Capilla Ardiente - Where Gods Live and Men Die

Capilla Ardiente's Where Gods Live and Men Die - A tale of a driving the point home, opening the door, leading it in, warming some milk before tucking it neatly in the bed, reading bedtime stories and sitting by it's bedside all night long.

Have you ever been to one of those parties where everyone gets their own bottle of alcohol, empties it in a Jug with maybe some fruit juice, Coke etc. If you're American then its Punch(?) But back home we called them Bucket parties. I loved them, was always excited to get wasted while drinking something fun. Though the end result was always a massive hangover the next day but you know, you had a damn good time.

But

But

Ever so rarely you'd get a mixture that was abhorrent and you knew that if everyone drank this stuff you'd need many more buckets for all the puke the this will induce. Capilla Ardiente's 'Where Gods Live and Men Die' falls in that category. Let me explain why I think this album isn't one of Wes Craven's slick monsters but one of Cronenberg's freakish creatures (and not in a good way).

Capilla Ardiente has been around for some time now and 'Where Gods Live and Men Die' is the latest album by this Chilean Prog / Doom band. The album just crosses the 45 min run time mark but has just 4 songs. While that isn't uncommon, a lot of Maiden songs are long, but this isn't Rime of the Ancient Mariner but more Empire of the Clouds. When you hit play on this album, you can easily see that the people behind it are talented artists. In isolation everything works and works very well. You see, it has all the right elements for a Prog metal band with Doom undercurrents, i.e. Doom laden lyrics, riffs any Tool lover would be happy to listen to, lots of tempo changes, bridges, solos and a vocalist with a solid voice. But this is how far as it goes. When you have the right building blocks you would expect the result to be kick ass but if you have reverse Midas touch, you can even turn gold to dust.

The songs don't have the feeling that you're listening to a well polished piece of work, the different elements just don't gel together to give you an experience of a whole, if you know what I mean. Though the crowning turd in the water pipe are the lyrics. The songs are just too damn wordy (now you know why Empire of the Clouds). Add to that a virtuoso style of singing where you're constantly trying to show off your lung power with long drawn vocals every five seconds and it just grates on you - it is such an exhausting listening experience. I don't know what the band is trying to achieve here, is this album an English literature assignment where you're just droning on endlessly to hit the 10,000 word limit your professor set out. Why, why, why have 5 mins of instrumental section in a song and then try to cram in all the lyrics in a space of 3 mins? (I feel like I'm making the same mistake here with this review).

I really wanted to like this album, it has some great elements, you can hear the bass properly through most of the album, the riffs are quite slick, solos sharp, loads of double bass. If only they got rid of the vocalist, reduced the word count by 50% then they'd have a sick album. I mean, even if they got rid of vocals altogether, it would still be solid. I was reminded of some of Shylmagoghnar's Transience in parts towards the end of the album.

There isn't much to say about which song shines out above the rest as there are only 4 songs here but I really loved the first 2 mins of  "As I lie on the Summit" before the vocal butcher landed on the scene. I usually give an album a listen a good 3 - 4 times but as I write this I'm struggling to get through my second run.

In closing I'd say, great ingredients but poor result. And with that, I'm out!

Cheers

---

For more, visit the following links: Instagram | Spotify | Bandcamp | Facebook