Vehemency
Deliverers of Faith sounds as Clandestine Blaze as always: monotonous and colourless black metal - the way I usually enjoy it. The production is very far from any studio sound and the snare drum seems to completely miss the snare mat. But still, Clandestine Blaze sounds very professional at what it’s doing, and Deliverers of Faith is probably the culmination of the whole era of Clandestine Blaze, so far.
Although being deeply rooted in the more primitive values of underground black metal, the album is musically pretty diverse. The third track ”Winter of White Death” must be one of the best songs Aspa has come up with so far: a 12-minute epic track that is an ultimate soundtrack to total desolation, building up towards the end to even guitar solos and subtle use of synths! When compositions like ”Winter of White Death” are mixed with such a dusty production, the result is quite phenomenal: the sound is so natural and honest. The same applies to the rest of the album, too.
Although the album is mostly ”just” traditional black metal, diversity is seen on other tracks too. For example, ”Tormented” presents strong doom metal influences, being a really slow and atmospheric piece. Aspa’s low growls fit to the style very well. On the last track, ”Grave of Gratification”, we can hear elements of noise music. No surprise, since Aspa is known for his involvement in noise and power electronics projects too.
A fast look at this album might give an impression of really unimpressive black metal, but on a closer look Deliverers of Faith is a great album done in the underground vein but still including many interesting elements. It sounds like a carefully crafted piece of black metal that is still really dirty. The lyrics are worth mentioning too, since they are a bit more interesting than black metal lyrics often are. I believe this is my personal favourite of Clandestine Blaze’s quite extensive discography, and should not be missed by anyone into this project.