Scorching Tomb – Demo 2019 / 77%

Dirty Montréal 514 Series: Part II

The first effort from those newcomers is a strong slap in the face. The first song demo focuses on simplicity and groove over flashy technicality and it pays off. The vocals are raw, rough and comes off as echoes from a shadowy grave or a decrepit Hochelaga basement. They’re fun and a good fit with the fast and heavy riffs. I rarely want my death metal to be nice and clean and I’m getting what I want here. I want to be thrown in an unmarked grave, one that’s been freshly dug. My corpse laying in a white sheet or in several duffel bags.

Morbidity aside, Scorching Tomb were able to convey those themes quite well and for a demo release, that’s exactly what you want to accomplish. You want it as an appetizer of things to come and you don’t want the customer to leave. Their songs are fairly short and to the point and the musicianship and songwriting are as solid as the tattooing of some of his mysterious members are known for. Incorporating some slight hardcore influences since Bolt Thrower are better than most things in life, they’re able to be a bit somewhat different than the plethora of generic death metal coming from all over the world.

Not unlike Oath Div. 666 or even Outre-Tombe as far as spirit goes, the band definitely prefers its meat (vegan or not) and potatoes to any frivolities that Québec death metal might be known for. The guitars are crisp and there’s no fretless bass solos or jazz influenced leads. It’s just punches after punches of...well, scorching death metal. Not the most memorable stuff but it goes hard and constantly delivers good riffs.

Get in the tomb as quick as possible. If the ground is too frozen, just pile some rocks over my body.

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Grales - Demo 2019 / 75%

Dirty Montréal 514 Series: Part I


Some steps to do before checking this band:

• A) Order a poutine. Don’t forget that if it’s not cheese curds, it’s not poutine and you should probably reconsider your life if you don’t mind shredded cheddar on your poutine. If you’re in the city, I’d suggest Poutineville.
• B) Put some wool socks, it’s winter for fuck’s sake.
• C) Cancel your psychiatrist appointments???????

That new quintet from Montréal will fill your bathtub with a year worth of filth. Unleashing three five minutes songs of thundering sludge/doom, Grales takes you by the hand and shows you how dejected and depressing their city can be. That period between autumn and winter where the ground is getting dirty and the snow can’t decide if it wants to stay or just melts into small putrid lakes of icy water is what that band sounds like. I mean that in a self-loathing but positive way, of course.

The guitars are thick (thicc?) and sounds like you’re constantly falling into brown snow because there’s a thin layer of ice beneath it. The bass is huge too (as it should be) and the drumming is varied, well executed and made me lose my mind from time to time. The vocals are also insane, they have the right amount of viscosity and poison to automatically provide you with the number of a weed dealer who’s probably gonna try to sell you meth too.

Grales gets hypnotic too. The start of “Cult of Domination” reminds me of the psychedelic elements that Ufomammut are known for. Considering they’re a quintet, they’re really able to keep things constantly filled to the brim and this helps when you want to create intriguing and inspired atmospheres. Two guitars are definitely efficient at giving you a big, loud and fully realized sound.

Despite keeping their compositions to a standard length, they’re able to explore some different rhythms and tempos. They’re also quite good at keeping things airy and they know how to stay pertinent without bludgeoning the listener with a constant volley of vocals.

They think of themselves as antifascist sludge and in a tense metal scenes where some people are too tolerant and friendly towards racism and white supremacy, it’s always nice to know that some members of the metal scene won’t stand for that kind of behaviour.

“You won't get your 'ethnostate'
Your obedient wife with a smiling face
You won't get your 'rightful place'
As the master caste of the fucking 'master race' “

Well said, dudes.

Tape release by the excellent Québec label From the Urn (Lochness, Marécage, Grand Morne...)

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Sadomagickal Seducer – Testicular Torture (2018) / 80%

Cum See Daddy

This had “magickal” in the name so I obviously had to review it. The fact that there’s a naked man being tortured on the cover was just the cherry on the sundae. Sadomagickal Seducer is yet another project by Comte Bergaby/Olivier B. Emond who’s known as Turbo Sodomizer here. He’s currently known for Shezmu, Palmistry, Complot, Pénombre, Hexeth or his new folk black project Moulin Banal. He’s quite a busy man. Unlike many underground metal musicians who have a boatload of projects, Emond finds the inspiration to make them sound all different and distinctive.

SS’s debut extended play is an intriguing mix of unhinged sexual tension. There’s a lot of things going on at the same time on those four dense tracks, all below the four minutes mark. There’s huge proto black/thrash/speed riffs à la Midnight mixed with some metallic punk lubricant not too dissimilar to what Satan’s Satyrs or Alucarda should sound like. The vocals are put through a wall of sexual moaning and lamentations, they’re rough and it sounds like there’s a maniac who’s being maniacally tortured by a bunch of horny Quebecois lumberjacks.

The special thing about the project is the huge layers of orgasmic keyboards all around the songs, it creates an atmosphere where a special orgy could happen. The EP ends on a lovely cheap church dirge and some sobbing just to make you feel uneasy. The project delivers enjoyable riffs with a peculiar ambiance and the room smell like a massage parlor once the release is done.

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Lüger – Hellraisers of the Waste (2018) / 80%

Sleaze, Leather and Metal

The Montreal quartet finally released their debut album this year and it’s a lethal banger. The band led by singer/guitarist Jim Laflamme are proud sleazy fellas and they brought their A game for their first full length. It’s forty minutes spent in a post apocalytipc world where the only thing you can find to drink is whiskey that tastes like motor oil and there’s apparently a strict dress code since everyone wears leather pants and all the men are shirtless. It’s a world where the gimp from Pulp Fiction is having a lot of fun and where you can see a young Mel Gibson roaming around.

The band owes a lot to Motorhead and Pentagram, it’s dangerous, uncompromising and highly sexual. The record smells like it was conceived during an orgy in a secret Montréal basement. The guitars of Laflamme and Max Meunier are huge and really shows how well the band has managed to create their distinct sound. One huge dose of fast paced doom metal, a lot of speed metal, some heavy metal and some devout praise to the gods of dirty rock & roll. They also integrate a fair share of psychedelia (the overture of “Beneath the Red Sun” for example) and it helps them create an occult and entrancing mood. The aggressive bloody vocals reminds me of the most idiosyncratic thrash singers from the hey days of the style, an approach not too dissimilar from Tom Angelripper from Sodom!

The eight minutes track “Lust Paradise” is my highlight of the record, it shows everything the band can do and add an enjoyable epic feel. Lüger has strong musicians, above average songwriting but I do feel they could be even better and that it will be a wild ride to see them evolve and crush motherfuckers with their explosive biker sound.
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Basalte - Vertige (2018) / 95%

The Righteous Mastery of Atmosphere and Might

Basalte’s debut album was a thoroughly impressive piece of Quebec black metal and it impressed the hell out of me when it was released in 2014. Four years after “Vestige”, they’re back with “Vertige”, an album with an intricate and exhaustive sonic approach. The work on the production was meticulous, almost to the point of being monastic and it paid off.

Between the two records, the trio became a quartet when they got a full time bassist and he now contributes to the songwriting while improving the live performances of the band. They also played a special, secretive gig in the forest back in 2016 in front of about fifty people (including yours truly) and it added an aura of mystery and DIY attitude to the project. After that, their drummer was flown to Indonesia for a year to study music and while it made the recording process more complicated, it will certainly add something extraneous to the band’s future compositions. After L.’s return in August 2017, they finished the album, played one of their first gigs in a while when they opened for Falls of Rauros and now, they just released their sophomore effort. An album I had to chance to digest a bit before the actual release. It’s not an easy piece of art to assimilate but it’s a rewarding one.

Let’s not waste any time here, “Vertige” is an excellent album and it will certainly end up to be one of the most memorable and essential black metal albums of 2018. The four extended tracks are vast and filled to the brim with riffs, interesting time signatures, emotional tremolos and intense but yet natural drumming. The bass acts as the icing on the cake while the subtle, electronic bits can be seen as an added layer to their solid foundations. The vocal approach (three different vocalists but all four members sing live nowadays) is full of raw strength and unwieldy passion. From high pitched screeches to deep and buried aggression, their palette has a wide variety of colours, mostly shades of black and grey though but you don’t need anything else.

The guitars are loud, heavy, distorted but clean at the same time. The interplay between the two guitarists is always joyous but what they play is downright dark and brooding. Furthermore, the production did wonders to highlight all the instruments in a clear but troubling raw way and I’m glad they took their time to truly craft their songs like they wanted to.

Interestingly enough, they’ve always had an urban approach. While I thought “Vestige” explored the figurative and literal decay found in urbanity, “Vertige” acts as the opposite. It seems to look for the suffering in newer, modern and seemingly intact structures (as seen on the artwork) and that’s a fresh way to grow as a sonic storyteller. This research, reflected through their music, puts them at odds with the rest of atmospheric black metal, often busy contemplating waterfalls and picturesque landscapes. What Basalte declares with their poetic but somber lyrics speaks of neurosis, claustrophobia or apathy. Concepts I personally consider to be related to the city life.

The best bands are often hard to categorize and it’s true here as well. Basalte doesn’t play safe and adds a wide array of other styles to their formula and not just as afterthoughts or sprinkles of “hey listen to our prog metal section!”, it’s integrated within their songs and effectively changed their identity. The main aspect is surely the hardcore presence (“Acouphène” is the best example) but there’s loads of post-whatever (or whatever the hell is “atmospheric sludge”), shoegaze and ambient elements. Regardless of what Basalte play as a genre (it’s ultimately unimportant), there’s nothing faulty, boring or unpleasant on “Vertige”. What’s also worth mentioning is that the Montréal quartet never forgets to unleash the heaviness and riffs, “La sclérose coule dans ses veines” even goes into funeral doom territory with great results.

“Vertige” is a modern masterpiece transcending the outlines of what black metal should be in 2018. I mean, Deafheaven should be opening for ‘em. They’re a revamped, hungry and evolving band that’s pushing the envelope into foreign but exciting directions. Full support.

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Tape release

Malebranche - Enlisé (2017) / 78%

In Movement

The young quartet from Montréal took their time to produce their first release and it was a judicious decision. They went straight to the EP format and did no demos. That’s fine nowadays where it’s entirely possible to get a great sound with ease. That’s something the boys of Malebranche got right on their debut.

In fact, they got a lot of things right. They got their style right, for sure. At first, I wasn’t quite convinced by their approach but it won me over after a while. Their blend of black metal genres is subtle and effective. They include elements of post black metal without never fully embracing it, same for Cascadian atmospheric black metal. Those two sub genres are toppings to the intense, fast paced black metal style of Malebranche. They’re a good representative of the actual Québec black metal scene as they’re removing themselves from the famous aesthetics. Like Basalte, Eos or Entheos, they’re the new wave of like-minded bands who aren’t afraid of exploring other genres.

Their compositions are dense and even though they’re not really lengthy, they’re epic in scope. The riffs are evocative and varied, the vocals obscure and powerful and the drumming strong and above average. Their sound is midway through traditional blistering black metal and the more subdued, prone to ambient side of the genre. A strong debut.

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