Little bummed as well. Both seem uneventful and same old same old. Formula is getting stale. I just hope there are some surprises in the tracks they’re holding back.

yeah these tracks really don't show why the old logo is back

listening to heaven and hell and fire, i felt like i had already heard the same track before, but apparently it's a new one... they're sticking way too tightly to their recent formula here

Gonna break ranks and say I liked this one. Yeah it’s formulaic and I could nitpick it for various things but I found it enjoyable. Nice lyric video too and I usually don’t care for those.

Yeah I like this one, too. I understand why it's getting mixed reviews, but I'm liking this direction of Rotting Christ. Bring it on!

The riffs were decent in Fire, God and Fear (1st posted) but not strong enough to carry the entire song. Heaven and Hell and Fire sounds strongly of self-plagiarism while it's starting up. It's too repetitive. For a band writing music that ostensibly still requires riffs and some attack, there just isn't enough there. Formula's both too solid and too simple, and long in the tooth already imo.
Called it. Another snoozefest to my ears.

Is it just my speakers or does he sound like he's saying "sheaven or shell"?

I like the melodic texture, but it does feel a bit monotonous indeed. Not bad, but just there.

fukin oath

love how like all the best metal bands , they morph slowly with each album yet have a definite signature sound.

i got a brave murder day / K.I.N.G vibe from this track but taken to RC's glorious extremes.

I preordered it.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Yeah I heard that too

I liked this one a lot more than the first tune. Cool solo in the middle. Not their best shit but if the songs are closer to this level of quality then it'll be worth my purchase.

I mean I’ll still buy it, I’m just bummed there’s not much of a progression going on (to my ears anyways).

I think that's the super fat greek accent.

Song be boring. So far this album seems to be a stripped down version of Rituals and Κατά τον δαίμονα εαυτού. All the flavour has been removed. Meh.

The song had a nice atmosphere going, and the repetition helps build that ritualistic religious sound, but yeah... pretty boring and very similar to what they've been doing for a while. Not really riff-based music at all. I quite liked Rituals, but that album worked best as a whole. I almost never listen to the individual songs.

The songs are fine I dig them as droning mood pieces but still hoping they deliver something more vicious on the rest of the album. One of my favorite bands.

Alright, this new track is a lot better than that first one, I'm getting "Khronos"/"Genesis"-vibes here.

The drums are lacking in volume and punch, though. These are probably the weakest sounding blast beasts I've heard all year, they don't complement the music at all.

Still, this song features a little more of what makes/made Sakis & company great and gives me a little more hope for a swell-enough complete release.

No no no, fucking no, enough of this shit. How many times will they attempt to re-do theogonia? AEALO was good as a logical follow up album, plus they explored their folky side mixed up with the same musical concept of the previous one adding some nice riffs and melodies, then the one after that was like, OK, nice formula but it's starting to get stale guys, come on, you can do better. On rituals they decided to record 50 minutes of the same formula but allegedly more ritualistic (which in this case means "ultra fucking boring!") it seemed more like an EP than a proper album, but at least it looked like they were fed up with it already.... but no, they are far from done, why not just, create another monolith of MORE OF THE FUCKING SAME? I'm done with this band.

Trailer:

A third song, called The Raven, inspired by Edgar Alan Poe:



"We can proudly present to you the third song taken from our upcoming album The Heretics. 'The Raven' represents the epilogue of the album, and as we always used to do, our most atmospheric and melodic creation in every album. A tribute to one of the most literary critic writers, Edgar Alan Poe and more specifically to his poem 'The Raven' that, together with all the rest of the big heretics during the history of time, made us create our last opus. Enjoy the majestic trip of 'The Raven' and see you soon on our heretical path."

oh wow - it's literally the raven, lol.

the guitar layering is very mid-era (which is best, imo) - reminds me a bit of A Dead Poem. The solo is really nice, and the vibe is very gothic and chill. But, sadly, it doesn't...really...go anywhere? I'm saying this as a RC superfan too.

Atmosphere and the solo are great but I do agree that the song goes nowhere. It may be a grower but I feel that all the singles have too much spoken parts and they lack some surprises and variety.

The Raven is definitely the best of the batch so far. Really liked the melodic lead guitar flourishes and main chord progression. It does ‘plod’ like the last two singles but I really don’t mind. Looking forward to this more and more!!

So the album is basically Rituals, Pt. 2 with all that entails. Pretty decent on first listen but your mileage may vary.

New single Vetry zlye (Ветры злые) is really good, perhaps the best one so far, though its quite short.

sounds exactly the same as most tracks on the last few albums. i'm at work and still this track managed to bore me

when they first came up with this formula, it was interesting for a little while, but they've been writing the same damn song over and over for years now. really don't see why they would bring the old school logo back for this riffless yawning. this sort of thing would work well as 1 epic track on 1 album - but not as the majority of every album for ten years

They're definitely one of my fav greek bands ever and I doubt this new turd will manage to change my mind, but damn, they're surely trying hard.

The new song for those who wanna hear it and not just read about it...

Official full album stream:

Absolute bore like every recent thing they've done. What a pity.

Listened to this twice now. It's not as good as Rituals, which I sort of expected, but I still quite like this. I realise there's some mixed opinion on their later offerings but I'm liking this stripped down, simpler version of their style. It works for me and I still think this'll get plenty of plays.

It's not the total snooze-fest that Rituals was, but I can't deny it's a pretty forgettable album. There are some good riffs and melodies, but the songs themselves don't go anywhere. Not one I'll probably come back to often.

The Deluxe edition contains those tracks which seriously rock:

Shit, I'm out of this, really.

I've been a fan for so many years but this is basically the same snoozefest they've been offering since around "Aealo" and Sakis keeps talking about how things develop and riffs come to life and whatever. I'm just disappointed how easily satisfied they seem to be these days...

oh, and please stop regurgitating that "fire" lyric all the time, it's annoying.

I just listened to their official upload on YouTube. It's exactly what I expected, nothing more and nothing less. It's dripping with atmosphere, with changing deep vocals, choirs, repetition, heavy guitars etc. It's not much in terms of songwriting or interesting riffs, but I listened to the whole thing with headsets and heavy snowfall outside, and it was an enjoyable experience. Really immersive.

If you didn't like the last couple of albums, this won't change your mind.