''Κατά τον δαίμονα εαυτού'' (transliterated: ''Katá ton Daímona Eautoú'') is the eleventh full-length album by Greek

extreme metal Extreme metal is a loosely defined umbrella term for a number of related heavy metal music subgenres that have developed since the early 1980s. It has been defined as a "cluster of metal subgenres characterized by sonic, verbal, and visual tran ...

band Rotting Christ.

Overview

The album incorporates diverse instrumentation, including

bagpipes Bagpipes are a woodwind instrument using enclosed reeds fed from a constant reservoir of air in the form of a bag. The Great Highland bagpipes are well known, but people have played bagpipes for centuries throughout large parts of Europe, N ...

and horns, and delves into

Incan The Inca Empire, officially known as the Realm of the Four Parts (, ), was the largest empire in pre-Columbian America. The administrative, political, and military center of the empire was in the city of Cusco. The Inca civilisation rose fr ...

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

, Babylonian, Mayan,

Romanian Romanian may refer to: *anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Romania **Romanians, an ethnic group **Romanian language, a Romance language ***Romanian dialects, variants of the Romanian language **Romanian cuisine, traditional ...

, Slavic, and

Greek mythology Greek mythology is the body of myths originally told by the Ancient Greece, ancient Greeks, and a genre of ancient Greek folklore, today absorbed alongside Roman mythology into the broader designation of classical mythology. These stories conc ...

. Rotting Christ frontman Sakis Tolis considered the album "a journey into the knowledge of ancient civilizations and into the

occult The occult () is a category of esoteric or supernatural beliefs and practices which generally fall outside the scope of organized religion and science, encompassing phenomena involving a 'hidden' or 'secret' agency, such as magic and mysti ...

ism that is rising from the dark side of each one of them". However, Tolis said: "A deep dig into the occult knowledge of the past led me to create this album. I have no special message. I was tired of them. I just want you to make your escape from everyday life and trip with me into the past".

Title

The album title "Κατά τον δαίμονα εαυτού" is

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

. Sakis Tolis contended that the label's understanding of the phrase was "do what thou wilt", a quote associated with

Aleister Crowley Aleister Crowley ( ; born Edward Alexander Crowley; 12 October 1875 – 1 December 1947) was an English occultist, ceremonial magician, poet, novelist, mountaineer, and painter. He founded the religion of Thelema, identifying himself as the pr ...

and

Thelema Thelema () is a Western esotericism, Western esoteric and occult social or spiritual philosophy and a new religious movement founded in the early 1900s by Aleister Crowley (1875–1947), an English writer, mystic, occultist, and ceremonial ma ...

. A more accurate translation is "true to your own spirit". The same sentence can also be seen on

Jim Morrison James Douglas Morrison (December 8, 1943 – July 3, 1971) was an American singer, songwriter, and poet who was the lead vocalist and primary lyricist of the rock band the Doors. Due to his charismatic persona, poetic lyrics, distinctive vo ...

's tombstone, again in Greek.

Track listing

* ''χξϛʹ'' is how the number 666 is written in

Greek numerals Greek numerals, also known as Ionic, Ionian, Milesian, or Alexandrian numerals, is a numeral system, system of writing numbers using the letters of the Greek alphabet. In modern Greece, they are still used for ordinal number (linguistics), ordi ...

; * ''Русалка'' title is transliterated as "

Rusalka In Slavic folklore, the rusalka (plural: rusalki; , plural: русалки; , plural: ''rusałki'') is a female entity, often malicious toward mankind and frequently associated with water. It has counterparts in other parts of Europe, such as th ...

"; * A sample from the 2000 film ''Gladiator'' (the German Leader's line) is used during the beginning of ''Welcome to Hel''.

Personnel

; Rotting Christ * Sakis Tolis – guitars, vocals, bass, keyboards * Themis Tolis – drums, percussion ;Additional personnel * Georgis Nikas – bagpipes * Babis Alexandropoulos, Alexandros Loutriotis, Theodoros Aivaliotis, Giannis Stamatakis, Androniki Skoula – choirs * Eleni Vougioukli – piano (on track 5), vocals (on track 9) * Suzana Vougioukli – vocals (on tracks 5 and 9) * George Emmanuel – lead guitar (on track 7) ;Miscellaneous staff * Adrien Bousson – artwork, layout * Nurgeslag – cover art * George Emmanuel – engineering * Jens Bogren – mixing, mastering * Sakis Tolis – producer, mixing, mastering

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kata Ton Daimona Eaytoy Rotting Christ albums 2013 albums Season of Mist albums