He: Vocals
Nikolas Perlepe: Guitar
Naberius: Guitar
Jim Mutilator: Bass
Vongaar: Drums
“This time we entered the studio with the clear intention of creating a landmark album for the band.” It’s a noble and challenging mission statement from Hellenic black metal troop Yoth Iria, and one that has amply succeeded in the form of Gone With The Devil, the Attica quartet’s stellar third album. Their trajectory has been on a steep ascent since crafty 2021 debut As The Flame Withers and 2024′s hypnotic Blazing Inferno, but there has audibly been a concerted determination to develop and expand in sinister new directions. “The creative workflow was similar to Blazing Inferno, yet we deliberately pushed ourselves to bring new elements into our music. We kept the immediacy of Blazing Inferno, the psychedelia of As The Flame Withers, and all the characteristics people expect from Hellenic black metal – while adding fresh sounds and atmospheres never before heard from Yoth Iria. We allowed the structures to guide the emotion. Nothing was forced; nothing was done to prove a point. We simply followed instinct without any artificial constraints.“
The daemonic avatar Yoth Iria was first explicitly summoned on Rotting Christ‘s legendary debut Thy Mighty Contract in 1993. Bassist/lyricist Jim Mutilator formed that band as Black Church in 1984, before also becoming a founder member of cult Athenian BM heroes Varathron for their first five years. Renewing the otherworldly atmospheres and occult ravishment for a new era, Yoth Iria functions almost as the third panel in an apocalyptic triptych of Hellenic black metal excellence. As such, the band’s own definition of the term comes with a lifetime of expertise: “It’s a blend of aggression, deep contrasts, and that ‘ancient dust’ the land carries. It’s not something you consciously try to imitate – it’s in our DNA. Hellenic black metal has melody, theatricality, mystery, and a kind of magic that can’t easily be replicated elsewhere.” As with many great Greek bands, their spectacular history can’t help turning up in the creative process, albeit darkly reframed. “Greece gives us a foundation of mythology, tragedy, symbolism, and spirituality. We don’t seek to resurrect classical antiquity; we reinterpret it through a darker, ritualistic, almost daemonic lens. In our music, antiquity does not return as history – it returns as spirit.”
With its windswept intro, rock-steady snap, jubilant solo and duelling harmonies, opener Dare To Rebel is a useful pointer to the more accessible, classic heavy metal influences of Gone With The Devil. The elegant sound and smooth, sinuous arrangements mark a distinct hike in quality at every level, each song ready to roll as an engaging addition to the live set. Predominantly stately tempos ensure the dark riffs, memorable melodies and flamboyant leads have space to breathe their fire, so that the blastbeats, when they come – as during the mid-section of haunting highlight The Blind Eye Of Antichrist – devastate even more utterly. Flecks of Mediterranean folk and gothic cadences further expand the band’s sonic palate, while there are countless melodies so atavistically simple and primally satisfying they could be a thousand years old.
“Yoth Iria is not a band bound by strict rules or prohibitions,” they declare. “Black metal is and will always be at the core of our sound, but around it revolves anything that carries the necessary darkness, mystique, and spiritual intensity. Of course, there are elements we would never include – not out of fear or dogma, but because they do not serve the daemon of the band. Our sound must retain melody, simplicity, drama, and a ritualistic character.” Musically, inspiration is derived from “classic rock, heavy metal, and many extreme bands that we deeply admire,” while lyrical and attitudinal inspiration comes from an even more plentiful source. “Artistically, simply living in today’s world is enough to inspire dark music. We live in a strange, uncertain era – transitional, perhaps – toward something no one can predict if it will be better or worse. That tension alone fuels creativity.”
A specific theme overriding each lyric on Gone With The Devil, informing its playfully ambiguous title, is defined by the band as “the paradox of power and faith.” This topic is handled throughout with such focus that it might even warrant the ‘concept album’ tag. “Those who rule the world claim to serve gods, uphold religions, and define concepts of sin and punishment – yet they themselves create the very hell they warn others about. They cultivate the image of a ‘devil’ as a force of evil, while in truth they project their own corruption onto this figure. In [the album's] narrative, Lucifer is not a symbol of terror, but of light – a truth deliberately hidden by those who benefit from darkness. This concept forms the backbone of the album and is the reason behind the title Gone With The Devil.”
There’s a thrilling balance of ancient and modern, good and evil, harmony and dissonance, advancing Yoth Iria as a hungry contender for extreme metal’s big leagues – an ever-improving unit with a glorious future. Appropriately, however, Gone With The Devil is best summed up with a line already coined by the band to describe their ongoing body of work: “Every note tells a story of rebirth, tradition, and the relentless pursuit of musical transcendence.”
