The album’s opening track, Evolution Road, might be the best example of this: I got chills – actual shivers of awe – when I heard Zal roar, “My fingertips, my Holy Fire!” A lyrical tip o’ the hat to the much-missed Alex Harvey, whose Faith Healer imagery is seared into the soul of every SAHB fan. Once again (as he did with Sin’Dogs), Zal proves that in addition to his renowned fretboard abilities, he’s also a ferociously effective frontman. Ellipsis is a barnstormer of an album – fearlessly creative, expressive and cathartic. I didn’t know exactly what to expect, but I knew it would be special. So I was excited to hear about his Orphans of the Ash project. How can he do this? How is it even possible? It shouldn’t be. In a live setting he does the impossible: makes perfect songs sound even more so. (Zal’s guitar work didn’t exist alone in those grooves, of course – there was a beautiful musical synergy between him and his bandmates Alex, Chris, Ted and Hugh.) I’ve been lucky enough to see Zal play live a bunch of times, both with SAHB and also with his Zal Cleminson’s Sin’Dogs project. One only has to play the SAHB discography (preferably on vinyl) on a quality hi-fi system to hear guitar sounds so unique, so inspired, so tasteful, so rich in nuance and melodic genius, that the listener is forever changed for the better. He’s a wizard, I tell you! This fact is well known by fans of The Sensational Alex Harvey Band. There are plenty of guitar maestros, but Zal is the guitar wizard. No one else can do what he can do with a guitar. The most impressive of all was Zal Cleminson. Most of them were impressive, some jaw-droppingly so (Vai, Malmsteen, Satriani, Gilbert, Van Halen, Skolnick, and many others). Since my first metal gig as a primary-school kid (Iron Maiden at Glasgow Apollo), I’ve seen thousands of guitarists playing live. For an exhilarating example, listen to I Name You Under Our Cult, which (like Rotting Christ’s Elthe Kyrie) starts out chaotic and leaves the listener wondering where the hell the song is going, then the HUGE chorus arrives with its untamed Tolis growl, cascading layers of glorious guitar, and a rumble of drums that could collapse castles. During his long career with Rotting Christ, Sakis has pioneered, honed and perfected a unique sonic blueprint, which he carries on with this solo release. From the spoken words that kick off opening track My Salvation to the closing refrains of final song Nocturnal Hecate (a cover of the Daemonia Nymphe track), this album is pure atmospheric perfection. The walls of hypnotic riffage are present in force, as is Sakis’s distinctive growl, his monk-like chanted backing vocals, and those immersive lyrics, which, as they also have on recent RC releases, explore numinous territory. Musically and thematically, the material on AtFoH is just like latter-day Rotting Christ. The moniker doesn’t matter, though – it’s the music that counts. I’m not sure why Sakis chose to release this as a solo album rather than a Rotting Christ release. As I listened to Among the Fires of Hell for the first time, I knew I was hearing my album of the year, a record so immaculate that its place at the top of my 2022 list was guaranteed.
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