Ravendark's Monarchal Canticle ‎"Sobre As Cinzas Do Fracasso Alheio" CD Slipcase

Limited to 500 copies. Jewel case with clear tray with additional cardboard slipcase. Booklet is a foldout poster.

Track 4 Sodom cover

Track 8 Holocausto cover

Lusophone black metal never ceases to amaze me. Brazil might just be the most valuable cradle of black metal bands. This country is claimed as a homeland to so many great bands in general like Sarcofago, Northern Forest, Vulcano, Holocausto just to name a few. This vast country is which enjoys one of the biggest economies in the world and home to a large population of humans and thousands of other lifeforms, some exclusive to the region of the Amazon rainforest. Even though Brazil has had quite an impactful presence on the international stage in terms of many industries such as agriculture and technology, Brazil still suffers from the plague of economic inequality, poverty, food insecurity, various diseases and high violent/deadly crime rate.
Every rose has its thorn, some thorns are poisonous, some are malevolent but ultimately ineffective. The personification of such ineffectiveness, in my opinion, can be seen in numerous Latin/Lusophone American music genres like Reggaeton which in my opinion is the lowest form of musical expression. When such disturbing realities clash together, a band such as Ravendark's Monarchal Canticle is allowed to procreate and even help evolve a new wave of interpreters and copy-cats. Ravendark's Monarchal Canticle is a band draped in the sense of Latin-American nationalism and is keenly reminiscent towards the glory achieved by Brazil after its independence from Portugal, which was by then, just a shadow of the large and powerful naval colonial power that it was once was.
This full-length album contains two impressive cover songs, the first covering a Sodom song which they translated in Portuguese, and the second covering their co-national counterparts Holocaustos' classic song called "Regimento Da Morte". These two songs help the listener to better understand the sources from which this band is drawing its inspiration. "Sobre As Cinzas Do Fracasso Alheio" is probably one of the more unique albums I've heard in awhile. There are a lot of recurring themes and tropes in this album. The first, and probably most impactful forms of self-expression, is the extensive use of war marches and sound-clips of battles to try to create a feeling of bellicose atmosphere. Most of the songs on this album, definitely lean more towards the more bestial and thrash-inspired style of black metal, pioneered by bands such as Blasphemy and Sarcofago. However, there are songs where more varied influences can be heard.
The song "Hino à Revolução Paulista" exposes a different, more melodic and down to earth facet of Ravendark's Monarchal Canticles' persona. The song is definitely the ultimate benchmark of how to create and compose a pagan/atmospheric black metal song without the song getting boring or feel like the whole exercise is just an exercise in dragging each song to the furthest stretches only to collapse under their own weight.The closing track on this album called "Destruição em Massa" does a perfect job on following up to Holocaustos' cover version because it maintains and ushers a more malevolent driving-force behind the music. The production is amazing, it's not too clear or polished, but sounds exactly like how a bestial/war black metal release should sound like. I strongly suggest to anyone who enjoys listening to more creative forms of black metal to check this release out.

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