Candelabrum (Portugal) - Transmutations (Album 2024)

The 4th full-length by this ceremonial entity and portuguese tyrant who should require no introduction. A fourth installment in an impeccable and already notorious discography, on Candelabrum’s 10th year of existence, “Transmutations“ seems to both celebrate the past and obscure path and metamorphosis of the project thus far, as to embrace indeed a transmutation for new planes beyond the veil... Tracks like “Communicating Through Dreams and Nightmares“ and “Aural Chalice“ definitely bring to mind Candelabrum’s classic “Necrotelepathy“ album. A record that saw the band mixing the old, cobweb-ridden, evil sound of Portuguese Raw Black Metal with 90’s keyboard-driven Black Metal such as Osculum Infame, without really sounding like neither, and achieving a still unparalleled spectral atmosphere. These tracks do return in some ways to that sound, putting more focus again into the dungeon-y, guitars damp in rotting moss with their throbbing tempos and dissonant chords creating an atmosphere of ecstatic agony and accompanied by more intricate songwriting with some Doom-ier passages and shamanic drum parts. On the other hand tracks like the opening and “On Haunted Hallways“ evoke past works from the “Portals“ album, particularly the iconic “Dusk, Poisoner of Souls“ but going further into newer realms in that territory incorporating Darkwave-ish keys not too unlike Dead Can Dance, guitar arpeggios and some saccharine passages that seem like a glimpse of light and relief ephemerally glimpsing into the dead eyes of the moribund, as it takes death to face suffering in all eternity. Still with the unique power to leave you petrified and frozen, projecting your astral body into unknown realms, Candelabrum carves into the epitaph of the living another cursed sentence. Like any Candelabrum, to be heard in the dead of night, with no distractions, under the gelid gleam of the fullmoon. Released by Altare Productions on LP format. Altare Productions: Tracklist: 1 A Shroud for the Human Mind 00:00 2 Communicating Through Dreams and Nightmares 05:15 3 On Haunted Hallways 14:00 4 A Frame, Imperishable 18:23 5 Aural Chalice 24:43 All rights belong to Altare Productions and Candelabrum. Uploaded with permission.