Candle Serenade
“Nosferatu's Passion” (Guardians of Metal, 1995) 

I have been wanting to dive into this release, with the aim of reviewing it, for a long while. I am a fan, and although the online reviews are not that fond of such record, I have to look at if from various standpoints, with its origin being a very important one. Portugal’s Black Metal scene has always been immensely good, and it is hard to ignore that it took us awhile to be able to project our music abroad, but once it happened… all doors fell, and people really got to know the power and the strength of Portuguese Black Metal. Well, I make it seems as if people outside of Portugal were not aware of Decayed or Corpus Christii, just to name two, but the overall scene was unknown to many.

And many years back, the days of old, when no internet was at our reach, many bands were brought to fruition. Many of those bands lived a short live, away from the spotlight, away from the people. Today, I am still discovering acts that I had no idea existed, that sound tremendously good! People are told to move on, always forward, but at times one must stop and look back, for hidden gems might be waiting to be picked up from the dirt.

Candle Serenade was a Portuguese Black Metal act from the North – Maia – that played along the lines of bigger bands such as Cradle of Filth, old Katatonia or Opera IX. That fusion of Melodic Black Metal with female vocals. A time when that dichotomic relation of Beauty and the Beast was a thing, a big thing! Candle Serenade, nonetheless, holds a bit of Portuguese elements and adds, at times, flute and melodic lines that give us that Folkish Pagan atmosphere. You feel the band was influenced by other musicians but is still able to add something of their own. Overall, this is Melodic Black Metal with elements of Doom and Gothic, so not a new, nor extremely innovative, manoeuvre, but one that I feel still holds well in today’s scene. Well, maybe that is my vision, not the “scene’s vision”.

“Nosferatu's Passion” is a product of its time, its geography, its people, and maybe this is why I have always loved the 90ies Black Metal scene, for its innocence and raw approach (do not confuse with a raw production, but a “raw” structure) to the act of writing music. A bit like the Punk and Hardcore scene, Music was feeling, Music was emotions. Music felt simpler, easier to absorb, no need for gimmicks or extra-technical abilities! Music that way it should be: real.

Candle Serenade is on of those names that I know will never return. Well, not that I know, but I “know”. They had their day, and it is gone. Left is the music and the emotions it provides. If I say this is one of my favourite Portuguese Black Metal albums of all time people might find me absurdly insane, but it is. Again, it holds all those elements that I have always loved, and it treats them with class and charisma. The result is, as mentioned before, a sign of its time.