Review by Daniel for Rotting Christ - Thy Mighty Contract (1993)

This album was my first experience with Rotting Christ back in early 1994. It really never grabbed me & I've always found it be quite overrated. The musicianship is very poor & many of the riffs sound like badly executed variations on old Judas Priest material rather than the extremity of fully fledged black metal. That did give them a differentiater from the rest of the black metal crowd at the time but it also made them sound a bit tame compared to the Norwegian bands that were taking the underground metal scene by storm. The material did have a little atmosphere but overall the songs remind me of the dodgy bands I played in as an early teenager. We spent very little time creating fresh sounding riffs or song structures that flowed nicely in those days & we often accepted shoddy performances as we honestly couldn't do much better. The keyboards, guitar solos & drum programming are all very amateurish here although this also gives the songs a naïve charm that keeps you listening longer than you can explain to yourself afterwards. Ultimately "Thy Mighty Contract" showcases a band that is still refining it's sound. They developed into a much more melodic & professional outfit over the next year & the best was certainly yet to come for Rotting Christ.