Meutrières – Meurtrières (2020) / 88%

Heavy Métal Français I

Arrow Through the Heart

If all the French heavy metal bands could be about castles, fortresses and other medieval themes, I’d die a happy man. Meurtrières (that’s the name given to narrow arrow slits on castles) are a new band from Lyon and they rock hard!

The quintet is heavily by the punkier side of NWOBHM (see Di’anno’s Iron Maiden), it’s fast, heavy and aggressive with strong duel guitars. There’s more than just that though, Meurtrières are multifaceted and often are on the same songs like the epic opener “A La Spatha”. In fact, the album starts with its two longest songs (both around six minutes) to prove that they don’t mess around. The second track “Alienor” explores the feminist tale of Aliénor d’Aquitaine and does it with style and panache.

Musically, I feel that the band is very strong. The bass is thick and present more than in your usual heavy metal band (perhaps due to their punk influence) and the drumming is quick like a crossbow machine gun. As it’s the case for most metal bands, the quality of the riffs will define the quality of a release and oh boy, Meurtrières are freaking maniacs. The songwriting is both nuanced and overly to the point.

The vocals of frontwoman Fleur are on fucking point. She sometimes sounds like Annick of Cauchemar but with more power, range and with a definitive punk attitude. I wish the vocals were a bit stronger in the mix though but that’s their debut album so a weaker production can be judged to be acceptable. She sings the historical French lyrics with an urgency I haven’t heard in a while. She keeps the same energy on the slower and rockier closer “La Déferlante”. That castle on the artwork seems hard to reach but I’m sure she’ll manage to find a way!

That first self released extended play kills, as intended. At almost thirty minutes, it’s pretty much a full length already and with some slight improvements here and there, mostly in the production department, they have the potential to be France’s top heavy metal band. I didn’t avoid the arrows fired at me and I’m glad I didn’t. Essential 2020 heavy metal, mes amis.

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Québec Dank Kush Special with Lochness and Marécages

There’s some sort of doom/stoner movement going on in Québec right now with a small scene resurging from the dank abyss to create weed fueled riffs. The doom/stoner vibe from the province was mostly due to Max Tremblay from The Death Wheelers, Strange Broue and Marécages. Tremblay also runs Brouemaster Visual Decay and provides art for many bands, even international ones like Haunt or Idle Hands. He, of course, did the art for both Lochness and Marécages. I like his art, always colourful but also always pretty grim and dark, it’s full of contrasts!

Lochness – Black Smokers (2019)

First Puff - 83%

Lochness, now, eh! The Montréal trio plays slow, thundering doom/stoner with a definite aquatic feel. Composed of Alban Bachand and Mathias two tattoo artists from the Ligne Verte shop (awesome spot!) and Tony Ross from  Aiauasca (also into tattoos!), the power trio really surprised me with the quality of this release. Compared to most doom/stoner, it’s not overlong and it has a distinctive and interesting identity other than the commonly used “blaze it 420” one. Lochness are all about the pressuriezed heaviness of the deep sea and how foreign and alien that mysterious part of the world is. The album starts with a long seven minutes instrumental track that really shows the colours of what the band is all about. They’re not heavily focused on vocals usually (Ross handles both the drums and the vox) and they also dig the use of samples. When there’s vocals, they’re unhinged and they feel like they’re underwater (check out “Alien Deep”), it’s oddly fitting.

The guitars of Fortier are loud and strong and like American traditional tattooing, it’s bold and there to stay as Black Sabbath foretold. Their songwriting is quite loose and natural, their songs are long but busy with riffs. It’s never boring or overly slow and “atmospheric”. They do like repetitiveness though but they’re good enough to achieve a form of riff hypnosis.

All in all, Lochness delivers a compact thirty-five minutes opus full of huge tones. I’m usually bored by most stoner/doom but they had enough originality to distinguish themselves from the pack. I’ll go swim in the Lochness, I hope I’ll see you there.

Lochness on Bandcamp

Marécages - Marais Juana - Une Ode Cannabique (2019)

Second Puff - 4x20=80%

Speaking of Marécages (swamps), their debut EP is literally a brick made of frozen weed. Max Tremblay (The Death Wheelers, Strange Broue) is joined by Seb Dallaire and Christian Labrecque (AKA Crock 0))) haha) both known from grind bands like Fistfuck and Mesrine and together, they had a lot of fun on this release. The artwork is striking and amusing, it’s just a really big frog that would eat if you were small enough. Frogs and toads eat everything, they’re like me at an all you can eat sushi restaurant.

Their song titles are full of portmanteaus like “Cannabysse” and their lyrics are all in French (always happy to see that), it’s massively fun. The opening song “Marais Juana” is also exactly 4:20, hopefully on purpose. Their metal is aggressive, not too dissimilar to the Hochelaga approach of Dopethrone in a way. It’s dirty sludge/stoner/doom with a really thicc groovy bass, riffs made of rusty steel and bludgeoning drumming played by a madman who hasn’t slept in weeks. Their vocals are, of course, harsh as hell and sounds like a resin infested worm in the best way possible. The use of samples about weed and horror movies is also on point, I personally liked the one about krokodil a lot!

The EP is tight and goes hard. It sounds like a big toad rumbling in a swamp looking for some tasty worms and flies. It doesn’t sound like they’re on weed... Well maybe marijuana laced with cocaine, acid and PCP...

Marécages on Bandcamp

Fer de Lance – Colossus (2020) / 85%

Adamantine Axes & Potent Incantations

Formed by strong members of the traditional metal scene, Fer de Lance will knock you from your seat with their epic blend of influences. The trio is composed of Collin Wolf from Smoulder and Olórin, MP of speedsters Moros Nyx and Patrick Gloeckle (Moros Nyx, Satan’s Hallow, High Spirits...), a strong group of adventurers indeed. That debut extended play showcased a band ready to fight for the most lucrative and dangerous contracts available at the local tavern!

The acoustic guitar introduction of “City in the Sea” follows by an instant epic vocal moment proves that this band doesn’t mess around. We get four sings all between four and six minutes. No time to waste here, it’s compact and mighty. An approach I’d say is similar to Italy’s classic Doomsword (where are they by the way!? Their last album is from 2011) with their ballsy and uncompromising attitude towards epic heavy/doom metal. Fer de Lance investigates many eras of epic metal such as the northern shores of Quorthon’s Sweden, the shiny rainbow of Ronnie James Dio without forgetting to explore the deeper cuts like Scald, Solstice, Old Season or Mael Mórdha.

MP is a very strong vocalist with an impressive range and he’s showing his chops here with influences ranging from Dio, Dickinson or Russell Allen. He wrote songs to showcase his abilities and did it very well. There’s impressive choirs throughout the album too and it gives a sense of epic airiness that’s both pleasing and necessary to push the band to the next level. If you don’t lift your fist and sing along, you might listening to the wrong style of music for you.

The highlight for me, besides the vocals, is definitely the interplay between the acoustic (MP) and electric guitars (MP and Wolf). I think I haven’t enjoyed that combination that much since Primordial’s existence. The title track is a good example of such interactions. It adds this Celtic folk touch to their sound and it’s just gorgeous and interesting without ever becoming sugary or the sole focus of their musicality. It’s masterfully produced and recorded too, those guys know what they’re doing and got a veteran in Collin Jordan to master the EP. It just sounds massive.

Fer de Lance is perhaps the strongest epic doom debut EP since... I don’t know? Maybe Capilla Ardiente’s Solve et Coagula or Atlantean Kodex’s stuff before The Golden Bough. Now give me a full length please! Another great signature from Cruz Del Sur, that's for damn sure.

Buy on Bandcamp

Malokarpatan - Krupinské ohne (2020) / 95%

The Peter Statsny of spooky Slavic true metal

Malokarpatan established itself as a force to be reckoned in the true metal underground with Nordkarpatenland released back in 2017 and I was expecting great things with their followup. Due to their departure of their lead singer, someone else from their own lineup filled the spot so no cohesion problem there. I had the chance to see them live when they played the Covenant Festival in Montréal and it just confirmed that there’s something special going on with the Slovakian band. I’ve been listening to this album for months now and it will be hard to beat as far as 2020 releases are concerned. There’s nothing I didn’t like here.

They’re playing what could be hastily described as black/heavy metal but all in all, they’re fairly unique in both spirit and execution. That mix of elements created one of my favorite combination of styles since Demontage’s The Principal Extinction full length. In theory, it might be easy to combine both the atmospheric grasp of black metal and the power of heavy metal riffs and leads but it’s not that simple. There’s the same uncompromising approach to songwriting in Krolok, their “pure” black metal twin brother. Both don’t have to choose being atmosphere and fun, catchy riffing. Anyhow, “Flying Above Ancient Ruins” is also worth your time and has the best artwork for black metal of the decade done by the same artist as Krupinksé Ohne.

They also made things harder for themselves by writing longer songs than before and packing them to the brim. That album has half the songs for the same duration but the mastering and the editing made the record an exploratory and massive masterpiece. We often talk about the third album of a band is important and it’s the case here. I feel it establishes their sound better than ever.

To diversify their classic Czechoslovakian sound recalling Master’s Hammer or Root, Malokarpatan includes a fair share of prog rock recalling Yes or Rush, some folky Slavic overtones and classical music (such as the intro of the album) and it’s wonderful. At times, it feels like listening to a grown up version of Opeth. The leads and riffs flow well, the keyboards are conveniently arranged and placed within the songs. The vocals are cavernous, mysterious and evokes the ugly beauty of Slovakian haunted forests. There’s some clean vocals here and there but the heavy metal aspect of the band is built within the instrumental aspect of their identity.

Unlike most bands trying their hands at long songs or at mixing metal genres together, their transitions between the slow and the fast, the heavy and the light are done effortlessly. The fourth song “Filipojakubská noc na Štangarígel” starts with a contemplative introduction before transitioning into a At the Heart of Winter-esque attack on your senses. Like their spooky artwork showcasing some sort of devilish confused warlock, Malokarpatan is an eccentric entity full meticulous homages to what makes metal so peculiar and great. The album is a resounding success and essential album to start the decade with.

Buy the album on Bandcamp

Death the Leveller – I (2017) / 82%

Balanced and potent formula

I was intrigued to see that Cruz Del Sur were gonna release the debut album of Death the Leveller in March 2020 so I went back to check their 2017 EP to get myself ready. Doom metal? Check. Best traditional metal label in the world? Check. Buddies of the best metal band in the world (Primordial)? Check. I was excited to hear this. Formed by the instrumental core of Mael Mórdha, a band I’ve heard a decade ago but forgot about, Death the Leveller dismissed the folk elements of their former band and decided to explore the bleakness that doom can convey.

I was pretty much sold the moment I saw the artwork combined with the epic track lengths of that “extended play”. I mean, it’s almost forty minutes of music divided within four songs... Plenty of meat on the bone. The quartet has this compelling dark aesthetic that’s really appealing to me as far as doom metal goes. I knew what to expect with that skeleton holding a balance and I wasn’t disappointed. I guess they could be compared to Dread Sovereign, Alan Averill’s doom metal side project but I’ve found them more interesting. “All Hell’s Martyrs” was a disappointment for me and I think I haven’t heard their followup yet. The thought of a doom metal Primordial was intriguing and Death the Leveller kind of filled that need.

The vocals of Denis Dowling have the same passion and intensity as Averill’s but they’re also cleaner and more rooted in pure heavy metal. Robust singing all around here. Really memorable, in fact. The ending of the last track “How to Track Pernicious Spells” made me shiver. The instrumentation is pretty pristine and the production sis top notch, they’re veteran musicians after all, that’s obvious enough. They're super good at building crescendos, creating tensions and just using their extended song structures efficiently.

The songs are all pretty much nine to ten minutes but they’re filled to the brim with riffs and they’re not what I’d call slow either. “Gone Forever” has insanely good riffing till the end of its duration. I’d say that Death the Leveller plays some sort of melancholic, atmospheric doom metal which isn’t too far away from what traditional doom can be at times. Bands like Warning, Mirror of Deception or The River navigates the sad waters of depressive doom but there's many more mysterious islands to discover. Death the Leveller definitely has a boat with several oarsmen since they’re constantly active, constantly bludgeoning and constantly interesting throughout the forty minutes duration. I’m turning thirty in like two months and long albums can be a drag to listen to nowadays so I’m hoping their album isn’t seventy minutes! Just like Primordial, you come out emotionally drained after spinning them.

It’s intense without being abrasive, dark without being shallow and trite, epic and complex without being syrupy. I’m quite stoked for what’s to come.

Bandcamp

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.

Bandcamp

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...)

Bandcamp