Ancient Oath


Ioannina (Epirus)
Heavy Metal, Doom Metal
Active:
1995-unknown

Formed in 1995, allegedly with the intention of bringing something new and different to the local scene, Ioannina’s ANCIENT OATH gave us five demo/promo tapes in the 1990s. Their style can be described atmospheric Heavy/Doom Metal with a dreamy ambience and somewhat fragile vocals reminiscent of BATHORY circa “Blood on Ice”. Judging by the number of concert flyers available and by the superior live performance of some of their tracks in comparison to the versions heard on the demo recordings, ANCIENT OATH seems to have been a pretty good live band as well. Another thing perhaps worth mentioning is that their demos have proven damn hard to track down!

On their first tape called “Curse” (1995), Andreas Chrysohoou handled vocals and guitars, joined by Elias Kontogiannis on bass and Spyros Vakolidis behind the drumkit. By 1996, the band was solidified with the addition of vocalist Michael "Sin" Kokkoros, with Andreas focusing solely on the guitar from now on, and Dimitris Chrysochoou as second guitarist. This seems to be the lineup that would last for the rest of the band’s existence, except for a session job by Chris Zois (bass) on “Deadly Words of Innocence” (1999), replacing Elias during his temporary absence.

The band stayed true to their original vision while improving over the years their technical and compositional skills. Besides stringency in style, one of the common traits of the band’s releases is that they feature just as exquisite artwork as the production – sorry guys – is bad. Interestingly though, both of these factors – together with the addition of keyboards in their later output – actually strenghten the music’s atmosphere.

Compilation appearances:
* Fire and Steel 1 [Cass, Comp: Self-released (Warrior’s Lament Zine), 1996]

d i s c o g r a p h y :

Curse - Demo (Cassette) 1995 - Private (-)
(Nastos Studios (Unknown))
Details: Single-sided regular cassette, coloured j-card, hand-numbered.

Reissues:
TRACKLIST:
Ancient Oath
Curse in the Sky
Worship in Haze
Pray for the Souls
Curse in the Sky (live)
LINE-UP:
Andreas (vocals, guitars)
Elias (bass)
Spiros (drums)
Before we proceed with the actual review, it should be pointed out that this evaluation is based on a rather poor tape-rip with extremly annoying (and headache-inducing) low-frequency noise present throughout the entire demo. I’m pretty sure this calamity wasn’t present on the original recording, even though the production quality isn’t exactly ideal to begin with.

Anyway, this five-tracker (including one instrumental, three ordinary songs and a live track) constitutes ANCIENT OATH’s first foray into the field of lyrical Heavy/Doom Metal in the Greek tradition. In spite of obvious shortcomings in the production area – there’s not much of a difference in sound quality between the “studio” tracks and the live uptake – as well as the occasionally out-of-tune vocal performance, the actual song material, adequate instrumental handling and quirky vocal lines (reminiscent of Quorthon during his Viking/Heavy Metal period) makes “The Curse” a fully enjoyable underground debut and should appeal to fans of the style – if they can handle the low-budget presentation. As for highlights, I actually prefer the live rendition of “Curse in the Sky”, as it brings more of a raw energy to the song.

Written by Johan Pettersson

Darkness in My Dreams - Demo (Cassette) 1996 - Private (-)
(Studio unknown)
Details: Single-sided cassette, coloured j-card w/ lyrics, limited edition, hand-numbered.

Reissues:
TRACKLIST:
Exit
Curse in the Sky
Darkness in My Dreams
Everything (The Depths of My Eyes)
LINE-UP:
Michael "Sin" Kokkoros (vocals)
Andreas Chrysohoou (guitars)
Dimitris Chrysochoou (guitars)
Andreas Kontogiannis (bass)
Spyros Vakolidis (drums)
By the time of recording their second demo tape, entitled “Darkness in My Dreams” (1996), ANCIENT OATH had expanded from a three-piece into a quintet through the addition of Michael Kokkoros on vocals and Jim Crysohoou on second guitar. Perhaps as a result of the extended lineup, the band was able to broaden their sonic palette, while retaining their core sound (and lackluster production…) pretty much intact.

This change is mostly evident in the re-recording of “Curse in the Sky”, which was previously included on the band’s debut tape “Curse” (1995). The general sound is thicker and more intricate – much thanks to the addition of a second guitarist – but also heavier and a bit darker. Strangely, the voice of the new vocalist Michael Kokkoros sounds very much similar to that of Andreas Chrysohoou, who now focused solely on his guitar playing.

Taken as a whole, “Darkness in My Dreams” could be described as a natural progression vis-à-vis the debut, both in terms of sound and songwriting. As such, it is a promising work that showed potential for future glories of a still very young band.

Written by Johan Pettersson

New Dawn - Demo (Cassette) 1997 - Private (-)
(Studio unknown)
Details: Cassette, coloured j-card.

Reissues:
TRACKLIST:
New Dawn
LINE-UP:
Michael "Sin" Kokkoros (vocals)
Andreas Chrysohoou (guitars)
Dimitris Chrysochoou (guitars)
Andreas Kontogiannis (bass)
Spyros Vakolidis (drums)
Although featuring only a single, self-titled track, ANCIENT OATH’s third release “New Dawn” is yet another example of the growing abilities of this Ioannina-based Heavy/Doom act. The lineup remains the same as on “Darkness in My Dreams”, with the band operating as a twin-guitar-based quintet. Compared to their previous works, “New Dawn” is definitely more a “rocking” composition, built around a fundamental 4/4 back-beat, contrasted against heavier, BLACK SABBATH-/CELTIC FROST-ian counter-riffs that gives the song a good sense of dynamics. To this is added some neat and clean guitars, intervowen throughout the track to create a dream-like atmosphere.

The production remains as rough as on previous releases, but here it kind of adds to the obscure ambience of the song – much like it would on subsequent recordings by the band.

Written by Johan Pettersson

Shadowfeast - Demo (Cassette) 1998 - Private (-)
(Studio unknown)
Details: Cassette, coloured j-card.

Reissues:
TRACKLIST:
Beyond the Last Breath
Shadowfeast
LINE-UP:
Michael "Sin" Kokkoros (vocals)
Andreas Chrysohoou (guitars)
Dimitris Chrysochoou (guitars)
Andreas Kontogiannis (bass)
Spyros Vakolidis (drums)
Another year, another demo release by ANCIENT OATH – this time with twice as many tracks as the year before (two songs, in other words…) Once again, we can spot a slight development of style compared to previous demos. “Shadowfeast” (1998) is even closer to Doom than “New Dawn” (1997) was, yet the music is “busier” than before; with more things going on at once in the songs and with a greater sense of intricacy to the composition. A natural evolvment, considering the increased instrumental/compositional proficiency of the band members.

The main highlight of both the title-track and the opener “Beyond the Last Breath” is the dreamy melancholy atmosphere, which by now has become something of a trademark of the band. This feature is further boosted by the increased use of keyboards, some nice twin-guitar harmonies and of course the fragile vocals of Michael Kokkoros (a love-it-or-hate-it kind of voice, I guess). More than ever, Michael K.’s performance recalls Quorthon around “Blood on Ice”, which partially counts for the music as well.

I suppose it doesn’t need to be mentioned that the production is pretty low-budget, but just as on “New Dawn” it works to the band’s advantage here.

Written by Johan Pettersson

Deadly Words of Innocence - Demo (Cassette) 1999 - Private (-)
(Studio unknown)
Details: Cassette, coloured j-card.

Reissues:
TRACKLIST:
Deadly Words of Innocence
LINE-UP:
Michael "Sin" Kokkoros (vocals)
Andreas Chrysohoou (guitars)
Dimitris Chrysochoou (guitars)
Spyros Vakolidis (drums)
Chris Zois (session bass)
Yet to be reviewed.




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