Rotting christ

Black metal>, gothic metal>, dark metal>, melodic death metal>, extreme metal

Rotting Christ is a Greek extreme metal band from Athens. The group, formed in 1987, is notable as one of the first Greek black metal bands on the European underground metal scene.

Rotting Christ ("Rotting Christ") was formed in Athens in 1987. The first rehearsal periods saw the release of several demos and splits with other groups in the Athens area. In its early days, the band played in a black metal and grindcore rather primitive, mainly influenced by Bathory, Venom and Celtic Frost. His music became over the years more melodic and more atmospheric by integrating elements close to Gothic metal. Their five-piece demo, Satanas Tedeum, shows a mix between grindcore and black metal, and will be followed by the album that will launch their career, Passage to Arcturo, in 1991. Paradoxically, these first albums seem to have more marked fans .

One of the group's first appearances was in 1993 during the Fuck Christ Tour with Immortal and Blasphemy. During this concert, spectators indulge in scarification and self-mutilation, which will lead to hospitalization. Before signing with Unisound, Øystein Aarseth (Mayhem's guitarist under the pseudonym Euronymous) had shown his interest in distributing the band's work with his label, Deathlike Silence Productions>, but the murder of Aarseth the same year put an end to to this solution. The band signed with Century Media in 1996, and stayed with them for ten years before joining Season of Mist.