Au Sacré Des Nuits were formed as Destroying Monumentum in 2005 by Necrophelinthron and Nihil (both involved with e.g. Abske Fides or Shyy). This São Paulo-based act released a couple of demos before recording their debut Anti Humain. The album was originally released in July 2009 via defunct Beneath The Fog Productions, though in a very limited edition of fifty copies only. Somewhat later Kunsthauch re-released the material in a bigger circulation of 1,000 copies.
Quite strange is the use of the French language. The mother tongue of the project is Portuguese, but titles and lyrics, as well as the project’s moniker, are in French. One note however: there is some incorrect spelling from time to time, but I’d like to call it artistic freedom ;-)
Anyway, that is not the only thing that is unusual. The whole album is of a mostly bizarre kind. The six tracks last for fifty minutes, varying from four to more than twelve minutes; what a contrast it is, not. Anti Humain (‘anti human’) opens with Le Prisme De Apollon Captivé (means something like ‘the prism of fascinated Apollo’), which starts with (church) bells and an Oriental female voice, eerie synths and some bizarre sounds. Then, suddenly, after forty seconds, the songs explodes into a mostly violent onslaught, a bombastic, fiery and oppressive Black-eruption with sulphuric vocals, blasting riffs and a heavy-as-f*ck rhythm section. Enter minute # two, turning the whole thing into a weird mixture of background noises, dissonant acoustic guitar lines, and tribal percussion, before transforming into a droning mass with semi-acoustic guitars, some cosmic synths, and a very slow sludgy rhythm section (and don’t forget those icy screams!). Enter minute # 4, which makes the whole turn into an industrialized, slightly Post-Black sounding mid-tempo piece with a skull-pulvering sound… Somewhat later, church bells and chimes, a vocal soundscape, industrial noises, xylophone… Got the picture? Don’t worry. Neither do I… Next ‘song’, La Pulsion Dévore (‘the drive devours’) (with its four minutes the shortest piece on this album), is an instrumental one, based on sober piano lines, with some background sounds and, towards the end, the sweet noise of artillery fire, exploding bombs and flying bombers. Avec Les Forces D’Un Amour Inane (‘with the power of a love …’ – and then I’m lost; what’s inane about?) brings more Black-oriented Drone / Noise material. After a couple of minutes there’s even a funky bass line and jazzy drum patterns showing up, little later also followed by samples from, I guess, a movie, with a woman’s voice screaming from a terrific experience, female whispers, etc. The last minutes of this track are based on great melodic, yet still slightly dissonant guitar riffs, once again with a colossal rhythm section to support the darkness, before turning into some kind of traditional-folksy piece with accordion (!). Sur Résilience (‘upon resilience’) is the longest-but-one composition on Anti Humain (11:29 minutes of length) and the most Black-oriented one, yet of course not without an overload on mostly distinctive, unusual additions. Faillite (‘bankruptcy’ or ‘failure’) initially is a very hypnotic and ominous Dark Ambient piece, and as from half of the song it gets joined by elements from Noise and Industrial, including mostly tortured vocals. And finally there’s the longest experience (12:30”) on Anti Humain, Le Videment De Tout Les Sens (which can be translated like ‘the emptying of all senses’), which starts in an acoustic way (but don’t think it sounds like a sweet Folk-interlude!), then turns into a Funeral Doom-inspired piece, and after seven minutes there is another excerpt of purest Noise, that softly morphs into a unique symbiosis of mesmerizing sounds and grim, creepy voices.
With Anti Humain, Au Sacré Des Nuits bring a perverted orgy for aural pleasure, a kind of symbiosis in between Abruptum, Shining, Chaos Echoes and Kaula. After three listens I still do not comprehend the whole concept, but each time I am getting deeper into the bizarre world of this Brazilian act. But I am sure the public that truly adores this record will be limited to a handful of sick-minded (anti human) beings. But count me in…