BLINDED BY FAITH „Under an Occult Sun”

Music: Symphonic Black Metal
Country: Canada
Website: www.blindedbyfaith.com
Cool Songs: Submit to the Summit, The Last Missive, Tear the Purple Curtain

Quebec, Canada’s BLINDED BY FAITH’s debut album “Under an Occult Sun” is a symphonic black metal masterpiece. The group utilizes floating synth, Victorian piano notes, and synthetic noises created to narrate the dialogue of the stars. Much like symphonic experts CRADLE OF FILTH and LIMBONIC ART, some of the keyboard sections flicker and fade like a candlelight’s flame, giving the music a mystical quality. Other parts recall the neoclassical compositions of ARCTURUS and COVENENT or the fantasy and science fiction based style of BAL SAGOTH. “Submit to the Summit” accentuates the end of each verse by pounding the piano’s key, like hearing Mozart beating the hell out of his piano during a bad day.

Guitarists Pascal and Daniel pick hanging tremolo notes, galloping rhythms, fiery-fast-picked riffs and pummeling rhythms. “Submit to the Summit” speedily winds back and forth up the guitar fret creating the album’s heaviest moments. “The Triumph of Treachery” gallops at a fist banging, epic pace; while other tracks like the album’s opener “Tear the Purple Curtain” and “A Perfect Imperfection” look to lighter notes to hammer on or finger tap creating moments of melody. Drummer, Julien instills neck breaking speed with his blast beats, which moves each song along and ups the intensity.

Vocalist, Tommy’s spews forth venomous words with a seemingly forked tongue. Historic tales detailing some of humanity’s darkest times coupled with the occasional fantasy tale emit from his lips in screechy, acidic style that recalls Dani Filth of CRADLE OF FILTH fame, although bereft of the mouse squealing. Even though Tommy’s vocals do not hit the ear-drum-shattering highs of Dani Filth (that’s a good thing) he still displays impressive pipes, belting out long-winded screams in “Burning Rebellion” and “Submit to the Summit” that would send all pretenders straight to the oxygen tank.

Tommy’s vocals are intelligible, but making out every word is a tall task, so if you want to revel in his dark tales, the lyric sheet is a must. You’ll be doing yourself a favor by reading the lyrics. Most of the lyrical matter for black metal is Odin or Satan-based, but this album looks for lyrical inspiration in other places. The evil of power mongers is illustrated in tracks like the New World Order revealing “Submit to the Summit,” and the Roman tyranny of “The Triumph of Treachery.” My personal favorite tale is “The Last Missive,” which scribes the tale of a condemned man writing his daughter from the torturer’s dungeon of the horrors of the Inquisition (what a coincident that I would receive this song right now because I’m currently reading “The History of Torture”). Other songs relate to the listener tales of conspiracy like the Illuminati-inspired title track or the David Icke lizards in human disguise “Reptilian Shudders.”

“Under an Occult Sun” is the first album by BLINDED BY FAITH. As of just last year, they released their second album. Sometimes bands create their best with their initial effort; other times a group gets better with time. If BLINDED BY FAITH falls into the later category, their next effort must be one of the best black metal albums of last year!

note: 7.5/10

Tracklist

1. Tear the Purple Curtain
2. A Perfect Imperfection
3. Burning Rebellion
4. The World has Something to Offer
5. Under An Occult Sun
6. Submit to the Summit
7. The Last Missive
8. Reptilian Shudders
9. The Triumph of Treachery

Line-up

Tommy Demers – Vocals
Daniel Gingras – Guitars
Pascal Côté – Guitars
Danny Émond – Keyboards
Vincent Roy – Bass
Julien Marcotte – Drums