Algaion are a band from Sweden that has had music reviewed before in this zine and on this recording played a Hellenic influenced form of black metal and this is a review of their 1995 album "Oimai Algeiou" which was re-issued in 2022 as a joint effort between Shadow and Regain Records.
Keyboards start off the album and also mixes in with the heavier sections of the songs at times. Melodies are also added into some of the guitar riffing while the vocals are mostly high pitched black metal screams and when the music speeds up a decent amount of blast beats and tremolo picking can be heard which also gives the songs more of a raw feeling.
Throughout the recording you can also hear a decent mixture of slow, mid paced and fast parts while the music also has its atmospheric moments. Some of the tracks are also very long and epic in length along with the music being very heavily rooted in the 90's Greek black metal style as well as all of the musical instruments also having a very powerful sound to them, acoustic guitars and operatic female vocals can also be heard on the closing track.
On this recording Algaion played more of a Greek influenced style of black metal which made them stand out a lot more among the Swedish bands as well as being very different from what was coming out of their home country. The production sounds very dark and raw while the lyrics cover darkness, despair and sorrow themes.
In my opinion this is a very great sounding recording from Algaion and if you are a fan of the old school atmospheric black metal style of the 90's, you should check out this re-issue. RECOMMENDED TRACKS INCLUDE "Matrices Educati" "On The Reach Of Zaphonia" and "The Last Delusion". 8 out of 10.
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