Review by Shezma for Rotting Christ - Triarchy of the Lost Lovers (1996)

This started with some decent grooves and "gothic" riffs, but after a couple songs in I got bored. The only thing black metal I found in this release at all was the vocals. The mix was too clean, and maybe I've been more into the atmospheric sides of things lately but even in melodic black metal there is usually some form of dark feel. I oddly got an alternative rock/metal feel from some of the songs like a Tool sound. can't explain how just some of the stylings gave me a vibe but with the vocals seemed out of place to me. Not that they were bad, but like an odd mix of flavors that surprisingly don't work when together. I see this as a highly reviewed record, and maybe if I heard this years ago I would've liked it better but in 2023 I can find more black metal releases from the 90's that I enjoy more.