France is often thought of as an exporter of Black Metal but here is a death metal band to challenge that notion. The members hail from projects like Year of No Light and the Great Old Ones, which helped pique my interest. There is an interesting old-school production choice. Things are organic and open sounding, rather than cavernous or the in-your-face basement jam sound, They draw from early death metal that traces back it its thrash roots. This works better on the opening track than the second song that chugs along perhaps too similar ground.
Things do not change until the title track brings more of a darker melancholic doom tone to the table. The vocals take on a more anguished growl. This shift does provide the album with a needed dynamic shift. Comprised of only five songs, every minute counts. This song indulges in ten of those minutes and uses them more wisely than the previous song, which did not suck it was just too close to the opening track sonically. After giving this one a second listen I appreciate the atmosphere and the somewhat sung phrases. "Tranchant' has almost an Entombed-like groove to the buzz saw grinding of the guitar. Much more death metal, than doom, though it does not focus on double bass speed.
The last song does descend back into doom but the broad strokes of it feel like they are resisting themes we have already heard them bang around with on this album along with some of the more typical death metal tropes being involved though run through a filter of a darker and more dismal vision of death metal for what it is worth. I will give this album an 8, I think they have promise as a unit, but know they are more capable of thinking about of the book given the project they have hailed from. The key selling point is this is death metal that captures the grim futility that doom celebrates. This album is being released on World Eater Records.
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