Tracks 1-8 originally released as Eosforos CD/LP (Unisound, 1994).
Tracks 9-16 originally released as Apollyon CD/LP (Unisound, 1996).
Tracks 2 and 3 don't feature the keyboard intros from the original album.
Brutal Hellenic Black Metal. Yes, this term does exist; at least it does for me, since I heard this album for the first time. Thou Art Lord, the brainchild of Sakis Tolis (Rotting Christ) and The Magus (Necromantia) released their first demo one year prior to "Eosforos" and it already showed the direction they were going. But damnit, how did I underestimate the amount of brutality displayed on "Eosforos".
The production is as raw and edgy as it could be, the guitars sounds like chainsaws cutting through the air, the vocals are totally pissed off and menacing as hell. The bass rumbles heavily under the palm muted tremolo-picked riffs and the drums thrash their way through the album. Excellent production, everything can be heard well, and as I said, raw as fuck.
"Eosforos" starts with "For the Lust of Lilith" which already shows hints of what's going to come on this album. It's not a full display of brutality and excellent songwriting yet, but it's a rather good track, where especially the bass shines through. The "chorus" is quite memorable, as both Sakis and The Magus scream simultaneously "FOR THE LUST OF LILITH!". You can't help but scream along with them.
The second track, "Disciples of Black Sorcery" starts with an eerie piano in the background until the typical tremolo-picked riffs come in. A very good intro riff leads into a groovy verse with evil harmonized lead guitars and commanding vocals. The track isn't too varied, but flows along nicely, mainly through the fluent thrash beats keeping the pace very well. The outro riff, though simple, is evil as hell and also the best in the song. The album really picks up with the next song though, "Eosforos Rex Infernus". Fantastic keyboard work and groovy drumming accompany the riffing on this track. I've never said that to any band before, but the whole riff-structures here scream "Satan!". They surely achieved their goal of bringing sinister, satanic music to the people. There are few vocals on this track, but they are placed perfectly. One of the albums highlights.
"Towers of the Autumn Moon" is even better than it's preceding track, the intro riff is an almost perfect introduction and leads into another, even more brutal, and at the same time, catchy riff. There's even a short, but great solo here (they are rare on this album), which gets repeated four times with great vocal work in-between. The track ends on a slow, almost doomy note, which is a perfect closure for an excellent track like this one.
"A Call to Chaos" has one of the most memorable choruses ever. It consists of The Magus and Sakis screaming "Kaos - Keravnos - Kybernetos!" again and again. The vocal work here is even more straightforward and highpitched, almost reminding of Varg's screaming on his early albums, just with even more balls. The drumming is at it's best here. If War Metal was a genre, the drumming here would be a testimony for it. Another highlight on a great album.
The next two tracks, "Through the Eyes of the Hierophant" and "Warhammer" are also strong tracks, albeit a bit more on the melodic side. Former features the best solo on the album, while the latter also has great use of the aforementioned "war drumming". It's also thrashier than "Through the Eyes of the Hierophant".
The kept the best track for the end: "The Era of Satan Rising". It's the re-recorded version of the same song on their "The Cult of the Horned One" demo. It was the best song there, and it's the best one here. It starts with an almost kids-friendly sounding keyboard melody, creating some kind of false peace (this part was not on the demo version) until the track bursts out a fantastic riff, reminiscent of Rotting Christ's sound on "Thy Mighty Contract". It's catchy as hell, like on the demo, but with higher-pitched vocals, which fit very well. You'll find yourself thrashing around like a madman as the riffs pound on your eardrums. Absolutely no weaknesses here. This song is up to par with the best material on "Thy Mighty Contract".
When I got to hear this album, I immediately got the following one, "Apollyon". It disappointed me quite a bit, because it went to an almost completely other direction, which wasn't nearly as good as this one.
I recommend "Eosforos" to all fans of Black and Death metal, especially to those who enjoy Hellenic BM as much as I do.
Despite the genius of its creators 'main' bands, I've always remained hesitant to enlist Thou Art Lord into the core of the Greek elite. There has always felt something frivolous and undecided about the songwriting, as if it they merely sought a forum for the cast-off skins of their other projects. That said, Eosforos was off to a pretty good start, and Apollyon makes for a suitable sequel, with a massive improvement in the actual production standards. Yes, Apollyon joins the ranks of Walpurgisnacht, Triarchy of the Lost Lovers and the more obscure Unspeakable Cults at the next plateau of potential, forsaking the murky and dry environment of its predecessor for a polish that could compete with the other bigwigs of Europe.
The issue here, is that there are several songs upon Apollyon that are ridiculously AWESOME, and then others that too soon fall by the wayside. For example, you've got "Experimental Magic" which charges forward, takes no prisoners, sounds adequately harsh, but never goes anywhere; and on the other side, "Hate is Thicker Than Love", with its slashing grooves and muted streams of malevolent bliss, a more belligerent Rotting Christ. Or "Societas Satanas", which boasts a more rugged veneer of melodic black/thrash which might qualify as an almost entirely different band (and a fucking good one). Then there are slower pieces like "Moonscar" and "In Blood We Trust" which reveal a few Celtic Frost tendrils, but little lasting character. The most unusual would probably be the full-on Gothic symphonic sweep of "He, Whom the Gods Hath Feared", but a cursory listen to the previous album tells us that this is no surprise.
The energies are feral, diabolic and vibrant throughout most of the 38 minutes, but ultimately there are just too few songs that stand out in my head. I actually find individual tracks more to my liking than any on Eosforos, but that album as a whole was more consistent. Gothmog sounds fairly brutal and he was clearly one of the better singers or this Greek scene, with a little more meat than Sakis or Magus Wampyr Daoloth, but the riffs are usually hit or miss. That said, the album does hint at this amazing black/thrash side that I would have loved to see Thou Art Lord exploit down the road, because where they let loose they grind you to a pulp. Apollyon is a cool enough sophomore, but it lacks some cohesion.
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