Der Perfekte Traum is not a new release by Greek legends Rotting Christ. It was a little noticed EP back in 1999 when the band started shifting its sound from black metal to gothic realms. Somehow this EP is a popular thing to be re-released, and 2021 is not an exception. The latest incarnation of Der Perfekte Traum doesn’t differ one bit from the original and features a pair of original tracks and 5 live recordings, all from Triarchy of the Lost Lovers.

The title track is a blackened gothic theme song which sounds like a crossover between Paradise Lost and Rammstein (the latter because of German lyrics probably). Rotting Christ gothic foray here does smell a bit industrial, but there is tremolo poking through here and there, and the song just glides along. The blacker beast also does come out in the form of harsher vocals in addition to cleaner deeper singing by Sakis Tolis. Moonlight is even a wider, broader pathway to gothic accessibility. It has lovely circling riffs, and glimpses of sirtaki melody, something Rotting Christ would do a lot more later on, where folk & world music became a large portion of their repertoire.

The live recordings sadly never had good quality and don’t do these excellent songs justice. They sound like someone just turned on a recorder at the show and that is what was captured. As poor as the sound is, the songs still come through and one hear waves and waves of melody in Shadows Follow and King of a Stellar Way, urgent picking in Diastric Alchemy and more climbing melody in A Dynasty from the Ice. The vocals are pronounced, drums are booming, but guitars are depressed in the mix, and one thing I was never able to understand is how Sakis Tolis had any throat fiber left after these concerts. If you have never heard the originals though Der Perfekte Traum is really not the way to meet early Rotting Christ of their melodic black era.