Trilogie noire québécoise
Tome III: Paysage d'hiver
Thanks to Eisenwald for the promo copy
I’ve
never really liked Chasse-Galerie, they’re not a bad band at all
but I think they’re too boring and play it safe, I wasn’t quite
convinced by their live presence either. Considering this, I was a
bit skeptic when I got this album in my inbox but I was
surprised by how much I liked this new project of three of their
members (also members of Forteresse or Au-delà des ruines). While
it’s not a perfect debut album, there’s enough quality here to
please most black metal fans. They’re not yet in the Québec black
metal elite but they could very well be soon enough.
Soundwise,
this album is the shiiit, the production is just icy and clean enough
to make the songwriting shine and just raw enough to give it the
necessary atmosphere. To be fair, I was expecting something akin to
Paysage d’hiver when I saw the cover. The vocals of Blanc Feu
are perfect for the genre, crispy yet tenebrous and just buried
enough to give them the rightful snowy cavern feeling. The guitars
are also very well produced and aren’t exactly that typical for the
genre, there’s even some surprising, insane soloing (such as in
“Transis). Considering they took the time to start a new band, I do
think they didn’t do enough stuff to truly distinguish themselves
from the masses. I was expecting something more epic and grandiose
(not that it isn’t) but I do dig the (somewhat) melodic and
(somewhat) peculiar approach they took with Cendres célestes
(Celestial Ashes). They didn’t use all into the usual
tropes of QCBM and that’s something that we see more and more in
the Québec’s scene nowadays. Many bands are leaving their old
tricks (winter, nationalism) behind and they’re taking a different,
often more occult, direction. Gevurah or Délétère are good
examples of this new trend.
I think
this project has a lot of potential and that’s something that the
excellent German label Eisenwald also saw (Csejthe and Grimoire, two
of the best Québec bands ever are/were signed there). Even if I
think that the compositions lacked a certain abtract component that I
can’t really pinpoint, it’s solid material and it’s highly
recommmended.
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