Controlled Chaos
The
first proper album for Shezmu after a bunch of extended plays and
demos, À travers les lambeaux (could be translated to “through the
shreds”) is a blistering piece of occult death metal that will help
you get through this summer if your main vice is listening to
hellishly dark music. Their first release as a three piece since the
arrival of Yannick as a full time bassist, the short but sweet album
doesn’t mess around with any aspects of their identity.
With
their inspirations fully assimilated and ready to torn apart the
competition, Shezmu delivers a well written and intelligent record
full of twists and turns. Without playing a fully epic blend of
metals similar to what bands like Sarpanitum or Necros Christos do,
the Montreal band prefers to focus on pure death metal while
incorporating some slightly foreign touches. The vocals of axeman and
band leader Olivier (also in a wide array of other cool bands like
Palmistry, Complot! or Moulin Banal) are deep, thunderous but also
tortured clean screams reminiscent of Bolzer. It’s not a technical
band, the focus is on riffs and riffs alone, there’s no unnecessary
wank, it’s just riff worship and that’s totally fine with me.
They’re mixing this sort of subtle antique feel with the evil
energy of Incantation and it works. Not totally unlike Dead
Congregation did.
The
interlude “La rage” divides the album in two with a middle-eastern feel
similar to the grandiose instrumental compositions found on
Melechesh’s “The Epigenesis” and it was a welcomed respite
since Shezmu are so fucking intense. There’s some shorter numbers like
“Les secrets des ziggourats” and it brings forth a quasi
blackened grind element to the fast compositions. Still, the bulk of
the album is the two bread slices around it, its two longer
compositions located at the start and at the end. They allow
themselves to slow down and pummel you with “Lex Talionis”. At
the edge of cavernous death metal, Shezmu’s guitars are pretty
clear as far as death metal is concerned. The opener and title track
has those hypnotic riffs that almost gives me the same effect (good)
stoner metal has on me. This is perhaps their biggest strength, this
sort of thundering but controlled chaos handled through efficient but
minimalist musicianship is just so good. Shezmu are the cream of the
crop for Québec death metal alongside Outre Tombe. Let’s see if
Sedimentum can beat ‘em with their upcoming debut album.
No comments:
Post a Comment