This Canadian band proves you do not have to jsut be an intense blast of blasting to be black metal. They flirt with the shoe-gazing zip-codes that their genre finds itself being built against without conforming to any of the tropes. The vocals are anguished to the point of placing them closer to depressive black metal, while the atmosphere created is organic and kind of jams along. The second song unloads a cavernous chaos in a less structured fashion until the breakdown comes and adds melody three minutes into this 11-minute song. Maybe this is where the song should have opened to begin with.
"Aux bras..." drops everything down to a haunting piano line. Their vocalist makes it clear that he has no intentions of cheering up and is going to bathe in anguish; this time, he does it over a more cinematic post-rock sound. The range of dynamics is a cathartic explosion for the mental breakdown that is being heard on a level that might remind you of Sweden's Shining, before they added cock rock to their depressive cocktail. The 14-minute "À la douleur..." is more deliberate when it comes out of the gates with its grim heaviness. There is a great deal of effective dynamic ebb and flow to the song. A compelling song, not a catchy one. They do release a more metallic aggression here, which some might be a fan of.
The last thing finds things changing, namely the vocals coming out of the swirl of sound as a low, death metal-like growl. It's more of an echoing bellow than the type of punchy accents most bands of this kind use. It is interesting how such a shift of vocals can change the tone. As a song, it becomes more of a raging swathe of sound. I will give this a 9, as it sounds great and takes things in a new and original manner while being true to the genre or at least one corner of it.Out Marach 6th on Debemur Morti Productions.

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