Greek metal titans MOTHER OF MILLIONS have released nothing short of impressive albums in the past few years, such as 2024’s “Magna Mater,” the intricate, cinematic textures of which paired just beautifully with their heavy and proggy riffs. Now, it’s time to welcome the band’s fifth studio endeavor, entitled cryptically merely as “T,” which came out on September 11th, 2026, via ViciSolum Records. All it takes is one spin with the new album, and you will not only deem it a mighty follow-up to that previous, critically acclaimed endeavor, but I bet you’ll dub it immediately as the band’s strongest, most haunting, and emotionally charged album to date. The album has a rather heavy, overarching theme of war, but instead of recounting historic battles in a somewhat SABATON-esque manner, the songs explore the varied psychosocial tolls that the arbitrary cruelty of war takes on us. The band’s signature, cinematic approach works particularly well in this context, with the widescreen soundscapes layering the evocative lyrics with additional depth. The lyrics also connect 19th-century American poets Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson to 20th-century Greek poets Odysseas Elytis and Yiannis Ritsos. The spoken-word sections featuring excerpts from these Greek poets add an especially haunting layer to the songs – I mean, even though I do not understand what is being said, the delivery leaves no room for doubt: it must be something just as thought-provoking as the English poets, no doubt.
“The Wound” opens the album with lyrics adapted from a poem by Walt Whitman, a poem which paints a vivid picture of someone dressing physical wounds. That’s one hell of an “In Media Res” approach – starting the narrative in the middle of the conflict rather than setting the scene first. The band’s signature anthemic riffs further cement the feeling that the album kicks off with a straight-up punch in the face. Here and there, the vibe is subtly reminiscent of SLEEP TOKEN at their most cinematic, but without the overly djenty stuff. What MOTHER OF MILLIONS is cooking up here is a tad more anthemic, which is even better demonstrated by the follow-up track, “The War,” with its DEAD LETTER CIRCUS-like arena-sized choruses. I must say that the band’s frontman, George Prokopiou, is one hell of a vocalist! His signature sound is a poignant cross between VESSEL of SLEEP TOKEN and Kim Benzie of DEAD LETTER CIRCUS. His soft crooning dances like a butterfly, and when he belts out with force, it stings like a bee, even though the vocals never step into the realm of screams or growls or anything of that sort. The vocal department was something that made the band stand out already on their 2019 album “Artificial.” Prokopiou truly has a knack for making the listener realize what true emotion is.
The album continues on this anthemic footing with a few more banging riffers, but then, as if you weren’t already pretty impressed with these new songs, they throw a real gut-punch. The song makes an atmospheric U-turn without losing an inch of the band’s anthemic power. It is also the first to feature those snippets spoken in Greek. Courtesy of whom? I haven’t got the faintest clue, but the guy sure nails it. The parts sound as though they’ve been sampled from a movie. Maybe they are, I don’t know, but these “voice-overs” sure elevate the song to a celestial league of its own – it’s the absolute peak on this album. You won’t even mind that the coda is basically just a simple chord progression that repeats ad infinitum, with the vocals going, “Stay out of war,” repeatedly. You’re already hooked.
Next, a short interlude track leads into one of the most anthemic bangers on this album. The song, “The One,” is strongly reminiscent of the “This Is the Warning” era of DEAD LETTER CIRCUS when those Aussie proggers were at their absolute best (although the strongest flashbacks in this respect were provided by the track, “The Circle”). As a nice bonus, the riffing gets back-up fire from a string section that also fires on all cylinders. It’s nice to hear orchestrated stuff on such an uptempo banger for a change – well, y’know, allegro instead of the usual adagio. The lyrics are once again adapted from a poem by Walt Whitman. Some phrases appear in multiple songs, such as the line, “Stay out of war,” and I reckon it’s one of the aspects of a concept album of this sort that creates a sense of an overarching narrative. I mean, even though there is no linear storyline to these songs, this album’s cathartic charm certainly works best when you listen to it from start to finish in one go.
The album is brought to a close with two tracks that definitely need to be listened to together (that is, if you choose not to take heed of my advice to listen to this beast in one go all the way through…) – first the 8-minute epic, “The Sun,” and then the short epilogue track, “Death.” First up, “The Sun” is one of the absolute highlights of this selection that’s pretty damn haunting to begin with. The song is a downright bangathon of anthemic riffs – and after about 8 minutes of punching riffs, the coda gears up into nothing short of cinematic grandeur, featuring yet another poem excerpt in Greek. Then, the evocatively titled – but way too short! – closer puts the finishing touch on this haunting journey by way of atmospheric folk, bordering on post-rock and ambient. My first impression of this album after the first spin? Well, it was something like having been hit by a heroic dose of some potent chemical that transforms your psyche, first by smashing it to pieces and then by reassembling the bits in a totally new, slightly better order. This year has gifted us with a good number of banging albums, but this magnificent beast went straight to my Top-3! Like someone commented on their new music video with baseball terms on YouTube, MOTHER OF MILLIONS knocked it right out of the park with their new album.
Written by Jani Lehtinen
Tracklist
- The Wound
- The War
- The Aftermath
- The Innocent
- The Ascent
- As One
- The One
- The Circle
- The Sun
- Death
Lineup
George Prokopiou – vocals
Kostas Konstantinidis – guitars
Panos Priftis – bass
Ektoras Tsolakis – drums
Label
ViciSolum Records
Links
https://www.motherofmillionsband.com
