Cthonium

Here we have one of Greece’s early contributions to the bestial Black Metal style: CTHONIUM from Thessaloniki, founded in December 1992 by core members Hades/Odes from the Absu (vocals, keyboards – OSCULUM INFAME, TWILIGHT) and Lord Satsokian Spells aka Satsox (guitars).

It only took about three months before CTHONIUM unleashed their debut demo tape “The Final Congregation (The Last of Thy Forgotten Rites Revealed)” (1993) with the assistance of a session drummer called Rune. A crude affair by all means, “The Final Congregation” sprung straight out of the same pit as the early works of BEHERIT, BLASPHEMY and BLACK CRUCIFIXION. Trivialities such as melody, technical finesse and audible production values are flushed down the drain in favor of pure ambience of destruction and evil – just as it should be… However, much like their brethren in BEHERIT, CTHONIUM would soon show that they had more to offer.

With Hades joined by a new set of members (or maybe they just switched pseudonyms?), titulated as Oinopion the Satyr (guitars) and Nocturnal Wizard (drums), CTHONIUM set to work on new material. While “The Final Congregation” did a good job at scratching that bestial itch we all carry deep down inside, their one-track contribution to the “Beyond the Grave” compilation LP – put out by Dark Side Records – saw the band up the ante in terms of atmospherics without losing any of their inborn rawness. The track, entitled “Infernal’s Forethought”, could well be one of the closest approximations of BEHERIT’s “Drawing Down the Moon” to date, without sounding like a rip-off, as tend to be the case with similar acts within the field.

According to an old interview made for “Fields of Valour” zine, there was talk of CTHONIUM preparing new material in winter 1994-1995, allegedly to be released on a Polish label. As far as we know, nothing tangible came out of it so we can probably assume that the band split at some point or another during the mid-1990s. Having participated in the early works of both TWILIGHT and OSCULUM INFAME (there’s even a split compilation CD with CTHONIUM/OSCULUM INFAME material available nowadays), Hades would eventually participate in the resurrection of TWILIGHT in 2013 and seems to remain within their ranks to this day.

In addition to “The Final Congregation” demo and the previously mentioned compilation track, there’s also been mentions of a rehearsal tape (dated 1992) floating around in underground trader’s circles. If anyone is in possession of the latter, we would very much like to hear it!

Compilation appearances:
* Beyond the Grave [LP, Comp, Limited (1000): Dark Side, 1994]
* Black Creation [Cass, Comp, Numbered: Self-released, 1995]
* Darkness Prevails [Cass, Comp: Self-released, 1995]
* Hellas - The Black Death Anthology [2CD, Comp, Limited (1000): Kyrck Productions, 2006]