|
I have never been one to care about lyrics. Having that always in mind, I couldn’t avoid paying attention to the vocals in the first cut of this self-titled album. Finally, there is a black metal record where I can decipher the full lyrics of a song. The track in question is titled “Marie”, lasts over five minutes and goes something like this, ‘aaaaarrrggghhh, aaaarrggghhh, aaarrrggghh, arrggghh.' I think I may be missing a couple of lines, but you get the idea.
What I am trying to say (poorly) is that the vocals are excruciatingly painful. As they should, this is black metal after all. But they are also one sided and monotonous to no end. The man at the mike simply goes by B. and he can scream like a viking warrior enjoying his fudge, but as strained as his throat might have gotten after this recording (and this should have taken plenty of work and sweat), his are the parts that ground this offering and make it rarely enjoyable.
The music fares better. Albeit, it mostly sounds also stiff, fairly monotonous and quite soulless. In contrast to what opposite bands like Alcest and Wolves in the Throne Room are doing, here the dynamics are kept to a minimum. There are no bent notes nor soft changes. No transition but radical juxtapositions. The skill is obviously there, so this must have been intentional, but each track in this album is delivered with such mechanized spirit it is hard to get a grasp on. There are the rare glimpses into otherworldly black metal but these are rare and far between. The start of “Excerpt from the 5th Canto” is an example, but then Bosse-De-Nage soldier on. One beat, one scream, one riff. It is just repeated ad nauseum.
Bosse-de-Nage is a secretive four piece from the Bay Area. First there were two demos and then this self-titled which was recorded in a single day session in 2007. I became acquainted with it over six months ago when I downloaded it from the blog Cosmic Hearse. It is just now that Flenser Records is giving it a proper release. It has been on sporadic rotation on my Ipod for months and I must confess, when taken in small doses it is quite satisfying. As a whole it leaves me cold.
Official Site
|
|
