vote
7.0
- Bands:
CANTIQUE LEPREUX - Duration: 00:43:26
- Available from: 03/29/2024
- Label:
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Eisenwald Tonschmiede
It is a fairly well-established fact that there is a Canadian black metal scene that revolves around the names of Forteresse and Sorcier Des Glaces, plus a host of other more or less impromptu and famous groups. It is a little less known, however, that there are also other forms of more restricted musical aggregation, that is, small real communities of bands that share members and in some way artistic and ideological instances. We are talking, in this case, about what is defined as “Metal Noir Quebecois”, a sort of geographically defined scene that revolves around Forteresse and the many projects connected to them, as well as the Messe Des Morts festival and Sepulchral Productions .
It is quite evident that this community of artists of the so-called ‘Metal Noir’ certainly shares an ideological substratum linked to the territory and traditions – with probably also political nuances – as in the case of this return of Cantique Lépreux, returning after two albums dated 2016, 2018 and a 2021 EP.
We had forgotten about them a bit, we admit, in the continuous avalanche of releases on the market. In their return, “”Le bannissement”, the founding elements of ‘Metal Noir Quebecois’ emerge immediately: the naturalistic and romantic artwork, the French language, the clean but not too clean sounds, the abundant tremolo in the riffing, the narrativity of the texts (this time dedicated to the story of a young woman kidnapped, then forced to wander and explore the world independently, in a story of symbolic self-discovery).
If the connections linked to the album itself were not enough, we are talking about the band of Matrak, bassist of Forteresse and recently also active in Délétère and of Cadavre, live drummer of Forteresse themselves. At this point, what remains is to evaluate their performance through the scant forty-five minutes proposed and the seven compositions, all of affordable length, apart from “Rivières Rompues”, which reaches nine.
Certainly, “Le bannissement” is not a boring album, given that it is well played and above all tastefully arranged (the drums’ subtleties, especially on the cymbals, are many), but after repeated listening it turns out to be a little too monolithic and is very difficult to remember this or that song, with the exception of the most substantial in terms of time, namely “Rivières Rompues”, which manages to contain a bit of everything: acoustic and electric parts, sustained tempos alternating with more reflective ones and the lines better vocals in our opinion. The rest is very pleasant, but decidedly unoriginal and we struggled to note this or that specific characteristic of the songs. Everything, among other things, is strongly characterized by the Forteresse model, which remains a step higher in pathos and epicness.
Overall it is a welcome return, but it remains without a spark that will be remembered for a long time, despite commitment and good intentions. In ‘Metal Noir Quebecois’ there are ‘also’ Cantique Lépreux, in short. To remove the word ‘also’, you need the word ‘more’.
