A Dead Poem

Although their name has always proved a bit much for some to stomach, Greece's are hardly the most of extreme of black metal bands. In fact, since releasing its brutal 1994 debut, , the Greek ensemble had steadily expanded its sound into significantly slower tempos, added increasingly large doses of melody, and created two of the most accessible extreme metal albums one might ever encounter in 1994's and 1996's . This progression continued into the band's fourth full-length, 1997's strangely titled , which, whether one is partial to 's darker or lighter sides, unquestionably ranks as one of their best collection of songs. Clearly on a roll in their collaboration with renowned producer , the bandmembers fearlessly embraced their goth tendencies on this album, combining aggressive riffs and infectious guitar harmonies to produce career highlights like and the title track -- even sequencing them into a formidable one-two-three punch fit to knock down any naysayers. But the album was hardly over after that, and subsequent highlights such as the synthesizer-enhanced the stirring instrumental and the acoustic guitar-driven are sure to keep listeners mesmerized through to the finish. That is, so long as they're not purists beholden to 's original blueprint, in which case they would have to wait a few more years (and endure 1999's similarly styled successor, , where the band's goth metal wellspring abruptly dried up) before their heroes revisited some of their more primal songwriting instincts via 2000's . ~ Eduardo Rivadavia