2024 M&O Music / CD
I won’t pick this album apart like I normally do, due to it
not being what I look for in a death metal record. It’s only tangentially a
death metal record, having more in common with progressive metal and black
metal than death metal in my estimation, other than some of the vocals and
riffs. It’s marketed as black/death, and I don’t think that’s off-base. It
makes sense. That said, I’ll explain why I don’t like it much. Let’s dig into
this solo act from France.
First, the vocals. They’re passable, but not great. And the
clean singing must go. Get rid of it. My heart just dropped during the first
track when I heard the clean vocals. They’re not great, and they don’t fit with
the aggression of the rest of the music. The last thing I want to hear on a
death metal record is clean singing, with very few exceptions. That shit’s for
metalcore acts, not real death metal. Thankfully the actual singing doesn’t
make too much more of an appearance throughout the record, but just when it
should not, it does. I also don’t like the subject material of the album. “Inspired
by the ideas and paintings from the sublime movement of the romantic era” is a
tag-line from the promo material, and it’s accurate, but this metalist sees
that as pretentious pseudo-intellectualism. I don’t give a fuck about art. I
want DEATH METAL. Death metal and black metal are ugly, disgusting, anti-art
forms and ought to be kept that way. They should be unpleasant to the
uninitiated. That’s what drew me to this style of music in the first place.
Those criticisms aside, the musicianship on display where
the guitars are concerned is magnificent. Sylvain Spanu can fucking play. He’s
a great guitarist. Nobody can dispute that, and his talents are highlighted
very well here. I’d love to hear him play in a traditional metal band, since I
have a feeling he can fuckin’ smoke many of the guitarists in that scene
without breaking a sweat! Serious talent there. The rest of the instruments are
ok, nothing insane on display, nothing terrible.
I wouldn’t go looking for this if you’re a serious deathmaniac like me, but if you’re a shred-head or a fan of progressive music, you might do worse than trying it. It’s just not what I want to hear at all when it comes to anything related to death metal.
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