The Flame of Truth

I remember listening to this album when it came out, but I quickly forgot about it, and that's something I find strange because when I listened to it again now, three years later, I loved it on so many levels. Recently I've been complaining about new black metal bands that come along with nothing new and no personality of their own and just repeat the same tropes of the most classic and formal bands you can imagine. Altar of Woe doesn't do that, although there is a lot of Burzum influence in their music, one can also find very noticeable influences from the Swedish scene or the French scene, specifically from the underrated "Infernal Battles". And even though the album is certainly short, Elias manages to leave his mark in a rewarding way.

How does he do it? Well, on The Flame of Truth if there's one thing you're going to find, it's going to be "The Riffs", this is undoubtedly his greatest strength and I love how he makes it latent in each track, the album manages to clearly fuse a tonality that makes it clear that it's a modern production, without feeling digital and automatic, but is able to provide you with sections of riffage in the purest old school style. It's something that happens with exaggerated frequency, notable for the short duration of the album and the songs, but it simply feels incredibly good when the composition derives in a memorable riff, catchy, that fills your brain with serotonin of how satisfying it is, and the author conscious of it, lets the composition recreate itself for a good time in that riff, accompanying to perfection different cadences to the drums marked by one of the signs that we metalheads love the most, the "ugh" inherited directly from Tom G. Warrior. That's why I say that Altar of Woe has managed to keep that old school essence in a current product.

The songs are short but because there really isn't room for them to do much more, they all explore all their own possibilities, without being incredibly deep or twisted, they are quite adventurous despite the style of the album being completely straightforward, there is hardly any room to breathe, the style is constant and overwhelming as Elias tries to fit in as many riffs as possible and focus attention on the ones that work particularly well. But the fact that they work so well is not just because they are good in themselves, but in the way they fit into the song at the right time. Despite being their debut album there is a certain mastery of songwriting in that sense, I think it's due to both a good understanding of influences and the practice Elias has had in his band prior to this, a mainly instrumental black metal band where he must have had to master this style to allow for the absence of a vocalist in the compositions.

Talking about the vocalist, without being anything out of the norm, the delivering he does fits perfectly with the music, it really makes you appreciate that even though it's short and furious, each song is carefully detailed and you can appreciate the love and effort that goes into each track. It is noticeable that Elias has experience with all the instruments he handles, the drums feel natural and fluid, far from the stalled drums that many one man bands have, and the bass, which can be appreciated a few times, is quite punchy, almost crust punk influenced in its tone and aggressiveness.

They say that if something is short and good, it's best to leave it at that, and I usually agree with that mentality, but this is going to be one of those rare times where I'm not going to agree with that. This is truly an album I would have liked to hear more of, even if it was only ten measly minutes more, it's too short and too much is missing from that, all the songs are fantastic on so many levels, I'm sure there could have been room and creativity to include even a few more. Maybe the next one will be longer and the creation process is going slow, I can only say that I will be the first to want to hear more of Altar of Woe when it is possible.