VI : "De praestigiis Angelorum"

This is comprised of members from Aosoth and Antaeus, so the cream of the French metal crop. They describe their music as being extreme devoted black metal that is illuminated with chaos. I can hear that. It finds a swirling drone even within the technical tornado of drumming. This takes a more sweeping pulse on "the Earth Will Continue to Burn" which does not shy from the blast beats. The throaty rasp of the vocals is under a cover of distortion and sitting behind the guitars in the mix. At times the guitars ringing and the drums precise syncopation reminds me of Liturgy. The third actual song who's title roughly translates to " Look at your Bodies , because it does not allow you " gets really interesting when it backs off and allows the song to breathe and melody begins to form. Then they return to the blasting. The song has a really weird false ending where it dips into something that could be from a horror movie soundtrack.

The angular weirdness continues in "A Place Among the Dead".  This one starts off as being more blasty than not. Around the five minute mark things slow down and the chords are allowed to ring out with a more bell like chiming. One impressive element lies in the fact that even in the blasting sections they are not trying to re-create something that bands like Darkthrone have already done. Some of the more racing sections have more in common with Krallice than they do Deathspell Omega. The need for speed continues on " It is too late to give glory". While they are more than capable of playing fast, I do not think that is where their strength lies as songwriters , given the fact that on the first half of the album that already bathed us in some dark beautiful dissonance. They eventually find their way back to that place.

They close with a son that is more graceful in its abrasiveness. There are some melodies entangled in the blur of tremolo picked guitar.  While the song races off into the abyss at the seven minute mark more of the horror movie like soundscapes trail the album off. This doesn't feel like a debut album<. Strong performances, from guys who are adding another dimension to French black metal, sometimes heavy handed on the blast beats, which is only an issue for me when I hear on the same album these guys doing things that are so much more interesting. I'll give this one an 8. />