Rotting Christ - Sleep of the Angels [Vinyl]

Formed in Athens in 1987, ROTTING CHRIST are one of extreme metal's most enduring and shape-shifting acts—architects of a sound that has moved restlessly between black metal, gothic atmosphere, and dark ritualism across nearly four decades.
‘Sleep of the Angels’ (1999) is the culmination of a deliberate artistic turn: the Greek duo's fifth full-length finds brothers Sakis and Themis Tolis at the furthest point from their black metal origins, delivering a record defined by melodic weight, brooding atmosphere, and a gloomy romanticism that feels both immersive and self-contained. Produced by Samael’s Xy at Woodhouse Studios, the album is built around the interplay of Sakis's heavily chorded guitar work and a constant, gauzy keyboard presence that lends the whole record an almost ecclesiastical quality. Vocals shift between a characteristic snarl and a lower, whispered clean register, adding an intimate tension that runs beneath the surface throughout. From the sweeping martial drive of "Cold Colours" and the seductive menace of lead single "After Dark I Feel", to the gothic grandeur of "Victoriatus" and the closing epic "Thine Is the Kingdom", the record moves as a unified whole.
It is the band's most gothic-focused statement, and for a generation of listeners who came up on dark metal's late-'90s golden moment, it remains one of those albums that returns to you before you think to return to it.

For fans of NIGHTFALL, MOONSPELL, SEPTICFLESH, PRIMORDIAL, VARATHRON.