independent bands as a teenager and being clearly inspired by names like Floor and Tarja. However, Marjolaine stated that, despite Floor and Tarja (among other renowned vocalists) still being a reference to her, they’re not necessarily what she listens to nowadays and she doesn’t see herself as a Symphonic Metal singer, but just as a musician among other musicians trying to work with her voice in the best way possible, always in line with the music being played.

Marjolaine and her bandmates from Wildpath draw inspiration to create their music from several distinct sources, from electro to reggae, from metal to ambient music, like a giant melting pot. Furthermore, she mentioned she loves movie scores and soundtracks, being highly influenced by amazing composers such as Hans Zimmer and Danny Elfman, also getting ideas from music from video games. She said that metal is a style where you’re allowed to let go with musical expressions and experimentations, and that’s the path that’s being constantly explored by the band in recent years. Forging elements from rock, metal, electro, folk, symphonic and traditional music, always caring for harmony and energy, Wildpath are a band in continuous evolution, and Marjolaine’s voice is exactly what the music needs to become more lively and appealing, as you’ll see below when we talk about her career with the band.

However, before Wildpath, there was Ad Vitam Aeternam, which is Latin for “To (or Towards) Eternal Life”, a Melodic Gothic Metal band formed in 1999 in Paris with whom Marjolaine played until 2005. She recorded the album Abstract Senses with Ad Vitam Aeternam in 2004, that being the only official release by the band since their inception. You can take a listen at the entire album HERE, or also enjoy individual songs from the album such as Dementia and In The Throes of Apocalypse, always paying attention to how different the music style by Ad Vitam Aeternam was from Wildpath, which only shows how versatile Marjolaine is as a vocalist.

It was in the year of 2008 that she finally joined Wildpath, which as already mentioned was formed back in 2001 by keyboardist Alexis Garsault and guitarist Olivier Caron in Paris, having released their debut album Nyx Secrets in 2005 (without Marjolaine on vocals, obviously). After Marjolaine became the lead singer for Wildpath, the band released three full-length albums, Non Omnis Moriar in 2009 (which by the way had its name inspired by the Odes by Roman lyric poet Horace and means “I shall not all die” or “not all of me will die”), Underneath in 2011 and Disclosure in 2015, as well as a very special release featuring acoustic versions of tracks from previous albums in 2016, titled Still – Acoustic Live Experience. You can get a very good taste of how smooth and tuneful Marjolaine’s vocals are in songs such as Petrichor, The Raven, Absentia, Confined and Excinere, listen to the entire albums Disclosure and Underneath, enjoy the acoustic versions from Still for the songs Everlasting Wish and Unborn, or also have fun with Marjolaine and the others with two live “studio” versions for the songs Buried Moon and Secret’s Case.

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If you prefer Wildpath live in front of a bunch of metalheads, I recommend this 2012 version of Buried Moon and Dive live at Le Grand Rex in Paris during the IronSquid StarCraft 2 World Championship Finals, as well as Non Omnis Moriar live in Eloyes, France in 2010; Unborn and Ghost Memories live at Le Divan Du Monde in Paris in 2015; or even this full concert  in 2012 during a mini-festival named Metal Symphonic Quest II in Tours, a city located in the centre-west of France. The festival also had the bands Adrana, Lost Opera, Roman Rouzine The Tria and Eidon, but it was Wildpath who headlined the night. And if you think you need to go all the way to France to watch Wildpath live, you’re wrong, as in 2016 the band played their first gig in the UK at The Quinphonic Festival 2 at The Roadhouse Birmingham. How far do you think Marjolaine and Wildpath can go?

As a guest musician, Marjolaine was part of the only album released by French Melodic Heavy/Power Metal band Silent Fall, entitled Otherwise, from 2010, doing choir vocals in the whole album and main female vocals on the song This Could Have Been. If you’re curious to know how she was invited to be part of the album, the answer is quite simple. Olivier Caron, Wildpath’s own guitarist, was also the lead guitarist for Silent Fall, making it a lot easier for Marjolaine to add her vocals to their music in an effective and exciting way.

When asked about her favorite song of all time, including all types of music and eras, her answer was quite unique, citing the classic Sanvean: I Am Your Shadow (or simply Sanvean) by the iconic Australian musical project Dead Can Dance, featured on their first official live album Toward the Within, released in 1994, an album that contains 15 songs, of which only four appeared on their previous albums. Sanvean was later re-recorded by one of the masterminds behind Dead Can Dance, Lisa Gerrard, on her 1995 solo album The Mirror Pool. In regards to heavy music, her first rock album was the classic Angels Fall First, the debut studio album by Finnish Symphonic Metal band Nightwish. With cult songs such as Elvenpath, Beauty and the Beast and Astral Romance, it’s easy to understand why Marjolaine fell in love for Symphonic Metal, right?

Marjolaine was also questioned about her favorite or best moments as an artist, and albeit she said there have been already lots of amazing memories with Wildpath, one of her favorite experiences was a concert with a “quatour” (a special form of string quartet that developed in Paris around 1775 and became one of the leading genres of Parisian music until the French Revolution) and a choir at La Scène Bastille, saying that seeing a symphony coming alive was truly fantastic. In addition, she also listed as one of her favorite moments when the band played with French progressive guitarist Patrick Rondat, and lastly the band’s famous performance in 2015 at Le Divan du Monde.

As previously mentioned, among her main influences we’ll find names such as Floor and Tarja, with Floor in particular being a huge inspiration for Marjolaine as she’s one of the few contemporary female singers who can combine lyrical songs with very dynamic rock vocals in a precise manner. However, out of the metal and rock scene, her favorite singer is Lisa Gerrard, who apart from her work with Dead Can Dance was also responsible for several other renowned projects, including a Golden Globe Award for the music score to the film Gladiator, on which she collaborated with Hans Zimmer.

Another interesting fact about Marjolaine is that her stage outfit is created by one of her students, who proposed to create special clothes tailored for their live performances, working with the band’s colors and adding her own personal touch to the creations. That stylist is from a company called Le Paon, a new brand from the independent French scene. Marjolaine and the stylist collaborate with each other in the creation of the outfits, first discussing new ideas orally and then working together on drawings and other details, until the stylist begins working on the whole realization of the clothes. One of her first new looks debuted at the concert at Le Divan du Monde in 2015, and in her opinion it was already a great evolution from her previous costumes.

Lastly, when asked about places or regions she would like to play with Wildpath, Marjolaine answered she would love to go to Brittany (a cultural region in the north-west of France) because she has family there, or also other French cities such as Lyon. Outside of France, she mentioned Belgium, Switzerland and Luxemburg as countries she would love to visit with her band, as well as other more distant places like Japan and South America, but that the high cost of playing in those places make the trip almost impossible, at least for now. It’s interesting that she didn’t mention the United States or Canada on her list, two major markets for heavy music, in special our French-speaking province of Quebec here in Canada. Well, let’s hope she just “forgot” to mention Canada, and that one day we have the pleasure of seeing Wildpath kicking ass live in our home and native land.

Marjolaine Bernard’s Official Facebook page
Marjolaine Bernard’s Official Twitter
Wildpath’s Official Facebook page
Wildpath’s Official Twitter
Wildpath’s Official YouTube