Arist: Unholy Archangel
Country: Greece
Label: Profaner Records / Temple Profanator
Format: Cassette Tape
Year: 2025
Unholy Archangel has already been around since the mid- to late 90’s and has a decent number of releases in their back catalogue, yet the band has never been in the front rows of the Black/Death Metal genre. That might partly be blamed on their relative inactivity or long hiatuses in between releases, their one and only full-length album stems from 2010 and only two splits and a compilation have seen the light since. That compilation ‘Kataclysmic Perversions’, a collection of early demos, an EP and split tracks, was already released back in 2019 and have been reissued a couple of times already. Still, Profaner Records (and Temple Profanator one of the many Profaner-spin-off labels) thought it was a good time to re-introduce these old Unholy Archangel tracks once more.
Listening through the early goings of the Greek band, all recorded and released between 1997 and 2002, it is not all too surprising the band never really gotten wider recognition and stayed relatively hidden in the deeper regions of their national and global Extreme Metal scene. As a whole, the music has that typical late 90’s/early 00’s Bestial/War Metal flavor to it, meaning that it is clearly based on the foundations laid by Blasphemy and Sarcófago but without the more crushing or overall overwhelming fervor of bands like Black Witchery, Proclamation and Conqueror. Basically, they always felt a bit like the European counterpart of Thornspawn. Not only on a musical level, also when it comes to their position and general status. When you have a discussion on this sort of music, not many will come up with Unholy Archangel as their favorite band or one of the main inspirators – same goes for Thornspawn, even though that band actually meant something for the general development in American Black Metal. But also both band’s long breaks in between releases and the capricious levels of quality in the offered material didn’t help. I think even the bands themselves felt they share the same fate, as at some point in their careers they shared a piece of vinyl together (the Unholy Archangel tracks also being present on this compilation).
So, it is certainly not just the longer periods of time between releases that has affected the Greeks. Even though the majority of the tracks on ‘Kataclysmic Perversions’ are rather old and therefore should not be taken as a particular blueprint for what the band stands for nowadays, these old songs already show that they are behind on their contemporaries. Unholy Archangel always leaned a bit more towards the Black Metal side of the Bestial/War Metal amalgam, with a distinctly more sharp sound, but that also shows the band’s overall lack in talent of writing exciting riffs and decent songs – mostly the same overall problem with Thornspawn as well. Of course, over the whole ride of 30 (!) songs there are a few that are definitely worth listening and as a whole I always love these sort of musical retrospectives. Yet, while going through these songs again, it is clear that the band was behind back then and certainly are anno 2025. A few solid tracks and releases aside, Unholy Archangel are down there in the deepest regions of the underground and it is quite doubtful if they’d make out it of there any time soon. ‘Kataclysmic Perversions’ is only fodder for the true and unquenchable Bestial/War Metal enthusiast and the wanna-have-it-alls.
