2024 brought us our share of French Black Metal already. Seth and Corpus Diavolis are just two of them. Powerful occult Black Metal pieces that will beat the fear of Lucifer into you. Some of it is presented in French, no less. An attribute that the RMR crew has trouble resisting. Extreme Metal works best in that specific language. Latin-based, Luciferian, just good. Even if Satan – apparently – resides somewhere in London.
But we got ourselves other flavors, too. A band bizarrely named Ecr.Linf1 offers an equally bizarre Black and Post Black Metal fest. Belluaires struggles against – and I quote – “…obscurantism…”,2 drawing “…its essence from dark hours.”3 A band leading a “…philosophical and (mis)anthropic battle…”, letting loose that “…last desperate cry of a rotten humanity.” Wow, a metal band on a mission. That’s some disturbingly dystopian and utterly negative view of the world. The question will be: Whose rotten humanity is it?4 But whatever the answer may be, the music stemming from such powerful emotions should rock us back on our haunches. Right? Or will we just be faced with some pseudo-intellectual wankery with no substance? Let the metal speak.
The Belluaires allegedly were some sort of gladiators facing off ferocious animals. Or, failing that, the guys tending to said beasts. And like the ‘morituri’ on display here, Ecr.Linf let loose with a vengeance – in French yet again. These guys ride into battle with the belligerent sounds of Black Metal, Post Black, Blackened Doom, and a riot of Hardcore incursions slathered prominently all across the soundscape. And often, noize and unholy dissonant urges usurp the great flow of majestic Black Metal. And why not?
To seize the day and enjoy a little whiff of red-capped revolutionaries of a long time ago, the dreaded accordion suddenly rings out at times (La Danse Des Crânes, Dance of the Skulls). All of that soars forth on warlike French lyrics often expressed in best banlieue fashion, some hidden hip-hop vibes included.5 But the careless metal wiolence of grandiose, meat-filled riffs and brutal leads just takes the cake. And to round this up, the terrible roar of the drums continues to mete out cruel punishment on the unsuspecting metalhead, deserved or not. Not to forget the anguished screams, violent barks and snarls, and the raspy vile monologues that cap the wicked and strangely Alcest-y messaging on offer. Revolution writ large, deploring today’s sorry state of affairs. That kind of thing.
In the end, though, Belluaires promises great things in a grandiose fashion full of bombast and bluster. Yet, despite all the screaming and the overly dense shenanigans, I still hungered for more. For a finish that, somehow, never came. Not many of the tracks really convinced the grouches of the Review Desk. To elaborate some, more tracks of the ilk of the great Valetaille or – perhaps – La Danse des Crânes should have graced our earphones. And where abominations such as Feu Pâle should add value still is utterly beyond me.
But it is indeed a perceived unholy urge to be different, to make out more than others before them that became the record’s greatest enemy. In other words, there’s enough monstrous and savagely bigger-than-thou drama to fill two records. Yet, the glue holding it together, the flourish to take this record further, the snazzy songwriting to kick it up a few notches, that one step further is still missing.
Belluaires rips, it screams and bellows, it loudly (and grandly) bemoans the failings of “…a rotten humanity…”. And it will sound great on stage, perfect to rile up a crowd to a rabid frenzy. But as emotions go, to get the message through viscerally, to talk to people’s souls on a primeval level, it still has work to do.
Until we meet again.
Record Rating: 5/10 | Label: My Kingdom Music | Web: Official Band Site
Release Date: 22 March 2024