Mal Etre are a Swiss project by Nocturnalpriest, who’s also active with blackened outfits Malvoisie, Baalshamin, Parämnesia and Polish horde Funebrum. After a handful of demos, Mal Etre released a first full length in 2010, Torment, via the great Kunsthauch-label. It was one of the most surprising albums that very same year, I think. This review deals with the second full album, with was released as part of the 99 Screams Series, acting under the banner of Kunsthauch too.
Medication lasts for forty five minutes and is, once again, a blend of different types of sad and angry Music. Opener Slave Of Medical Warfare, for example, mixes elements from Post-Punk with Death Rock and Black Metal. And this approach, as a matter of fact, is the main approach on Medication. Also Gothic and Cold Wave influences return regularly within this experimental album.
My personal favourite on Medication is Dernier Voyage (‘last journey’), which brings mainly atmospheric and melancholic Black Metal with some Ambient excerpts. It’s a track (the longest on this album, by the way, clocking over eleven minutes) that fits mostly to Kunsthauch’s roster. Also the last piece, Schizoïd (with its sic minutes the longest but one composition; all others last in between three and four minutes), is truly great, though at least as schizophrenic (read: schizoid) as the rest of the album.
Unusual, so be warned: listen before buying / stealing…