Artist: Smohalla
Title: Resilience
Genre: Post Black Metal
Release Date: 13th October 2011
Label: Arx Productions
Album Review
SMOHALLA is a French Post Black Metal band, formed in 2006. In the same year, they released a demo entitled ‘Smolensk Combustion’ and it is five years later that their first full-length ‘Resilience’ is finally published. The first song ‘Quasar’ presents a dark, piano-striven and gloomy introduction to the album, after which ‘Au sol les toges vides’ takes over. This song demonstrates a mid-tempo track and at this point, the genre description ‘Post Black Metal’ starts to get vague and dissatisfying. SMOHALLA’s music includes so many different and contrasting elements, that it is hard to pinpoint a certain style. ‘Au sol les toges vides’ includes harsh vocals, cleaner sung elements, atonal phrases, synthesizer, up-tempo, down-tempo - and it is only after several listens that one begins to understand the complex music’s structure. ‘Le repos du Lezard’ continues in that manner - slow, full of tension and eerie atmosphere, unusual melodic modulations, dissonant elements and using various electronic effects.
‘Marche silencieuse’ (March in silence) lacks, as the title suggest, of vocal-uses and furthermore, parallels to bands like BLUT AUS NORD or later ULVER cannot be denied, although SMOHALLA definitely create a very unique style and atmosphere. ‘L’homme et la brume’ remarks a comparable harsh song, due to the rather brutal and violent vocals, whilst ‘Aux mille dieux’ starts off in an almost epic, march-like way, at times reminding me of certain ‘Emperor’ periods. Furthermore, ‘Resilience’ includes spoken passages, jazz or even blues-like harmonies and often, a psychedelic, spacey mood is conveyed through all this. In general, the album is very unique and full of small-details, which combine to a symphony of illusions, delusions and fascination. A huge amount of open-mindedness is needed to indulge into this work and it surely is very difficult to approach. Yet, the more one turns into the world of SMOHALLA, the more intense the experience gets and ‘Resilience’ offers unequalled opportunities.
Tracklist
01. Quasar
02. Au sol les toges vides
03. Le repos du Lezard
04. Oracle rouge
05. Marche silencieuse
06. L'homme et la brume
07. Aux mille dieux
08. Nos sages divisent
Line-up
Slo- Guitars / Drums / Vocals / Keyboards
Camille - Bass
Website
http://smohalla.free.fr / http://www.myspace.com/smohalla
Cover Picture
Rating
Music: 9
Sound: 9
Extras: -
Total: 9 / 10
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