Under an Occult Sun

After a decent but relatively unremarkable debut EP, Blinded by Faith went on to release their first album, Under an Occult Sun, making a significant step towards musical maturity and finding their own unique sound. The heavy Cradle of Filth influence which was so pervasive on the Veiled Hideousness EP has essentially been superseded by the band’s own signature style, resulting in a new and original take on melodic black metal which is immediately recognizable. Luckily, this album is something of a gem in the world of keyboard-laden black metal, cementing Québec’s presence in said genre.

The album starts off a little slowly with the rather ordinary Tear the Purple Curtain and at first listen someone who doesn’t know what to expect may easily be led into believing that boredom will ensue all the way to the end. The second track, A Perfect Imperfection, removes all fears of boredom, however, quickly revealing itself an intense, fast-paced rocker of a song which doesn’t slow down one but until the end. The entire band shines here, whether it’s the great rasped yet high-pitched vocals (some vocalists of more popular melodic black metal bands might want to take a lesson or two here), the guitar work which is good but slightly upstaged by the ferocious drumming and especially the in-your-face keyboards, which go to great lengths to imitate classical music, especially in the song’s first seconds. Keyboard usage throughout the album is optimal, as it’s only used sporadically in high doses, and such occasions are almost always highlights wherever the may appear.

This general formula is repeated throughout the album, with some variation in both structure and quality. That’s actually one of the album’s greatest qualities: while some of the songs may be rather unremarkable, sometimes outright bad, such as the aforementioned opener and the awkwardly put together Submit to the Summit, most other songs are unique and have their own qualities. Most songs are played insanely fast, at least in part if not completely, while the only really slow-paced number is the final one, The Triumph of Treachery, a masterpiece of historical songwriting. Of particular note among these already unique songs is the title track, which serves its role with excellence, as it’s probably the most representative of the overall album. Starting unremarkably, with an interesting vocal mix of black metal rasps and some deeper growls, it slowly builds up into a crescendo of insanity culminating just a few seconds after the 2 minute mark, before slowing up in the middle and concluding with an intense, melodic section where the keyboards are used to evoke classical piano notes.

One of the distinctive elements of Blinded by Faith’s music is their ability to write intelligent lyrics, which make for a particularly interesting listen (with the notable exception of Submit to the Summit, which fails as a song in almost all respects). Themes such as politics, nature, deception and occult/secret societies dominate the first two thirds of the album, but The Last Missive and The Triumph of Treachery have the most original and interesting lyrics. The former deals with a man condemned by the Inquisition who’s writing his final, moving letter to his daughter while the latter deals with the intrigue and corruption endemic to sixteenth century Rome, often surrounding the pope himself.

Under an Occult Sun is a high quality album by a band that instantly put themselves on the map after having released it. This puts many more popular melodic black metal bands to shame by its refusal to fall into excessive self-parody by using too many keyboards or resorting to some awful vocal technique. It’s definitely something worth hunting down, especially seeing as how both the preceding EP and the subsequent album lack that je ne sais quoi which makes this album so enticing. Given the band’s evolution on their new album and their horribly slow album release rate, I doubt anything quite like Under an Occult Sun will ever be released again.

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!

originally published on www.metalcentre.com