Challenging the evil existence 

Review of the book: «NON SERVIAM La historia oficial de Rotting Christ» by Sakis Tolis and Dayal Patterson. Spanish version edited by Nelson Varela and translated by Erick Neyra

Versión en español

Review by: Juan Sabbath (www.bsabbath.com) 

In the book «Bienvenidos al Sabbath» I pointed out that «the artistic nature of metal emerges from the commitment to the work itself and from the efforts involved in its materialization when the act of music is more important than the hunger for profit or recognition. What is artistic about underground metal is precisely that it acquired a universal character outside of marketing artifices». This idea is summarized in just two words taken from Latin: NON SERVIAM (I will not serve). 

These words are attributed to the rebel angel of Paradise Lost when he stated: "it is better to reign in hell than to serve in heaven." Hell that is on earth: it is everyday life, the solitary struggle against day to day until victory, assuming sacrifices and renunciations stoically. Without giving in. Until reigning in that hell that we called reality.

For this reason, the title of the book that tells the official history of Rotting Christ could not be more precise: “NON SERVIAM”.

Taken from the title of Rotting Christ's  second album, this Latin dyad condenses the rebellion and coherence of the brothers Sakis and Themis Tolis over thirty years.

Resisting adversity is what defines the artistic nature of metal. And adversity has many forms: the stigmatization that entails imprisonment and derision, the precariousness that strengthens, the harshness of situations that are at the same time beautiful, the ability to be independent, and the firm and innocent belief in the value of a work that fights to get out of the burial in life that the underground implies.

The chronicle of this fight is what is found in the book "NON SERVIAM the official history of Rotting Christ" published in 2022 for the first time in Spanish under the production of Nelson Varela (Sylphorium records) in Colombia.

The book is one of those that, once you start reading, is difficult to put down, since the reader is immersed in a dialogue between metalheads. Dayal Patterson of the Cult Never Dies label and co-author of the book, intersperses statements and direct testimonies from the four essential musicians of Rotting Christ and their lifelong friends, generating the feeling that you are involved in those conversations. They narrate the details of the struggle to leave the underground that is common to all those involved in metal music. This fight can be done in two ways: the easy way of selling oneself to the artifices of marketing or the difficult way of not serving anyone and committing to free creation. It is clear that Rotting Christ chose the difficult path.

In that sense, the book NON SERVIAM is an applied case of the postulates that I mentioned in the book «Bienvenidos al Sabbath» regarding the identity of metal: «Identity is not an accessory, it cannot be planned. It is something that sprouts by inside and bloom naturally; Identity is spontaneous, it arises from the ethics with which we face life and the passion with which we take on challenges, in this case, the challenge of making history with the art of music (…) If the identity of a band is the outcome of marketing artifices, becomes false and poser. If the identity of a metalhead is a product of fashion or the need to be accepted, it is an alienated and empty posture». NON SERVIAM allows us to recognize the identity of the Tolis brothers, their honesty and dedication, which is why we feel identified.

These common dimensions underlying the circumstantial diversity of each individual are what define the identity of metal. It is what we all share, since Tolis bothers' story of struggle is a story that repeats itself in each of us. And it is what defines the ethics of metal, as I also explained in «Bienvenidos al Sabbath» book: «Ethics is acting accordingly with a course established by conviction and not changing ideals or ways of life according to what fashions or external factors impose (work, relationships)», it is «defining a lifestyle from teenage and being consistent year after year. Only very few can say and do that». Among those few are Sakis and Themis Tolis. We feel identified in the anecdotes, in the desire for adventure, the mistreatment of institutions, the discrimination at airports, the uncomfortable situations of attending concerts or playing gigs, in the chance encounters with our human gods, in the brotherhood woven in letters and, ultimately, in the desire for freedom.

An additional valuable contribution of the book is that it brings us closer to Jim Mutilator (Dimitris Patsouris) and Magus Vampyr Daoloth (Georgios Zacharopoulos). For those of us who saw the rise of bands like Rotting Christ, Magus and Mutilator were hidden in mystery, being part of the symbolic universe that supported black metal in the nineties. In addition, the book contains many old photographs and the possibility of seeing the four musicians reunited for the first time, walking by the places they used to go at the end of the eighties.

Exploring the past in the pages of the book NON SERVIAM reminded me that at the end of 2014 I undertook a trip from Colombia directly to Greece. It was the second time I left the country (the first was to England for similar reasons) in order to feel the atmospheres and visit the places of the bands that created the Greek sound. I visited a sculpture in homage to the war cry “ΜΟΛΩΝ ΛΑΒΕ”: Come and take them! The defiant response of the Spartans when they were demanded to surrender their weapons at the Battle of Thermopylae and which would later become the name of a cult label that the Tolis brothers would manage.

As narrated in the Rotting Christ book, four years before I walked through Exarcheia Square in search of the record store and the label that took its name from that battle cry (Μολών Λαβέ). Obviously, it was in vain. However, I discovered that Rotting Christ would perform on December 27 (2014) to celebrate thirty years of Greek Metal Hammer and that they would do so alongside legendary figures from the first wave of Hellenic black metal. It has been one of the best surprises of my life. But more interesting for you is to take this journey with the very creators of the Greek sound and all their stories narrated in the book NON SERVIAM, a mandatory reading for any black metal lover.

Juan Sabbath. Bogotá, May 5, 2024

Thee book NON SERVIAM La historia oficial de Rotting Christ is available here: Sylphorium Records

Few copies of the book Bienvenidos al Sabbath  available here.