Well hello again! This time I have something very new for you all. Damon Systema is a melodic dark metal band from Greece that have just released their debut album, Ate, on March 21, 2025. The album is described as a concept album that celebrates greek mythology, specifically goddess worship.
Sounds sick right?
The tracks are as follows: Moirae, Lady Discordia, Harvest of Tears, Ate, Adrasteia, Poenas Dare. The album is only 6 songs, but nearly 45 minutes long. That fact alone made me pretty skeptical going in here.
Each track is over six minutes long, with two of them being more than eight. I don’t know about you guys, but my attention span just simply isn’t that strong and I get bored easy. So needless to say, I was pretty nervous going into this listen. Now, let’s get to the good stuff.
Moirae starts a little slow and is definitely dark and melodic, but at a whopping 8 minutes and 16 seconds, I just lost interest. It took me a couple tries to get through the whole thing. Honestly, the rest of the album was much the same.
Each song has a good start. The sound is deep and dark and rich. This group is talented for sure; they put together an impressive sounding compilation of songs. Each song is much too similar, though. Each one of them goes strong for 2-3 minutes, then there is a lull with some form of breakdown that may or may not include what sounds like a monologue, and then the song picks back up again and goes for another 2-4 minutes.
Every single one of them is like that. All of the songs are so long and sound so similar that I just couldn’t even tell when one of them ended and the next one began.
This is their first release ever, from the looks of it. I don’t think anyone can be expected to be perfect and produce an absolute goldmine on their first go. I hope that the next release is maybe a little more concise and if so, I would be very interested to see if it is something I am interested in.
I do think they are successful in the goal of telling one cohesive story, but I am just not the audience for that.
I would encourage anyone who is a fan of melodic dark metal to give them a chance, because I am not the end-all-be-all of opinions and just because this wasn’t for me, it very well may be for someone else..
They are all very talented, both musically and vocally, and they absolutely have the potential to do great things in the future.
Head on over to the Damon Systema Bandcamp page and check out Ate for yourself.
RATING: 2 OUT OF 5
- 0 – 1: Fucking shit
- 1 – 2: Shit
- 2 – 3: Not Bad Shit
- 3 – 4: Pretty Good Shit
- 4 – 5: Amazing Fucking Shit
- 5: The Best Shit You Will Ever Hear
