Christ Agony - Trilogy

CHRIST AGONY - Trilogy (PAGAN Records CD 1998)

They just couldn’t make two as disastrous albums as "Darkside", luckily then Christ Agony’s next album, which is 1998's "Trilogy", is definitely a better effort. It's still far from their best records and is rather a mediocre piece from their discography, but I like it much more than the awful "Darkside" for sure. 

Thing, which for me is important, is that Cezar didn't go so deeply into the experimental territories with "Trilogy" as he did on the previous album. Most of the content of "Trilogy" is more traditional and characteristic for Christ Agony, even if a bit refreshed by some additional elements like industrial sounds or other such stuff. But no weeping and pitiful vocals, no more of that sorrowful and boring acoustic shit, which took half of the previous CD to the grave. "Trilogy" is darker, more sinister, more aggressive and more black metal, which is obviously very good. Songwriting is solid, I think. These songs may not be as impressive as "Moonlight" or "Deamoonseth" stuff, but are listenable and do not bring shame to Christ Agony discography.  

What I like about "Trilogy" is that riffs and the general atmosphere of most of this album is very characteristic for Christ Agony, but their formula for black metal has been refreshed very effectively. Drum machine, industrial sounds, some different vocal styles vary this album strongly, but songs are so good that even "Dying Star" do not disturb at all. Definitely diversity is the strongest aspect of "Trilogy", together with that fresh take on Christ Agony style. Every song is different, there are powerful, vicious and aggressive songs like "Hellspawn" and "Hail Darkness!", more epic pieces like "Eternal Desires", the mentioned "Dying Star", which is very industrial piece. And there's "Downfall" with its ritualistic, kind of tribal chanting and drumming. Absolutely good piece and much better effort than the previous album.  

The production is also very good, I like how it all clicks together. But the whole material is sadly quite short, it's little under 25 minutes, but maybe it's something positive, because there are no fillers or boring songs at all. 

"Trilogy" as a bonus contains an old "Epitaph of Christ" demo, which is a nice addition, I think, even if stylistically and musically it has rather little to do with the late 90's Christ Agony. It's so raw, vicious and almost primitive that it's a bit weird to listen to this demo after "Trilogy". It's also, to be completely honest, quite boring demo, I can't say that it belongs to my favourite Polish black metal demos from that era. But as a bonus and piece of band’s history it is relevant for sure. 

Standout tracks: "Hellspawn", "Eternal Desires", "Hail Darkness!" 

Verdict: 70/100