What a record. Album of the year so far. "Bravery, Truth And The Endless Darkness" is probably the most important Doom Metal release since Candlemass' masterpiece "Nightfall". Following the band's High Roller debut 12" EP entitled "Solve Et Coagula" the first Capilla Ardiente longplayer consists of four epic compositions in the form of "Nothing Here For Me", "Towards The Midnight Ocean", "Into The Unknown Lands" and "They Who Were Lost And Now Are Cursed" plus atmospheric intro "Consequence And Consequences" and the haunting interlude "Naufragios". Apart from the two instrumentals, all songs are between 10'00 and 11'00 minut's long. As you might know, Capilla Ardiente (from Chile) is the brainchild of one Claudio Botarro (bass) and Felipe Plaza (vocals); the current line-up is completed by Julio Borquez (guitars) and Francisco Aguirre (drums). Botarro and Plaza are also playing with fellow Doomsters (and High Roller recording art'sts) Procession. However, there is a fundamental difference between Capilla Ardiente and Procession, neither of which is a mere side project but both are full-blown bands. Claudio Botarro explains: "As Felipe and I always said it is like having a barbecue with friends: Same ingredients, same mood and feeling, but in Procession Felipe is the one taking care of the grill, using his recipe and in Capilla Ardiente I use mine. I guess, as in the aforementioned analogy, that the result is different depending on the 'chef'. I think that people that compare both bands a priori, just judging on the band pic or by looking at the same names on the credits, are mostly people that haven't actually listened to the music of both bands. Listening is different than hearing, right?" In addition to being the 'chef' on the new record, Claudio Botarro has furthermore been responsible for the fant'stic cover artwork of the new album. He is just a great all around art'st. "Thank you for the compliment," he says. "Yes, I was again in charge of the visual representation of the lyrical/musical content. As I wrote both music and lyrics for the album, I think it was kind of a logical step for me to take care of the graphics too, even when I wanted that responsibility to be taken by another art'st. Anyway, I think the best thing about doing the artwork was that I knew and understood precisely the words and sounds from this opus, for the aforementioned reasons. The meaning behind the artwork - at least the evident meaning - is simple: A farewell travel. A pilgrimage into the unknown and uncertainty, motivated by the desire to know. A fight against one's own fears and paradigms and the will to succeed. You know, as Canadian gods VoiVod wrote: 'the four basic forces are ready and fixed'... " You can really hear the emotions in the songs of Capilla Ardiente. It's not just music, it's pure emotion. Straight from the heart ... deep from the soul. Listen to "Bravery, Truth And The Endless Darkness" and experience the second coming of Doom Metal in its purest and sincerest form! "Stylistically, we are influenced by epic Doom/Heavy Metal as our way of expressing our music," comments Claudio. "And our main fountain of inspiration lyric-wise is life, death, search for knowledge and inner truth, among other topics. Even as we are normal dudes who like to drink and laugh, it is impossible for us as Capilla Ardiente to work with shallow concepts (such as smoking weed, partying or hunting groupies). We want our message to have a deep meaning and to be timeless." Some Doom Metal bands have occult'satanic lyrics, some have Christian lyrics and some just have melancholic lyrics, which school do Capilla Ardiente belong to? Take a band like While Heaven Wept for example, they are not Doom per se, but their lyrical approach is quite elaborate, very introspective and very good ? "To be honest, I don't know if we belong to any kind of 'school' lyric-wise," comments Claudio. He continues: "I don't want to sound arrogant or anything like that, but as our lyrics have always been a way of expressing singularity and the complexity of the self-knowledge, I don't think we can relate to an industry-focused stereotype. We walk our path alone and - as our music - our lyrics are syncretic, mixing the chosen elements from our different musical and lyrical influences, developing our own style and language. We fight hard to avoid being trapped in a cliche."
