How much do you consider an artist's cultural background and place of origin when listening to their music? To me and my anthropological instincts, where an album is “from” (both in terms of place and less tangible signifiers like socio-economic background and political leanings) is often a cornerstone of categorising the band, and while there is obviously no inherent qualitative difference, some scenes speak to each individual or audience more than others do.
One of those scenes that often manages to impress me with a confluence of recognisable cultural identity and sheer quality and variety of the metal it’s woven into is situated in Greece. With a heavy emphasis on black metal, often of a satanist persuasion (but rarely in a suspect, dogwhistly way as far as I have found), there are also strong psychedelic currents running through this Stygian meander, as well as plenty of smaller streams of death and doom.
Based on my experience, the unifying cohesion that binds this river and keeps it from dispersing into a million teardrops is one of consistent strength of Hellenic melodies, a penchant for writing hook-laden and often mid-tempo songs that live or die by the riff, and the aforementioned psychedelicism that is largely found in the scene’s more left-field contributors. The multicephalous water serpent’s heads go by many names, of which I will mention some for their ubiquity and influence, and some for their puzzling lack of notoriety: Rotting Christ, Villagers of Ioannina City, On Thorns I Lay, SepticFlesh, Hail Spirit Noir, Aenaon, Varathron, and—of course—today’s subject, Yoth Iria!
Gone With The Devil is Yoth Iria’s third album, coming off the heels of 2021's As the Flame Withers and 2024's Blazing Inferno. Achillean these heels are not, especially the latter of the two managed to enthrall me with its cinematic bombast, folk-tinged Hellenic melodies and blackened blaze and blisters. Featuring (ex-)members of Rotting Christ, On Thorns I Lay, Varathron and Cruachan, there is a clear pedigree for both the Hellenic black metal and the folk-infused melodic tendencies on display. Yoth Iria’s sound can be firmly categorised as Hellenic black metal, often featuring folk-leaning, affective melodies and compositions rife with sweeping bombast. As such, I had rather high hopes for Gone With The Devil. Initially, my expectations were well met by immediate and enjoyable hooks, and standouts like the choral chants on “The Blind Eye of Antichrist”, the rhythmic developments of “I Totem” and the high-energy riffage and energetic drumming on “The End Of The Known Civilization”.
Repeat listens, however, reveal an unfortunate tendency of sameness that causes my attention to drift on an unadventurous Odyssey. This largely stems from a lack of bite, with Yoth Iria having mostly neutered and de-fanged their wild black metal into a domesticated slog. I hope this serves them well, as based on their talents, both in this band and others, these guys have plenty of technical chops and an undeniable ear for melody. There are certainly some fine playlist cuts on this album, though as a whole I’ll probably leave it by the wayside.