Athanasios "Sakis" Tolis ( el, Αθανάσιος "Σάκης" Τόλης; born 29 June 1972) is a Greek musician best known as the

vocalist Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or without ...

and rhythm guitarist of

Rotting Christ Rotting Christ is a Greek black metal band formed in 1987. They are noted for being one of the first black metal bands within this region, as well as a premier act within the European underground metal scene. They are also responsible for creat ...

. He is also known as Necromayhem. He has recently produced some of the band's albums and contributed as session keyboardist. Sakis has also provided guest vocals and guitars for a number of bands, for example providing guest backing vocals on the track ''Mocking Modesty'' on the

Nightrage Nightrage is a Greek/Swedish melodic death metal band originally from Thessaloniki. They later re-located to Gothenburg, Sweden. History Formation and ''Sweet Vengeance'' (2000–2003) Nightrage was founded by Marios Iliopoulos and his cl ...

album '' Wearing a Martyr's Crown'' and additional vocals on Spanish North of South's single "''Just Fourteen Seconds''", taken from their "''The Tides in Our Veins''" album. He also played guitar in a

black Black is a color which results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without hue, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness. Black and white have o ...

death metal Death metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal music. It typically employs heavily distorted and low-tuned guitars, played with techniques such as palm muting and tremolo picking; deep growling vocals; aggressive, powerful drumming, feat ...

band

Thou Art Lord Thou Art Lord are a Greek, Athens-based black metal band, formed in 1993. Over the years, the line-up has consisted of former or current members of Greek extreme metal bands Rotting Christ, Necromantia and Septic Flesh. History The band's first ...

, which features members from several other prominent Greek

extreme metal Extreme metal is a loosely defined umbrella term for a number of related heavy metal music subgenres that have developed since the early 1980s. It has been defined as a "cluster of metal subgenres characterized by sonic, verbal, and visual tran ...

groups, such as Necromantia and

Septic Flesh Septicflesh (formerly known as Septic Flesh) are a Greek death metal band from Athens, founded in 1990. History Septicflesh were formed in Athens in March 1990 by Sotiris Vayenas (guitar), Spiros Antoniou (bass and vocals), and Christos Anto ...

. He used to endorse Grossman custom made guitars. He currently has a signature V-Shaped guitar with the Greek letters ΧΞΣ inlaid in the fretboard. As of 2016 he is endorsed by ESP Guitars and uses an Eclipse model. In 2018, Tolis announced he was co-authoring a book titled ''Non Serviam: The Official Story Of Rotting Christ'' with

Dayal Patterson Dayal Patterson is a British author. Patterson has written several non-fiction books about heavy metal music and has contributed to a number of metal magazines, such as ''Decibel'', ''Terrorizer'' and ''Metal Hammer''. His trilogy of books on b ...

. The book was published in November 2018 and details the history of the band. In March 19, 2022, he released his first solo album, ''Among the Fires of Hell''. A species of prehistoric

brittle star Brittle stars, serpent stars, or ophiuroids (; ; referring to the serpent-like arms of the brittle star) are echinoderms in the class Ophiuroidea, closely related to starfish. They crawl across the sea floor using their flexible arms for locomo ...

, ''Brezinacantha tolis'', was named after him and his brother Themis Tolis.

References

1972 births Black metal musicians Greek songwriters Greek rock guitarists 21st-century Greek male singers Heavy metal singers Living people Musicians from Athens Singers from Athens Greek heavy metal guitarists 21st-century guitarists {{guitarist-stub