Upcoming Release: Astarte
ASTARTE - Blackdemonium: The Last Ritual
Athens, 1995-2025: A Farewell in Fire
When Astarte, originally Lloth, emerged from Athens in ’95, they didn’t just break ground as the first female black metal band; they carved their name into the genre’s bones. Now, after nearly three decades, a heartbreaking hiatus, and the loss of founding force Maria Kolokouri (Tristessa), Blackdemonium arrives as both a final testament and a defiant roar. Recorded in fragments before Tristessa’s passing in 2014, this album was pieced together by her husband and bandmate Nicolas Maiis (Melanomorfos), who refused to let her last screams fade into silence.
Gone are the sprawling epics of old. Blackdemonium is Astarte stripped to the blade: shorter, rawer, and drenched in the kind of old-school malevolence that smells of damp crypts and rusted spikes. Tristessa’s vocals, now more feral than ever, claw through Nicolas’ guttural growls, their dual attack splitting the album’s soul like a ritual knife. The riffs? Razor-wire tight, indebted to the frostbitten riffing of Emperor and the cavernous heave of Celtic Frost, but with a Greek twist that’s all their own. “We wanted to be more in your face,” Nicolas admits. Mission accomplished: this isn’t just different, it’s dangerous.
Blackdemonium lands November 7th, 2025, on digipack, CD, and vinyl (including 100-copies-only red, blue, and grey variants, because even the afterlife has its collectors). It’s a farewell, yes, but also a middle finger to the idea that black metal must always be shrouded in mystique. Here, the darkness isn’t just atmospheric, it’s personal.
The production’s deliberate rawness might frustrate purists, and the brevity of some tracks leaves you craving more. But that’s the point: Blackdemonium isn’t here to comfort. It’s here to haunt. And in that, it succeeds spectacularly.
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