L’Homme Absurde – Belong (Past-Black Metal)

 

I’m trying to figure out why it’s so easy to like post-black metal. It seems the morphing of classic aesthetic into a dreary, introspective void just works somehow. But this type of direction has been around so long can we even call it post anymore? It’s like past-black metal now. Therein is the current issue. Laying out that post requires vision. The majority only experiment, they lack expression. All black metal has a painfulness to it, but the post type is even more languid. This is now becoming such a standard it needs new life before it, too, is a niche audience stuck in its own past. L’Homme Absurde vary their approach somewhat, and they’re definitely not typical enough to annoy me and contradict this entire intro, but they are like many imitators of what came before. A sample is below.

   

Belong is past-black metal defined, but there are certainly positive elements. L’Homme Absurde provide the genre-bending you expect. All of the raw, inward emotion, the beautiful acoustic sections, and, real key here, the vocal balance. You’ve got your heart-broken throat, your plaintive calls, etc. So what’s the problem? The problem is this is stock for post-black metal by now, which is what makes it past-metal. They add a little more energy than most, but that begins to verge into core territory, which is where I don’t want to be. They’re distant enough from it, though. L’Homme Absurde do exactly what they need to and this is far from a condemnation, since there is clear progression from their last, and rather stale full-length, Sleepless. Should they want to move ahead in the gradually suffocating field, however, they’re going to need to find something unique in themselves, and that’s the hardest task of all. This one drops January 17th 2020.

 

L’Homme Absurde Official Facebook

Written by Stanley, Devourer of Souls

L’Homme Absurde –  Belong
Self-Released
Photography – Anastasia Rodina
3.8 / 5