(written by Islander)
Not for the first time, an extreme metal band has used excerpts from The Passion of Joan of Arc to illustrate one of their songs. This time it is the Croatian black/death metal band Defiant, who commemorated their 20th year of existence in 2025 with the release of their fifth album, Mammon Mantra. But in the video we’re premiering for their song “Caesars Messiah” from that album, Defiant aren’t celebrating the famous martyr, but using the scenes for a different purpose.
The Passion of Joan of Arc is a 1928 French silent film directed by Carl Theodor Dreyer and starring Renée Jeanne Falconetti. It focuses on the time that Joan of Arc was a captive of England and depicts her trial and execution for heresy by French clergymen loyal to the English. It is rightly regarded as one of the greatest films ever made. Even seeing only the excerpts used by Defiant, you can get a sense of why that is.
But, as suggested above, the lyrics of “Caesars Messiah“, which you will also see in the video, seem to have a different moral than the injustice visited upon Joan and the reasons for her ultimate elevation to sainthood by the church.
While the words are open to interpretation, they can be understood as condemning the concept of marytyrdom as a means used by ecclesiastical authorities to bend worshippers and rulers to their will. As for how the song fits within Defiant’s album, the labels that released Mammon Mantra have described it as “the closest thing that the band ever came to a concept album; it explores man’s darkest desires and corruption ever since this creature stood on its two feet, from the dawn of time to the current events.”
Last year we premiered a video for another song off that album, “Lord of the Opening“, and wrote that it “feeds the need for being scorched to the bone and battered to the ground, but it also incorporates almost dream-like prog-metal digressions as well as inventive and technically impressive escapades that set the mind spinning.”
“Caesars Messiah” doesn’t put the torch to listeners right away. Instead, it slowly unfolds notes that eerily ring and cymbals that strangely shimmer, establishing a sorrowful and haunting melody. The full band then carry that melody forward with pounding beats, crashing chords, and a measure of abrasion. They add whistling flute-like tones and chanting choral vocals that underscore the music’s dismal mood.
Following a high, whirring guitar-bridge and a ghastly roar the drums jump forward, the riffing swarms, and harsh vocals eject the words. The drums also shift into changing progressions; the bass bubbles on the boil; the riffing writhes; and the vocals frighteningly express torment and torture.
The drums also vanish, and brittle notes slowly ring again. And then Defiant administer brutally slugging blows, blistering fretwork, monstrous growls, and extremely harrowing howls. The choral voices and those rippling flute-like tones return — in the midst of a cataclysmic finale.
It’s an enormously dramatic and tremendously frightening song, and a powerful (and chilling) reminder of what a good album this is.
DEFIANT Lineup:
Kris – guitars
T. Kuternik – vocals
Julijana – bass
Dominik – drums
Album Guests:
Insanus – additional percussion
Maksymina “Maxi” Kuzianik – vocals (4)
Tony Dolan – vocals (7)
Mammon Mantra is available from Satanath Records and InsArt Records in a jewel-box CD edition with a 12-page booklet, and digitally. Below the links we’ve included a full stream of the album.
ORDER:
https://satanath.bandcamp.com/album/sat391-defiant-mammon-mantra-2025
https://insartrecords.bandcamp.com/album/mammon-mantra
DEFIANT:
https://defiantcro.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/defiant.croatia
https://www.instagram.com/defiant.official