Pelagic Records releases Consolamentum, the new album by French Avant-garde/Doom/Film Metal band Year Of No Light. The line-up consists of Bertrand Sebenne, Shiran Kaidine, Mathieu Megement and Pierre Anouilh. This marks their 20th anniversary as a band. They have released five studio albums, several split EPs and a collaboration with Belgian composer Dirk Serries from the Live At Roadburn recordings. Consolamentum describes the sacrament, the initiation ritual of the Catharic Church which thrived in Southern Europe in the 12th – 14th century. Past releases include a new soundtrack for the 1932 horror movie Vampyr. These new songs are grim medieval scanarios befitting having once performed in a 17th Century fortress in the Carpathian mountains. As the band explains: "We wanted intensity, trance, climax and threat, all of them embedded in a bipolar and mournful ethos..."

We begin with 'Objuration'. Space noise and bass Electronica creates an opening outré background which would fit well in a hard science fiction movie. A fuzzy rumble heralds the introduction of drums and a full sound akin to Doom Metal. A heavy plodding pace and effects-driven guitars and keyboards. A branching point is created at the halfway point of this 12-minute plus track. It is atmospheric to a point, and jumps out of its rut later in the instrumental, before continuing with a progression on the earlier sections. 'Aletheia' has a hollow trebly intro which is grounded by the bass and the inclusion of overseeing synthesisers. It builds mainly through the drum pattern. The thrash of the full band taking over comes as a relief. I like this moment which emerges into a disgruntled gallop. It has much more urgency than the opener.

'Interdit aux Vivan' returns to the slow and methodical rumble of Doom. Some of the riffs in this are straight out of the Black Sabbath hymnbook. A rising drumroll finally offers some changes in pace and melody. A frantic chaos sees out the track. 'Realgar' is a little more refined, but it’s a ruse of soaring deep bass, fuzz and noises mediated by Electronica and grating light guitar lines. 'Came' is keyboard-led amidst a sea of downbeat sounds. It has a sense of melancholia about it. The first half is probably the most accessible example on this release.

I do normally appreciate this sub-genre of Metal, but the truth is these tracks are almost indistinguishable from each other, and I’d be hard-pressed to identify which is which in retrospect. A good idea would have been to mix these all together under one title and intersplice it with psychedelic sounds and a narrated story which returns periodically to a common hook. I would have liked much more diversity of sound and melody, as I can’t see myself returning for a second listen. Avid Doom and Sorrow followers may feel differently.

4

Ty Power