Silhouette : "Les Dires de l 'Ame"

 

This French band is back with their haunting darkness. The first song finds the languid wail of the female vocals yearning from the gray haze of ghostly guitar. The second song finds the black metal elements crashing in with female vocals serving as a counterpoint. When it comes to black metal they are not trying to numb you out with a bunch of blast beats, but work with the mood. The drummer is very solid when it comes to setting the stage for this. When they slow down and let the chords ring out with a creepy throb it's even more effective and gives the female vocals room to slither in. The guitars chug and churn under the melodic atmosphere in a manner that allows them to carve out their own unique niche in the genre. Which for black metal is impressive and much needed to keep the genre alive. 

The eponymous track reaches a middle ground between the melodic hypnosis and the anguish of the male vocals that keep their pained howling going into the night. They incorporate some of the more typical black metal sounds into the sonic melancholy that feels like an expression of depression turned inward. The cool thing is it's atmospheric black metal that has no aspirations to follow Deafheaven or try to be Summoning. Yeah, being from France you might expect Alest influence, but no elves are dancing around either. They effortlessly weave melodies around the swirl of shadows. The minor jey sung vocal lines add a brighter shade of gray but offer only more hopelessness. The guitar keeps tremolo-picked tension, without reverting to the typical buzz. 

The title track storms into more of a conventional black metal if the bar for what conventional black metal is hovers around Emperor. It's not just a blast fest; the sung vocals color the background. There is a more rapid-fire double bass to create an almost beat-beat feeling. The album is not devoid of last beats nor need to be, they are just not overly relied upon. "Litnae contre la Peur" is more deliberate in its pulse with the scowling male vocals dominant. "Dysthymie" works off female vocals with a different beauty and the beast dynamics building into the more bestial ones. The album ends with a softer female-sung outro piece. I will give this a 9,5, as once again they have excelled at doing their own thing while still being true to black metal yet not confined by it.

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