Regarde Les Hommes Tomber | website | facebook | bandcamp |
Released on September 19, 2015 via Les Acteurs de l'Ombre Productions
There’s nothing new under the sun, right? Coalesce used that line to name their Led Zeppelin covers album, so it must be true. While I don’t entirely agree with that, I do think that there is invention in combination of ideas and genuine wonder in witnessing a combination of ideas when it’s done really, really well.
French band Regardes Les Hommes Tomber (translation – ‘Watch Men Fall’) bring a mixture of extreme styles to the fore on their sophomore record Exile, including touches of death, sludge, black, hardcore and ‘post‘ and create a thoroughly exciting blend of noise that feels entirely their own, but with familiar touchpoints aplenty. The reference catalogue is broad – there’s touches of the scale of Amenra and Cult of Luna, the atmospheric feel of Altar of Plagues, the brutality and structure of Behemoth, the thundering oppression of Thou… so far, so generic, right? The trick is in how the band have combined the sounds and the ideas, and made them into a cohesive whole.
There are no shortcuts here; the black metal parts feel like authentic black metal fresh from a Norwegian forest, the post sections sound huge and beautiful and the riffy, blackened hardcore sections sound suitably harsh, the magic is in how these disparate components are combined and transitioned cleverly to create a journey that peaks and troughs, lifts carefully before carelessly throwing down hard and sustains momentum right until the final strains. Make no mistake, this record is brutal and oppressive, but there’s an almost symphonic beauty to it; it’s a stunning, engrossing, layered and perfectly poised album, and this seems almost totally at odds at just how damn ugly it can be.
Exile opens gently with ‘L’Exil’, a slow build instrumental track that comprises a lovely progression that starts from nothing and gradually increases in intensity as the song progresses, until it reaches a full on black metal crescendo in the last minute. It’s a powerful start, almost acting as a palate cleanser and preparing the listener, getting them into the right headspace for the onslaught to come. ‘A Sheep Among The Wolves’ is the first song proper, a seven minute rager that blasts out of the door at full intensity, before dropping into a glorious blackened hardcore riff that really allows vocalist Thomas full reign with his raspy vocal style. The song drops into a quiet section driven by fuzzed-up bass, before building the intensity again.
‘Embrace The Flames’ follows, all rage and fury, and does not take the foot from the pedal throughout. It sounds like what I would imagine Converge to sound like if they’d been brought up on black metal rather than hardcore. Yes, it’s that good, all dissonance and volume; one long peak and real highlight for the album. A two part song follows, with interlude ‘They Came’ bringing the intensity down with a sparse instrumental post-rock feel; the restraint in stripping down and holding off any percussion makes the sudden pay-off transition into the big riffs and blackened brutality of ‘…To Take Us’ all the more powerful. ‘Thou Shall Lie Down’ brings a big sludge influence to the fore, slowing down the pace slightly to a more mid-tempo feel, but maintaining the intensity by virtue of volume and groove. When the more blackened tones start slipping in around the riffs about three quarters of the way through, it’s an almost religious experience.
The crowning glory of the album though, is closer ‘The Incandescent March’, a genuine combination of all of the influences displayed throughout the album, with it’s beautiful post-rock styled introduction, almost d-beat hxc bridge, out and out thundering black metal verses and crushing sludge extended middle eight into a brutal final section that build to a massive crescendo. It’s a wonderful noise; that does not feel at all as long as its 11 minute run-time, all beautifully rendered in a production that is clear, but dirty enough to fit the songs.
A special note should be made of the artwork as well; a wonderfully detailed painting adorns the front cover – I know this because I’m so fantastically late with my review I’m actually reviewing the vinyl copy I went out and bought….
Overall this is a stunning addition to the collection of any modern metal fan. This record takes a melting pot of extreme metal influences and melds them expertly to create a coherent, cohesive and emotionally affecting whole which feels like a genuine journey from start to finish. By turns brutal and beautiful, it’s a record that will stay with you long after the final strains ring out.
