Time to complete our journey through the dark, bleak but often terrifyingly beautiful landscapes drawn by those talented musicians who work in this specialised sphere of heavy metal, and our travels don't take us too far, just north across the border to Canada, where a band called Gris reside. They've been around since 2006, and released three albums, of which this is the second. They appear to speak in French, so there may be some small chance of translating some of their lyrics, though don't expect miracles. I can tell you that the title of the album seems to work out as something pretty mundane: it's a forest.
Il était une forêt... --- Gris --- 2007 (Sepulchral Productions)
Again, the only way I can get this is on YouTube (Gris is a German rapper, apparently
) but at least the person who put it up has included running times. Lovely dark atmospheric opening to the title track, then a howling, bawling voice as Icare, who also does piano, violin and drums, comes into the track, but surely that's not any sort of lyric yet? Lets look at them and see if we can figure out what they're singing about. Okay, he's singing now, with some really nice keyboard backing, but the basic idea I can get from the lyric is of a dark forest, possibly older than humanity. I don't think the writing is that deep. The music is great though, and Icare does a good job of screaming out perhaps the pain of the trees? Ah, who knows? He's certainly passionate though. Very powerful guitars, and it's on this that this track is mostly driven.
There are only six tracks on the album, but only one of them is below nine minutes long. Lovely dark acoustic opening to “Le gala de gens heureux” (no; I think the last word might mean hours, but even then I'm not sure) and then it breaks into a slow, majestic guitar anthem, and later breaks down into a kind of stark, sparse melody. Some piano joining in now, making this a lot more dramatic. Soft guitar again takes in “Cicatrice”, (didn't we have a member called that once?) with gentle percussion and a kind of haunting feel. Piano gets a bit more involved than it has been up to now. I really don't hear any violin as of yet though. Gets very eerie and sort of ethereal in the last minute or so, and then fades out into “Veux-tu danser?” which I'm pretty sure is “Do you want to dance?”
Opening on a ticking clock and children's laughter, it again is driven by low-key, muted acoustic guitar and gentle percussion. Even when the vocal comes in it's relatively restrained, and as it goes on I think I even hear Icare cry. I'm sure I do. Probably playing a part but quite effective. I wonder is this some sort of glance back to childhood and the mistakes made in our youth? Eventually though he's had enough and explodes in rage or frustration. Good guitar solo coming up now. Okay, even someone as lingually challenged as I can guess what “Profunde misanthropie” means. And as if to confirm that, Icare is howling and roaring and snarling his pain and sorrow all over the track. Nice piano and the drums are particularly effective. Still hear no violin so far.
The final track is “La dryade”, and starts with a soft little piano piece, and now finally I hear Warren Ellislike violin, very mournful and sad. Flute? Or whistle? Uileann pipes maybe? Whatever it is it's lovely and goes for about five minutes before the violin starts to take things in a slightly more uptempo direction, like a reel or a jig, something traditional anyway. I have the feeling this may in fact be an instrumental, as the piano gets a little more upbeat and we head into the sixth minute. These guys can certainly play, and play well. It's been worth waiting for the violin, considering how it drives this final piece. Lovely finale on the piano.
TRACKLISTING AND RATINGS
1. Il était une forêt...
2. Le gala des gens heureux
3. Cicatrice
4. Veux-tu danser?
5. Profunde misanthropie
6. La dryade
Incredibly talented musicians, I think I said earlier, and so these guys are; it's just a pity I couldn't go deeper into their lyrics. Despite having the barest smattering of French (memories of what I learned in school, the old word or phrase picked up from TV or books) I couldn't really interpret the songs at all. But they did seem to be rooted in a love of nature, a witfulness for the past and perhaps a wish for simpler times. Even the singing did not put me off like it did with Nyktalgia, and again being a two-man operation, this work has to be applauded. Certainly a credit to their country.
Our first, probably only taste of Swiss ABM comes from a band who seem to have more demos than albums! Although this is self-titled, it seems there were four before it and another two after, with only two actual albums recorded, both splits with another band. Weird. Even at that though, this demo at least is close enough to the length of an actual album, racking up over fifty-four minutes in total, so although there are only three tracks there's a lot of music to get through.
Paysage d'Hiver --- Paysage d'Hiver --- 1999 (Kunsthall Produktionen)
Hey! I recognise that cover! That was, I think, Mojo's avatar for a long time. Or was it Overcast? Well, someone had it anyway. At this point, it comes as no surprise to me to find that Paysage d'Hiver (winter landscape in French) is one guy, who goes by the name of (anyone?) Wintherr, though his real name is Tobias Möckl. Each of the three tracks here clock in at just around the eighteen-minute mark, but if there's a longest track then it's “Welt aus Eis” at a clear one minute longer than the other two, nine seconds shy of nineteen minutes. Perhaps odd that he writes in German, when he's titling his albums in French and comes from Switzerland, although he does cite Burzum among his influences, so maybe that's why. Doesn't matter to me really, as whether the lyrics were in French or German I wouldn't be able to understand them.
Nice gentle easing in to the album: not.
Mad, apocalyptic, chaotic guitar and drums with a screechy voice that opens “Welt aus Eis”, and I wonder will it change much over the course of almost nineteen minutes? Okay, well, after about seven minutes of pure guitar hammering and screaming, he breaks it down to some acoustic, sans vocals for now, which is a nice change and shows he really can play, which I allow was never really in doubt. Kind of an echoey effect there, gives a nice ambience to the music. Reaching the tenth minute and it gets heavier and darker, and Wintherr starts screeching again, though the basic melody remains. Think it may be like this right up to the end.
Well, no. I hear what may be violin or cello coming in and to be fair the layers of sound building up here are really impressive. After the seventh minute this song just got a lot more interesting. Now some dark synth and choral vocal synth is changing the whole style of the track while yet retaining its basic motif as it fades out towards its end. “Gefrorener atem” opens on that same sort of cold synth, echoey effects and phased guitar, very slow and almost menacing. Suddenly it kicks up and goes all mad like the beginning track, galloping drums and roaring vocal, though in the background I think the guitar is remaining low and steady. Fo twelve minutes it follows more or less the same melody, then slows down to synth while still basically keeping the same chords as far as I can see. Then in the fourteenth the guitars cut in more sharply and Wintherr is back howling and roaring.
“Der weg” begins in the same chaotic and intense way, but if I have a handle on Paysage D'Hiver now (and I'm not saying I do after two tracks) this is going to slow down to some either acoustic guitar, violin or keyboard somewhere around the fifth or sixth minute. Well, there's some synth coming in now in the tenth minute but it's just really joined the chaos, hasn't slowed it down or really changed it at all. It's settling down in minute fourteen to chiming guitar and droning synth, slowing down considerably and no vocals so far. And that's how it fades out.
TRACKLISTING AND RATINGS
1. Welt aus Eis
2. Gefrorener atem
3. Der weg
Much of this album is not to my taste --- the long, sometimes seemingly formless guitar assaults, the shrieks --- but when he really tries Wintherr can make his music really interesting. He clearly can play, and though the credits just say “everything”, I feel he has guitar, bass, drums, piano, violin, keyboards and probably a bit more in there, so it's pretty impressive. Could do with a bit more variety, but certainly an interesting and entertaining album.
Having tried and indeed on the whole enjoyed what little we sampled of Swiss Atmospheric Black Metal, it's due east we go to sample some from France, one of the drivers, I'm told, of the genre and one of the most revered. Looks like they combine elements of avant-garde and also industrial metal into their sound, which may be interesting or at least different. Given the respect accorded to this album by those in the know, it's perhaps fitting that we bring our dark little odyssey to a close with a look at it.
The Work Which Transforms God --- Blut Aus Nord --- 2003 (Candlelight Records)
Why is this the one Blut Aus Nord album that neither Spotify nor GPM have? F
uck it anyway! Back to YouTube I must go! At least you can always rely on YT. The only thing that annoys me is when people upload albums without consecutive running times, which means you have to keep adding up the track times to make sure of where you are. Sigh. Anyway, taking their cue perhaps from The Doors, the album begins with “End”, a short, very ambient instrumental --- oh look ! Someone kind commenter has put the running times up for me. Thanks, Pyrobaguette1! As we reach the first track proper, “The choir of the dead” it kicks into what I guess you'd call real Black Metal, with the guitars going mental and that by-now familiar screech and roar that so often passes for vocals in this subgenre.
Not a whole lot to say really. Looks like we have another six minutes or so of this to go. Okay, the guitar is getting a little more recognisable now and there's a melody of sorts emerging around the fifth minute or so, drums slowing down to human level, kind of a warping effect on the guitars. Ending on what sounds like iron bells tolling and into “Axis”, which jumps out of the shadows and buries its teeth in your throat. Once you've got over the shock of that, the guitar settles a little but it's still mighty fast and plenty of howling is to be had. Not a whole lot in it to be honest, but at least it is short. Ambient and atmospheric instrumental number two is “The Fall”, a mere minute and a half, and it takes us into “Metamorphosis”, hard guitar leading the way but at least I can follow the riff for now.
Almost a hard rock feel to this, and it's much slower than anything else from the album so far, the drums maintaining a constant, steady beat thanks to GhÖst, while Vindsval handles guitars and W.D Feld the bass, but I have no idea who is singing (to use the word loosely) as nobody is credited. I feel it may be the guitarist but that's just a guess. “The supreme abstract” is a short track, just under three minutes, and seems to contain some sort of chant as well as bestial grunts that makes it sound like there's a chorus of pigs singing, and it's pretty much just a mess really. It leads into the longer “Our blessed frozen cells” which has a mostly slower, doomy feel and then halfway falls off to just wind sounds and feedback, then it comes back with a much clearer, and still slow guitar and percussion, but with a definite melody this time. Finishes really strongly and fades out.
Another instrumental then in “Devilish essence”, with what sounds like dark piano and a feeling of being followed down clammy, ill-light halls and slipping on slimy steps that descend deeper and deeper into the dark. Unnameable breathing is at your back and there is only one way to go now, and that is down, down into the stygian depths, towards whatever horrors await you. “The howling of God” sounds like it's going to be another chaotic mess, and so it proves, with hammering, frenetic guitar and thundering drumming, whoever is singing screaming and roaring as the song trundles along at top speed. Actually, to be fair, it does settle into something of a groove after a while. Becomes quite hypnotic, really.
The last of the vocal tracks then is “Inner mental cage” (should that be inner metal cage? No? Fair enough, then) and lasts a mere three minutes, and it's actually quite restrained and coherent. Really great doomy guitar, some sort of chanting, steady slow drumming. For a vocal track, there's virtually no singing, just chanting and I think some dark laughter. The album ends on two instrumentals, one short, one very long. The former is hardly even deserving of the title, being a mere eighteen seconds long, but the closer is almost ten minutes, making it by far the longest track on the whole album, and “Procession of the dead clowns” opens with a big rising screeching guitar and what may be a synth line, with some effects like chains and metal on stone, then breaks into a slow, doomy and yet powerful guitar-led anthem with a really fine melody. It's bascially the same phrase all the way through, but it really works with the title and closes the album extremely well.
TRACKLISTING AND RATINGS
1. End
2. The choir of the dead
3. Axis
4. The fall
5. Metamorphosis
6. The supreme abstract
7. Our blessed frozen cells
8. Devilish essence
9. The howling of God
10. Inner mental cage
11. Density
12. Procession of the dead clowns
Obviously, there are still aspects of Black Metal I don't care for: I like my music, in general, to have some sort of melody I can pick out and follow, or at least write about, and I like to be able to understand, insofar as possible, what's being sung, but I must admit I'm gaining a new appreciation of and respect for the subgenre. It's not, as I believed two years ago, nothing more than noise, played by people who can't play proper metal and so resort to this loud, abrasive, formless cacophony. There are some really great musicians in this subgenre, and I can see why this album is hailed as it is, and why it should be the natural terminus for our short voyage into darkness. A stunning end to a pretty breathtaking, at times scary but mostly revelatory adventure.