I’ll confess right from the start — I’m not a diehard fan of black metal. Most modern BM-bands either try to follow the genre’s leaders (copying their music and image, but ironically, always remaining one step behind), or emphasize their «underground ideology» which tends to result in forgetting about the music, which, frankly, sucks. Thus it was a pleasure to discover that there are some bands that still follow more or less their own path, and do not pay attention to reigning trends. I’m particularly speaking of Polish band Christ Agony, whose last album was licensed for Russia by Irond.

Poland was the first Eastern Europe country in which extreme bands achieved international recognition. Vader, Behemoth, Sirrah, Yattering, Graveland — all these names are well known all over the globe. Christ Agony, playing classic black metal for over a decade, are no exception. The antichristian position of the band becomes obvious after a single glance at the cover, where a beautiful band logo is set against a no less beautiful maelstrom background. The logo in question is fortified with a couple of pentagrams and an upside-down cross (in lieu of the letter «t»). Dark, stylish and impressive. The 12-page inlay (way to go,Irond!) contain the lyrics to every song, pictures of the musicians (no corpse-paint, and no crooked moulds), and other information (for example, the list of guest drummers, one of whom is Doc from Vader). One conspicuous eye-gouging fault is the font, which is sometimes fuzzy enough to make reading difficult. Fortunately, most lyrics in the inlay are quite digestable, so this remark remains just that: a remark, and not the evil howls of dissatisfied customers… for the time being, at least.

The band’s lyrics aren’t complex, and sometimes balance on the edge of banality. But at the same time, this can be good in that your dignity and personal disposition won’t be threatened. The lyrics won’t insult your intelligence, nor will they induce negative feelings. The themes are mostly «spiritual», so to say, and they are often connected with the opposite sex, but without vulgarities. In general, Christ Agony earns a big «thumbs up» lyrics-wise — nothing really special, but at the same time, the lyrics are solid and conscientious.

Let’s turn our heads to the music. Actually, there’s not much to say about it — «Elysium» is a darker heir of the Bathory «Blood Fire Death» album. The drums usually play a doomy, marching rhythm with occasional double bass. Sometimes they even speed up to a fast walking tempo, which may be noticeably unhasty, and there are instances where the fast thrash riffs converge with beautiful melodies and harmonies, and plunge the listener into a semi-trance condition with their recurrent themes. The bassist earns his keep here, especially given his willingness to use higher frequencie. At last, we have harsh, mid-ranged vocals, which sometimes turn into screaming.

All in all, Christ Agony play classic guitar-driven black metal with epic overtones. I want to paricularly underline the quality of the guitar parts — they’re not a dumb «tremolizing» of everything within an arm’s reach. Rather than going by any such formula (which is so typical of guitar-driven black metal bands), the guitarists play beautiful, skillfully interconnected riffs that are very melodic and memorable. Trust me; you will want to hear them again and again! The song structures are really good; on one hand, the songs are not a «riff-salad» in the vein of early Malevolent Creation and Hypocrisy. On the other, there are no monotonous songs. The themes are fluently and logically melting into each other, thus creating an impression of a flowing stream.

Keeping in mind the overall playing speed, the music of Christ Agony can be awarded the epithet «voluptuous». Everything that’s written above is true regardless of any particular song, and thus, it’s hard to find any stand-out tracks on «Elysium». There are no bad filler tracks, and everything is equally good, but I especially like «Eternal Stars», «Bleeding Heart», «Elysium» and «Sadness Of Immortality».

The nearly forty minutes of «Elysim» elapse so fast that one wants to push the «play» button one more time just to listen again to this equanimous album. My once-extinct faith in black metal has risen from ashes, and with clear conscience, I can recommend «Elysium» to all fans of good black metal (all ideological dogshit drivel aside), all fans of Bathory circa «Blood Fire Death» era, and simply to all who like good, unhasty melodic music.

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