Here lies a classic from the early years of youthful Metal discovery that I fortuitously happened upon, a shadowy, venomous breed of dark, scowling heavy. Hailing from Sweden, the tuneful stains of an emerging melodic death metal lingers as whiffs of sinister melody trail this wild ride of ponderous riffs and pounding percussion.
The darkly atmosphere is Clandestine's key distinction. No atypical "meat and potatoes" grind of punching brutality. With a pair of unusual, bristling distortion guitars, a fuzzy menace bleeds a tonality that propels its arsenal of hard hitting riffs into a grimacing aura. Danger and death lurk around the corners of its intense sways.
Swinging from cunning grooves to axe grinding malevolence the music hurls with nonlinear momentum, jumping through iterations, finding pertinent moments to build suspense and roar with tuneful fire. Lead guitars erupt with brief flickers of chaos to guide its path, occasionally unraveling into open breaks, evil and atmospheric.
The drums clatter away with individuality, laying foundations for head banging beats whilst steering the ship with bespoke fills and rhythmic articulations to perk the ears in an embrace of its rough sincerity. Out front Nicke Andersson bellows and howls with a raw guttural cadence, stuck somewhere between Death and Thrash Metal.
Early on he punctuates apt moments with deep shouts amplified by timely reverb. Its gritty and menacing, shaping up a character that surpassing genre norms. So to do sprinklings of esoteric synth shape up this covenant of plundered spoils. Both melody and rhythm boldly embark on equal footing, shaping a consistent brood of songs.
Shadowy, conspiring, sequestered, a devious mood truly clandestine. Its a classic from my early journey of discoveries that's held magic over the years. My only critique? Perhaps it tires as its final couple of tracks lack the moments to break up a riff grind that kept the first half of the record so memorable. Imperfect, as is all art!
Rating: 9.5/10