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| ATHLOS |
| In the Shroud
of Legendry: Hellenic Myths of Gods and Heroes |
| Secret Port Records |
| Official
Website |
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I am not a big fan of the folk/Viking metal genre, especially the
recent one, because it has become too cheesy, repetitive and boring. It
seems though, that there are many people in our days that like this kind
of music. ATHLOS, in general, I think belongs to this genre with the only
exception that the lyrics are not inspired by the Viking mythology, but
by the Greek one. Actually, ATHLOS is the project of Polydeukis who is
the founder of the Greek epic metal band SACRED BLOOD and who also participates
in bands like FOLKEARTH and ZION. The band, now, sounded to my ears as
a mixture of influences that come mainly from these known bands: FOLKEARTH,
VIRGIN STEELE (in the way the keyboards and the piano sound), BATHORY (just
listen to the song “Aegean Blue”), MANOWAR and GRAVE DIGGER (the acoustic
guitar in the “Areth kai Pomh” made me whisper the first words of “The
Clans are Marching”(Rebellion)). All these sound great, but in my opinion
although there were moments the band convinced me with their atmosphere,
there were other parts that I think the band exaggerated a bit and tired
me. First of all, I think that the rhythm guitars should have more variety,
also the dialogue parts needed to be more dynamic, because I couldn’t understand
in many parts what the speakers where saying and finally they had to reduce
them a bit, because they abruptly reduced or cut the natural flow of the
music. I believe that the band did a better job when it was playing straight
heavy metal than when it tried to create atmosphere. I can understand that
the band spent a lot of time creating that, but the final result is a bit
mediocre. They can’t pull off the expectations they create with their endeavor.
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Nick "Verkaim" Parastatidis
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