I was blown away when I first laid my ears on Clandestine Blaze's 'Fist Of The Northern Destroyer' back in the days, what an relentless piece of destroying black metal. I couldn't really get into the follow up 'Deliverers Of Faith' when that was released 4 years ago, and it didn’t go much better when this album I'm writing about now, which was released back in 2006.
Though after the album has been shelved for a good deal of time, I found it the other day, while looking for something else and gave it a spin. That took me by surprise, I was after 2 listens drawn into the dark and cold universe of the band, caught up by the misanthropic misery and hate being spewed forth by my headphones. Great cold and simple guitar riffs paint the sound sphere, and lead the way for the attack. The bass is rumbling away, nice and quietly keeping the rhythm steady, just below the guitars. The drumming is kept simple and effective as well, there are not many pace changes throughout the album, and that works quite fine in the cold and dark universe there is painted on 'Church Of Atrocity.
Vocally it all works well too, an evil rasp from beyond, spitting the words our way, infecting our minds and getting our mood aligned with the atmosphere on the album. Nice vocals giving the last piece to make the whole of Clandestine Blaze complete.
I can't understand why I couldn't get into the album back when it was released, as it hits me straight on now, might be something with my mood back then, though what do I know. 'Church Of Atrocity' is a good piece of black metal, nice arrangements and big ambient soundscapes painted by guitar, bass and drums and a hellish vocal assault, when needed, dark captivating art of the better kind.
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AUTHOR: Nocturnal DK
A Danish metalhead on the way to become old, enjoys most types of metal, though brutality and darkness are mostly preferred, and too modern takes on metal are not always positively looked upon. Have been writing about metal for 10 years in own and at other publications as Fishcomcollective, Ancient Ceremonies, Northern Shadows and now Corazine and the upcoming Terror Propaganda (might have forgotten a few, come and kick my arse!).