Let me be laconic; albums like that don’t require many words.
Singer Felipe Plaza Kutzbach (PROCESSION, SCALD), guitarists Julio Borquez (ATOMIC AGGRESSOR) and Igor Leiva (POEMA ARCANUS), bassist Claudio Botarro Neira (PROCESSION), and drummer Francisco Aguirre return to deliver greatness once again.
Five years ago, they recorded their sophomore album, “The Siege”, a monumental work of just four tracks that epitomized what epic doom metal should sound like.
Now, they’re back with another four-track album, proving that they remain one of the best doom metal acts around.
To be honest, there’s no idiom in the heavy metal lexicon that has been more misused, pillaged, and misrepresented than what is called as doom. The term has been inflated, a victim of commercial labeling that mirrors the times – an identity crisis within the larger dystopian, isolated, decaying, and literally sorrowful context of modern humanity.
Someone might say these are perfect times for doom metal – and I’d agree. But as the ancient Greek tragedians wisely wrote, all sorrow demands purification. Catharsis.
For me, this is a key point: epic doom, at its core, is an ideal medium for this purging. Without it, there is no true epic doom.
CAPILLA ARDIENTE embodies this cathartic, primordial feeling. With musical depth, solid musicianship, excellent songwriting, and meticulously crafted arrangements, they transform soul-piercing lamentations into eternal, gloomy hymns.
“Where Gods Live and Men Die” was recorded, produced, mixed, and mastered by the band’s guitarist Igor Leiva at Atomic Noise Studios in Santiago, Chile. The drums were recorded at Equinox Studios (Rancagua), and the vocals at Audiocustom Studios (Santiago).
It’s no coincidence this album contains four long songs, just like its predecessor. As bassist Claudio Botarro Neira explains, “It’s the way we have developed to tell the stories contained in our lyrics. If our songs are long, it’s because they have many different passages. We tend to see our songs in a sort of ‘cinematographical’ way, where the music has to provide the proper background to tell our tales.”
Naturally, “Where Gods Live and Men Die” has a specific lyrical concept: “In a way, it’s the closing story to our two previous albums and our first EP. Again, it’s a solitary journey, but this time it’s the final chapter, a tale of departure. It deals with personal loss, wounds from the youth, disease and the need to overcome and transcend by willpower.”
Incorporating a healthy dose of BATHORY’s “Hammerheart” era and early MANOWAR influences, the album reveals that CAPILLA ARDIENTE are much more than an orthodox epic doom band. Neira elaborates on how the band’s sound has evolved: “I think that since the first EP, and due to the limitations brought by being just two musicians on a quest, we have been moving from a more traditional and in your face doom riffing style to a more epic/broad sound, which can be noted in the progression from the ‘Solve Et Coagula’ EP to the first album ‘Bravery, Truth And The Endless Darkness’. We have become better musicians, I guess. With ‘The Siege’, and as a five-piece band, I think CAPILLA ARDIENTE has finally found its own, unique style, which is quite evident on ‘Where Gods Live And Men Die’. And I don’t think our future songs will differ much more in terms of heaviness or complexity.”
Well, I couldn’t have said it better myself. So, as promised, I’ll save you from more words.
THIS IS EPIC DOOM METAL, AS TRUE AS IT GETS! If you’re a fan of the genre, a devotee of CANDLEMASS, EVANGELIST, SOLITUDE AETURNUS, ISOLE, and the like, then rejoice – another gem awaits to be added to your collection!
“Where Gods Live and Men Die” will be released on October 18th by High Roller Records, on all physical formats, MC, CD and LP.
Mamercus
Check the discussion about the album in our forum pages.
You can pre order MC, CD and LP here.
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CAPILLA ARDIENTE is an Epic Doom Metal band that has a fantastic discography so far, with 1 EP and 2 Full-length albums that were great records for the genre.
Inevitably, this third album, would be a challenge for them, with the question, on one hand, if they would be capable to surpass their back-catalogue and on the other hand, if they would be able to present something that would not be similar or that would not sound a repetition of what they have recorded so far.
The album is comprised of four tracks, which are around or more than 10 minutes in duration. That was the band’s intention in order to finalize the story, that started lyrically in their previous recordings, with this last chapter, which is a tale of departure.
Musically the album is, of course in the vein of the two Colossuses of the genre, which are CANDLEMASS and SOLITUDE AETURNUS.
Nevertheless, the band has grown more mature, enhancing its unique style – identity and evolved lyrically. All the songs are very powerful and they have a charismatic songwriting. It is not just a couple of riffs wailing from the start to the end of the song. The four compositions entail multiple riffing and rhythm changes, which made me feel as there were songs inside the songs.
That being said, the journey and the musical path, the listening pilgrim has to pass, is indeed murky but an interesting one. The tension, the dramatic burden and the high emotional capacity is always present and ominous. None can leave this trail of personal wounds and loss, without ‘’suffering’’ the weary cathartic experience.
The mystical atmosphere, some middle eastern or some Anatolian formulas, passages and riffing, makes the process stimulating all the way through. Dreariness is not an option, because all senses and emotions are full of caution.
Felipe Kutzbach is evolving as contemporary’s Doom Metal emblematic voice, since he also participates in two other bands, with a kind of similar sound, which are PROCESSION and the reborn SCALD, which also delivered their sophomore masterpiece this year, a few months earlier.
Felipe’s team-mate in PROCESSION is the bassist Claudio Botarro Neira, which also explains, why CAPILLA ARDIENTE sound so cohesive and solid, with the voice blending so organically with the music.
Of course, the other members of the band have contributed to the maximum for the desirable outcome to be fulfilled. These were the guitarists Julio Bórquez and Igor Leiva, who were the navigators of this ‘’pilgrimage’’ and also the drummer Francisco Aguirre, with his boiling vivid pounding.
Generally, I would say that this mournful character of the album, with the songs ‘’Envenomed’’, ‘’The Hands of Fate Around My Neck’’, ‘’Now Here. Nowhere.’’, led it to sound in a more orthodox / traditional Doom Metal way, rather than with a soaring Epic Doom Metal vibe. The exception was the final song, ‘’ As I Lie on the Summit’’, which was reminiscent of the epic doom metal moments in the latest SCALD album (due to the same brilliant voice as well).
CAPILLA ARDIENTE delivered a real mature, solid and cohesive album, that is going to appeal to all Doom Metal aficionados, thus my personal ‘’verdict’’ is, that they added another gem to their exceptional discography.
‘’Where Gods Live and Men Die’’ will be released on the 18th of October 2024 by High Roller Records and will be available on LP, CD and MC.
Bersekeros
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Check the discussion about the album in our forum pages.
