Prophecy Productions is a German based label that is focused on more of your ambient, atmospheric music, though they don’t limit their releases to purely metallic offerings. There’s some cool acoustic stuff in their coffers to go hand in hand with the darkened black metal material that I seem to keep gravitating towards. What excites me the most about this outfit is the quality of the products that their putting out for us music fans and collectors! Sure, they have your standard fair of CD and digipak releases, but they’re mixing that up with 12” vinyl, split EP’s, and fantastic looking CD art books that highlight the visuals as they pertain to the music. Three bands have burrowed their way into the darker recesses of my brain, Alcest, Les Discrets, and Negură Bunget. All have a similar dark atmospheric sound going on, but once you delve deeper into the sounds permeating from these platters, you should soon find that there are wonderfully subtle, yet striking differences between each band.
Alcest - Écailles De Lune
It’s like this. You take all those shoegazers who started creeping their uncertain and unconfident way onto stages across the globe in the 90’s, and then, introduce them to Satan. Okay. It’s not exactly like that, but the gist is there. Alcest play a style of black metal (though I hate to pigeon-hole them into that category) that I’ve found completely infectious because it’s filled with so much ambiance and hauntingly gothic melody, and their creation of this music never goes where I expect it to go. One second, I’m expecting blastbeats galore, but they drop whispering guitar strains instead. Or when I am expecting a sound more along the lines of walking around moonlit lake shore, I’m greeted with an explosive discharge of torment vocals and violent guitars. Écailles De Lune is a complex listen, but somehow, comes across as being very natural. None of the material feels forced and none of the tonal changes sound all that out of place. The album comes across as the guys from Isis having a midnight snack with Quorthon (Bathory) while listening to early Smashing Pumpkins. Huge waves of droning sound working in contrast with the darkened black metal blasts of evil, and then simply drifting into atmospheric passages that, under the influence of the right illicit substances, would completely lift the listener out of themselves.
On the first two tracks of the album, “Écailles De Lune, Part I & II,” Alcest work these musical combinations to perfection. Kicking off the album with moments of melodic trance-y sort of stuff, our heads bobbing in time with the music, our bodies swaying with the flow of sound, all while we have our eyes firmly fixed on the floor. Then, all of those beautiful melodic textures are kicked to the side and replaced by blastbeats and the band is off on an expedition of sonic exploration. The album closes with “Sur L’ocean Couleur de Fen,” which roughly translates (and mind you, my French is rusty) to “Ocean the Color of Iron.” This tune is a spectacular epic of a song that absolutely teleports the listener to a far away seashore, watching as the darkened waves peak and topple of one another, all working their way to pound against the sand and rock of the shore line. The music roils like the open Atlantic, never calm for more than a few moments before the waves lurch us into a life and death struggle against nature. A little over eight minutes in running time, “Ocean” is a song to experience. If you listen to just one song from Alcest, make sure this is the one. Ultimately, you’ll find the sound to be so compelling that you’ll go back and listen to this whole album. www.myspace.com/alcestmusic
Les Discrets - Septembre Et Ses Dernières Pensées
Along the lines of Alcest’s more melodic moments, Prophecy Productions has delivered us Les Discrets and their latest album entitled Septembre Et Ses Dernières Pensées. This ten track opus is a beautifully majestic piece of ear candy, filled with lush acoustic guitars, ambient guitar passages, and soaring melodies . . . basically, it’s another album that has the power to teleport you, the listener, to faraway lands and potentially leaving you there to wander along the sonic landscape. Every time that I’ve put this disc on, I’ve been able to completely tune out everything around me, which just pleases my wife to no end. There’s sarcasm in that last line. So beware, reader . . . when listening to this album, there’s a good chance that you’ll become so engrossed in the music that you’ll forget about picking up the kids from school, pulling the casserole from the oven before it burns, or even bathing. Even though I don’t understand the lyrical content of this album (it’s all sung in French,) I find that I’m drawn in and clinging to every word. Septembre Et Ses Dernières Pensées is just another testament to the universal appeal of music. Like math, music is a language that transcends borders and cultures.
Though absolutely enthralling as an album, I found myself even more transfixed to the palette of sounds around the mid-point of the disc, particularly with the fifth track, “Sur Les Quaint” and “Effet De Nuit.” The former is sorrowful sounding song powered equally by the sparkling acoustic guitars strumming out the rhythm and the engaging dual vocals. The break in the middle of the song is a nice touch, as the finger picked arpeggios flutter through the listener’s conscious, and then as the plaintive guitar solo echoes from the speakers, you can practically feel some tortured soul tugging softly on the heart. The voices are highly emotive and their performance is executed to perfection. “Effet De Nuit,” on the other hand, shows a different side of the band. Opening with a wall of shimmering cymbals and distorted guitars, this song has an Opethian vibe to it. Dark and sorrowful, the vocals croon in their haunting way, and as the acoustic guitars enter the mix, a sad melody lilts through the more cacophonic din. It’s a brilliantly crafted song, full of tortured emotions and strong musicality. Rays of hope begin to shimmer through the dark clouds of the rest of this album just as this set begins to close. “Une Maintee D’hiver” reminds me of Joshua Tree-era U2 in the way that the music begins to feel orchestrated and uplifting, almost like there’s been a rebirth of our collective outlook on life. Septembre Et Ses Dernières Pensées is a truly spectacular album. www.myspace.com/lesdiscrets
Negură Bunget - Măiestrit
I got to thinking while I was listening to this album that I really know very little about the country of Romania. After knowing that Romania is in Europe, I’m out. Well, now I know about Negură Bunget, which apparently means something like the black fog that comes from the forest in the Romanian tongue. Măiestrit, which translates to ‘masterly’, is a re-recording of 2000’s Măiastru Sfetnic and showcases the bands folk-y, experimental black metal sounds. Upon listening to this album, I’m immediately reminded of Below the Lights-era Enslaved. It’s dark and imposing, but there are fantastic elements of melody and mystery interweaved within the strains of despair. The music on Măiestrit has an organic and natural feel to it, not overly orchestrated or planned out, but almost like a knee-jerk reaction to life. There’s a skin crawling haunting quality to this album, almost the feeling one might get while walking alone through a dark forest, constantly feeling like you’re being watched . . . shadows skittering from tree to tree, leaves softly rustling when there is no wind, the disorienting feeling of the higher mountain altitudes and the evening chill burning the lungs . . . y’know, all that creepy stuff of being alone in a dark forest.
“In-zvicnirea Apusului” is one of those songs that can make the casual metal fan rethink what their stance on black metal. This is one of those near progressive musical pieces that has so much going on in the context of the song and the song relies on every instrument in holding it together. To remove one instrument from the song would have the composition crumble to floor. I love the mix on this as well! One guitar can be heard droning along in one speaker, creating a base for the rest of the music to build, while in the other speaker a second guitar provides staccato bursts of distortion, giving the song an even more imposing feel to it. “Al Locului” walks along a similar path as the aforementioned song, but this one feels more immediate in its threat to overall health and well being. Catching my attention the most, besides the dual guitar attack, was the ambient swells of keyboards in the back and foreground. This song is more psychologically heavy than it is musically heavy. Though there are a lot of notes flying this way and that, the song never feels so dense that it becomes a detriment. Complex, yes. Pay close attention to the outstanding guitar work towards the last half of the song. That, my friends, is why I listen to this stuff! www.myspace.com/negurabunget
Of further note, Prophecy Productions is releasing the Negură Bunget’s Măiestrit and Les Discrets’ Septembre Et Ses Dernières Pensées is a unique 56 page picture art book format. They’re hardcover and filled with original photographs and art work that coincides with the albums, and look to be a collector’s wet dream. Check these photos out! www.prophecyproductions.de
- Pope JTE
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