I am not going to sum up all Quebecois bands and projects I do like, because it would be a waste of time for everyone involved (you as reader, and I as writer), but I did mention it a thousand times before: the Black Metal scene out there is TOP! Métal Noir, as one might call it… And one of the most outstanding projects is called Sombres Forêts, a solo-outfit by a guy called Annatar. This guy had a side-project a while ago, called Miserere Luminis, in collaboration with both members of Gris. These guys, Icare and Neptune, are the live collaborators for Sombres Forêts, by the way, and very recently Concreteweb updated the review on the new Gris-album, À L’Âme Inflammée …, done by undersigned (see March 5th 2014), also released via Sepulchral Recordings.
La Mort Du Soleil, which means ‘death of the sun’, is the third Sombres Forêts-full length studio album (after Quintessence and Royaume De Glace), lasting for more than fifty minutes. And for the better part it goes on in the vein of the former efforts. This is a rather classical inspired form of introvert Black Metal with lots of Underground-oriented elements (the sound included). But more than ever before, this new album dwells in spheres of tragedy, melancholy and intimacy. Just like aforementioned Gris-album, La Mort Du Soleil rather caresses the borders with the Lupus Lounge / Prophecy-roster. The interaction in between harsher Black Metal aggression and integer acoustic passages is, once again, in extremely intelligently symbiosis. So is the balance in between the different emotions at the one hand, and the tempo at the other, though the focus is not based on high-speed brutality (at all). Add the Pagan and Ambient elements, the Post-Rock/Black and Neo-Folk details, the wretched, painful vocals, the use of piano and the (semi-) acoustic intermezzos on top of a certain philosophically-inspired misanthropic spirituality, and you might have a clue about the essence, the core of this raison d’être. Despite its beauty, it reveals nothing but ugliness…
A perfect mixture of Gris, Forteresse (and other Sepulchral-rostered Québec-based acts), Arcana Coelestia, Drudkh, Woods Of Desolation, Vinterriket, Nattfog, Lustre and even Burzum…
[note from myself to myself: I do prefer both former albums, even though this one does touch me; but of course it isn’t but a personal opinion evidently…]