Before humanity had electricity, darkness was a far grander and more frightening state than it is today, and its grandiosity was additionally enhanced by man’s imagination. The strength of darkness, unweakened by electricity, illuminated only by the flickering light of candles, this is what the band name Candelabrum reminds me of.
Before pressing play on their new album Nocturnal Trance, just to get in the right mood, think about the last time you experienced impenetrable darkness and what effect it had on you. I remember visiting a cave a few years ago, when, at the lowest point, our guide suggested to switch off the lights for a minute in order to experience what it felt like to be in the cave before there was electricity. I can tell you that that minute couldn’t pass fast enough and that my mind started playing tricks on me the moment the lights went out.
Candelabrum are from Portugal and have been active since 2015. Founded by a nameless main man, they have already two full lengths of raw black metal under their belt and are now unleashing their third album unto the unsuspecting public. Conceptually, the press info says, Nocturnal Trance deals with the theme of portals: death as a passage to a different plane. The figure on the front cover, pictured walking about on earlier releases, is now stepping from darkness into a blinding light. Whether that blinding light constitutes and improvement is open to interpretation, because, like impenetrable darkness, is appears to be characterized by an absence of everything.
The transition is portrayed via five compositions. Crystalline Telasthesia, the album’s first track, doesn’t waste time on intros and slow build-ups, but, representing an extreme initial state, starts out fast and unrelenting. An assault on the ears with tremolo picked guitars, blast beats, harsh vocals and a shriek here and there. Through the Mirror of Divination continues slower and steadier with synths melodies wafting about like mist. Towards the track’s end the blast beats return in the form of a persistent but unsteady undercurrent, sounding like a stress-induced, arrhythmic heartbeat. Poisonous Dark Apparitions wanders off a bit into the doom realm. Beyond (Back to the Origin) has the steadiest soundscape of all the of albums tracks, the combination of harsh vocals and synth tunes sounding like a lament. Into Death’s Trance represents the transition’s great finale and starts out appropriately pompous. The grandiosity in the sound is preserved throughout the track, but towards the end the drumming picks up speed and things become chaotic. After a vortex of sound there is absolute quiet.
Raw black metal is good at putting the subconscious to music, at expressing chaotic emotions and fears, and Candelabrum do a fine job at showing the tumult and the frenzy. Violent but also uplifting, celebrating a rather old-school sound, Nocturnal Trance will appeal to various shades of black metal fans.
(7/10 Slavica)
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