“This time we entered the studio with the clear intention of creating a landmark album for the band.” It’s a noble and challenging mission statement from Hellenic black metal troop YOTH IRIA, and one that has amply succeeded in the form of Gone With The Devil, the Attica quartet’s stellar third album, set for worldwide release May 8th on Metal Blade Records.
YOTH IRIA‘s trajectory has been on a steep ascent since crafty 2021 debut As The Flame Withers and 2024’s hypnotic Blazing Inferno, but there has audibly been a concerted determination to develop and expand in sinister new directions. “The creative workflow was similar to Blazing Inferno, yet we deliberately pushed ourselves to bring new elements into our music. We kept the immediacy of Blazing Inferno, the psychedelia of As The Flame Withers, and all the characteristics people expect from Hellenic black metal, while adding fresh sounds and atmospheres never before heard from YOTH IRIA.”
The daemonic avatar YOTH IRIA was first explicitly summoned on Rotting Christ‘s legendary debut Thy Mighty Contract in 1993. Bassist/lyricist Jim Mutilator formed that band as Black Church in 1984, before also becoming a founder member of cult Athenian BM heroes Varathron for their first five years. Renewing the otherworldly atmospheres and occult ravishment for a new era, YOTH IRIA functions almost as the third panel in an apocalyptic triptych of Hellenic black metal excellence.
With its windswept intro, rock-steady snap, jubilant solo and duelling harmonies, album opener “Dare To Rebel” is a useful pointer to the more accessible, classic heavy metal influences of Gone With The Devil. The elegant sound and smooth, sinuous arrangements mark a distinct hike in quality at every level, each song ready to roll as an engaging addition to the live set. Predominantly stately tempos ensure the dark riffs, memorable melodies, and flamboyant leads have space to breathe their fire, so that the blastbeats, when they come – as during the mid-section of haunting highlight and lead single “The Blind Eye Of Antichrist” – devastate even more utterly. Flecks of Mediterranean folk and gothic cadences further expand the band’s sonic palate, while there are countless melodies so atavistically simple and primally satisfying they could be a thousand years old.
The band further comments on “The Blind Eye Of Antichrist,” “True change begins when we refine our character, discipline, and inner power. A transformed person creates a transformed reality. Personal evolution becomes a universal shift – a new order of existence. The world changes when the self is reborn.”
There’s a thrilling balance of ancient and modern, good and evil, harmony and dissonance on Gone With The Devil advancing YOTH IRIA as a hungry contender for extreme metal’s big leagues – an ever-improving unit with a glorious future. Appropriately, however, Gone With The Devil is best summed up with a line already coined by the band to describe their ongoing body of work: “Every note tells a story of rebirth, tradition, and the relentless pursuit of musical transcendence.“
Find all pre-orders at: metalblade.com/yothiria
Gone With The Devil Track Listing:
01. Dare to Rebel
02. Woven Spells of a Demon
03. The Blind Eye of Antichrist
04. I, Totem
05. 3am
06. Give ‘Em My Beautiful Hell
07. Once in a Blue Moon
08. Blessed Be He Who Enters
09. The End of the Known Civilization
10. Harut, Government, Fallen
YOTH IRIA:
HE – vocals
Jim Mutilator – bass
Nikolas Perlepe – guitar
Naberius – guitar
Bill “Vongaar” Stavrianidis – drums
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