Oppression - Silence! (2012) | 81%

Randonneurs métal punks

Oppression is the new project of Sovannak (leader of the excellent weird black metal project Putamen Insula, read my review of their last album here: click me ) and Lord Draconis of Return to Nothingness (never heard them). “Silence!” is their first release and it's a very good sixteen minutes slap in the face with a combat boot.

The band is pretty interesting, they're mixing black metal, punk, oi and even martial music plus some post punk influences in a very potent musical formula. Not unlike Putamen Insula, they have a very radical thematic approach exploring nonconformist, violent anarchist views that are somewhat not typical of black metal bands but more prevalent in crust or punk circles.

The vocals of Sovannak (he's not handling the guitars this time) are probably the highlight of this release. Combining quite competent traditional black metal screeches full of venom and spite with airy, almost folkloric clean vocals. The clean vocals are sometimes only a support to the songs, often without lyrics like on “L'appel de la bête” or an integral part of their sound like on “Sous une épaisse couche de fumée”. The melodic punk influence is perhaps coming from French bands like Bérurier Noir or from the cult Québécois band Banlieue Rouge. Mixing this punk sound with lo-fi black metal is quite enjoyable.

Their combination isn't unnatural, their riffs are catchy, simple and sufficiently heavy for the band to be considered somewhat metal, albeit it's almost a 50%/50% recipe. “Tuer” is a pretty metallic track but nonetheless, there's an unity in the songwriting so it's perceived as a whole and not as disconnected parts with clean vocals intertwined with harsher moments.

The production of “Silence!” isn't as raw as you could expect from a limited to 100 copies tape release. It's lo-fi, yes but not crappy and it's more like “anarchist café” than “bedroom” black metal. The harsh vocals are a bit buried at times but it's necessary for the genre, the cleans on the other hand are nice and well recorded, the melodies got stuck in my head for a while.

Overall, a cool first demo from Oppression. I actually just came back from a gig they did and their new songs are also pretty cool, they seemed to be punkier as well, let's follow that band!

The tape is still available on certain distros such as CW Productions, Found Dead (for Euros), Tour de Garde...But Sovannak gave me his permission to include a downloadable link for my readers

Download "Oppression - Silence!" for free, buy it if you like it!