NOCTURNAL DEPARTURE – clandestine theurgy – CD

Black Metal – Hells Headbangers

Almost literally a band out of time, NOCTURNAL DEPARTURE harken to the grim days of the ’90s black metal underground, particularly its most devout sectors just south of the border in the United States. While once the object of mockery from the ignorant despite featuring some of the most original and unorthodox outliers, it’s USBM that has the last laugh, as the idiom has developed over the decades and still rings true in the darkest of hearts. Although calling Canadian soil home, NOCTURNAL DEPARTURE encapsulate this mood and era in its most perfect, poignant form on Clandestine Theurgy. Featuring gloriously macabre cover art created by Abomination Hammer, indeed, its title is something of a rallying cry for such hearts – “those who know, know,” as the adage goes – and its raw, desperate violence evinces elements of Judas Iscariot, Masochist, Black Funeral, Summon, and Blood Storm but undeniably with a personality all its own. TRADITIONAL black metal, then, no more but definitely no less: Clandestine Theurgy is a throwback masterclass.