We all miss the glory days of black metal, especially those who were not there to experience them the first time. That urge has spawned many bands who tried to uphold the original style and spirit despite the inevitable tendency of foolish humans to “mix it up” with other genres and random bits that are inarticulate to the purpose of the genre.
Clandestine Blaze make a compact little album. Nothing here is wasted, but not all of it is expressive, and that docks these songs from hitting a top grade. They come to a point, then cycle through it with a few added layers, but then fade out having presented a fragment of what they could have been saying. The dramatic contrasts that made black metal feel like an adventure do not grace this album.
In style, Tranquility of Death would fit in right alongside the last few Darkthrone albums before the hiking metal punk garage music factory took over, but in spirit, this album resembles the depressive suicidal black metal bands who aimed to produce a mildly deepening atmosphere which both lulled the listener into a state of comfort and expressed a melancholy sense of not fitting in to a doomed time.
This experience does little for the classic black metal listener however. Yes, now we have arrived at the train depot on the River Styx, and we see the desolation; now what? Do we raise our swords, as Rob Darken would tell us from behind his heap of Conan movies and history books? Or do we sort of fade away, with a wistful bittersweet song upon our lips? This album choose the later, and so if it has a symbol, it is this resigned and lonely fade-out without any answer.
Tags: Black Metal, clandestine blaze
Oh Finland. How do you go from Beherit to soppy interchangeable dreck like Sargeist, Goatmoon, Behexen, Clandestine Blaze and Horna?
By the way, this is common knowledge, but Mikko Aspa has a child abuse-themed power electronics band called Nicole 12 with CP album covers. He’s also a prolific porn collector & distributor, which indicates those covers are curated from his own collection. Basically, he’s a degenerate and I’d throw a party if he was gutted with an unsharpened pencil.
The real mystery is how the Finns developed such an interesting, idiomatic brand of death metal, but their black metal offerings all sound like a regurgitation of the Norwegian 2nd wave with none of the grandeur, intricacy, or art. The fact that anyone entertains a band called Satanic Warmaster (the Nargaroth of Suomi) only illustrates how dim most metalheads really are.
Finland produced Impaled Nazarene and Beherit, which should be enough for any nation. However, these guys were inspired by simpler acts and wanted to make something more intense, where the post-norsecore black metal steam bath group fondle aims at something from another culture, and this makes no sense to the Finns so when they emulate it they fall flat like an American of average weight (300lb) trying to get up that third flight of stairs.
If you don’t think Warloghe are a worthy successor to Darkthrone you are a definitely a weak-willed virgin. Working within an established medium can produce great works of art as much as pushing the envelope and experimentation can make uneven heaps of trash.
wow, amazing how elitist and underground you all are here in this comment thread!!! I mean to call Sargeist, Behexen and Horna “soppy interchangeable dreck” has shown me the proverbial light on all of black metal!!! I thank you…you rebels of death you!!!! hailz!!! \,,,/ (- -) \,,,/