Deliverers of Faith

I've known about Clandestine Blaze for a long, long time. Well, it's perhaps better said that I have known about sole member Mikko Aspa and his antics first, and secondary the fact that he was the man behind this band. And I really didn't care one way or the other, not about the man or whatever band he was in. That was, until recently. A while back I was listening to a lot of raw black metal, and the name came up in my mind, so my thought was, why not check it out? As starting point I chose the album "Deliverers of Faith", which I had read about in the past, and is apparently seen by some as Clandestine's best work, so why not start there? That the cover also has a link to my home country of Belgium was an interesting detail, to say the least. Amongst the faces on the cover, all serial killers and other fine folk, was that of Marc Dutroux, a Belgian serial killer and pedophile. So, ... erm ... yay?

To describe the music is pretty simple: it's raw and unpolished black metal in the vein of old Darkthrone in the more uptempo parts, with early Graveland as a good reference point in the atmospheric moments. There is the definite spectre of "Transilvanian Hunger" and "Under a Funeral Moon" hanging over the music. The fast tremelo picked, battering velocity of "Beyond the Reason" and "Fallen", as well as the raw Hellhammer stomp of "Psychopathia Sexualis", all of it points towards those influential Darkthrone works. Clandestine Blaze utilizes that all too familiar recipe of stripped down, tremelo riff driven guitar scrape, underpinned by a no frills drum performance, with the acidic, reverb caked black metal croak on top of it. Tracks like these are strictly devoid of any such hoo-haa like keyboards or female vocals, and keep it all simple and straight forward. Execution may be rough around the edges sometimes, but any flaw in that direction is more than made up by the atmosphere and power present. It's a familiar sound for sure, but that's not all that this album has on offer.

The third track, "Winter of White Death", makes a turn for a more atmospheric approach, one that reminds me of old Graveland albums such as "Following the Voice of Blood" and "Immortal Pride". The accelerator is let go for a steady and hypnotizing meandering tempo and atmospheric swathes of tremolo picked guitar. It's a kind of majestic feel I did not know Clandestine Blaze was capable of, so I was pleasantly surprised by it. It's been a long time since I've heard black metal that is so hauntingly grandiose as this. Also a surprising move is the black/doom metal of "Tormented". All hints of velocity go out the door for a morose, slowly creeping monolith of a song, carried by the rust caked sound of the slowly lurching black metal guitars and haunting swathes of keyboard ambience. This sounds so awesome! Try to imagine a terminally ill Saint Vitus having a go in Darkthrone's rehearsal room, something like that.

For what probably is a DIY production, this album sounds truly excellent. The guitars sound good, clear and precise, while emanating malice and menace all the way through. The bass is audible, which is laudable in itself, but also sounds thick and heavy, providing the needed bottom end to make the music sound solid as hell. The natural sounding percussion provides a sturdy base for the guitars and vocals, with the more than decent balance between the different elements making the total picture complete. This is quite an impressive sounding black metal album, exhibiting power and menace, yet maintaining enough grit between the teeth to stay convincing throughout.

This is a convincing slice of unsettling black metal, that sounds surprisingly great for an album in the style. It exudes both unhinged power and deranged menace, while reminding everyone how truly terrifying the style can be. So kudos to that.