When it comes to black metal, I tend to be on the pickier side especially with the production value of an album. The latest release from Caïna, Christ Clad in White Phosphorus (Apocalyptic Witchcraft) has only brought that side of me out even further into light. I found that while a few of the tracks were enjoyable for a raw black metal tone, most of the others were just jumbled messes with lacking production. Also, I tend to enjoy a track here and there that serves as an intro to the track that follows, but the ones in this album just seem random.

‘Fumes of God’ came off at first as an okay track but progressively gets worse as it wraps up with unnecessary synths that throw off the rest of the instrumentals. It sounded as if I was listening to a black metal song and a YouTube ad started playing in the background on my laptop. ‘The Promise of Youth’ is one of the better tracks on the album. In your face black metal with nothing fancy trying to make something “different”. Even the synths that come in late are not overbearing and are only ever truly present towards the closing measures. ‘Extraordinary Grace’ was the most obnoxious twelve minutes of my life as I was waiting for some more black metal after a couple minutes. Then I hoped that it would climax into black metal. Then I hoped it would just end faster. The final track, which is the album track, is what sounds like someone trying their hand at Depeche Mode type vocals with a mid-80s Mayhem demo playing over a shitty stereo in the background.
After fifty-three minutes, Christ Clad in White Phosphorus comes to an end. This is one of the few times where I only listened to an album maybe three times before just hammering out a review to be done with it. Caïna supposedly has other material where each release has its own mood and emotions. Perhaps that’s where I should have started listening to them. Unless, of course, it sounds like this album.

4.0/10

TIM LEDIN

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