TRIPTYKON – Eparistera Daimones

After the fall of Hellhammer, arose Celtic Frost, after the death of Celtic Frost arose the darkness that is Triptykon, which is a homage to dark religious paintings. Maybe it’s a circle of life or just plain choosing to experience as much as possible, but that is the vision of the well-known Thomas Gabriel Fischer a.k.a. Tom G. Warrior. Fischer returns with the twilights that made the late and old eras of Celtic Frost, without the Glam image of Cold Lake, and infused those into Triptykon.

The debut album of the foursome crew of Fischer, Eparistera Daimones, sounds as if it has a direct connection to Celtic Frost’s farewell album, Monotheist. The same draw to the Doom/Black/Death Metal is unavoidable and it is quite evident. On this particular album, Triptykon turned to their rather doomy side with several additions of different variations of extremeness. Be advised that this album is a long journey (approximately 72 Min) of nine tracks, which will show the meaning of darkness. This is an alternate or extreme version of Sabbath with some nasty dark figures.

Through pits of despair, various occult matters and other darkened thoughts, this is what the music and lyrics are all about on the Eparistera Daimones. With its most evident slow tempo riffages and gloom passages, it is hard not to pay attention to those details. If you think this is weird, it’s not, this is the nature to all that was once a Frost venture.

However, Triptykon took those themes and made them even deeper by material. It seems that every section on their tunes was made after deep thinking and planning. Every track has its own spotlight and every tune carries its own bloody stones. The far result is a creative release, multi-diverse from the extreme pits of Metal, however without letting go of the true traditions which made the first cycle of Fischer on Hellhammer. Whether it is derived from the riffs, bizarre passages and assorted vocals, the legacy of Fischer continues with positive intent.

Following the steps of this new band and its new release, it is hard to shake some aspects that bothered along the listen. To begin with there is the length. Rather good tracks as “Goetia”, “The Prolonging” and “Abyss Within My Soul” are transmitting their ideas after less time than their run time. A main example is “The Prolonging” track, which is almost twenty minutes, which most of them are dead parts or repeating riffs and chants. At least the other two-mentioned tracks are rather more diverse than this one, so they are passing the time rather well.

Second, there is the lack of excitement. Leaving behind great tracks as “A Thousand Lies” (the best one to date), “Abyss Within My Soul”, “In Shrouds Decayed”, “Myopic Empire” and “My Pain”, the majority of the others require strong nerve to keep on going. Probably the main inquiry is where are the lead guitars, where are a few solos from the hands of Victor Santura. This melding of extremeness lacks aspects, which would have probably made it even more enhanced than it is showing here. You can take Type O Negative for example. If there weren’t those amazing guitar melodies and harmonies, the standing rhythms would have drove one to a pure boredom and that is not an ideal at all.

Other than those, this album shows quite an impressive restart for a person with lots of expertise on issuing the dark arts of Metal. Eparistera Daimones is strong, mysterious and assorted. However, it lacks the raw excitement of the old Celtic Frost albums. Fisher might be a great figure in this hollow scene and has a lot to lash out, yet, he can still deliver stuff akin to Morbid Tales or To Mega Therion.

Steinmetal’s Highlights marked on the tracklist

1. Goetia
   
2. Abyss Within My Soul
3. In Shrouds Decayed
4. Shrine
   
5. A Thousand Lies
6. Descendant
   
7. Myopic Empire
8. My Pain
9. The Prolonging

Lineup

Thomas Gabriel Fischer – Vocals, Guitars, Programming
V. Santura – Guitars, Vocals
Vanja Slajh – Bass
Norman Lonhard – Drums, Percussion