Melting styles together isn’t an uncommon thing in Metal, but Violence Mortuaire’s outcome is surprising.
Created in 2016 by Colt Wiseman (guitar/bass/vocals) and Clément Soubrouillard (drums, Möhrkvlth), two musicians whose improbable alliance could be startling, the band quickly releases an EP in 2017 then focuses on its first full-length. Named Quidam, it brilliantly blends together very opposites styles, such as Screamo, poetry, Black Metal, Jazz or Hardcore for a sound that you’re about to discover now.
Let’s begin this album with sampled cries of Post Coma, a track that won’t make us wait a lot to start. Punctuated with some bursts interrupted by quieter moments, the track moves forward until it comes to a sample that recites a poem, then violent riffs are back. Impossible to precisely qualify this riff hurricane because of the diverse and opposite influences. Sensitively alternating between violent moments with screams, jazzy breaks and sublime poetic verses, we don’t feel the time passing until Post Emergency’s introductive bassdrop. Less wild because less irregular, this track’s rhythmic is sometimes ornated of clean vocals or sharp harmonics, and we can feel the progression until the final note. Post Mortem begins with noises from an electrocardiograph, that brings us to a soft guitar that vanishes with a scream of terror. Still very atmospheric, the band’s music slowly carries us, reminding this underlying violence thanks to deep shouts. The resumption after this extract from the Fables of La Fontaine is plainly transcending. The track halts, goes back, goes quieter…
New ambience with Post Thana and some worrying dark riffs that brings us to a verse recitation from Charles Péguy before a mesmerizing solo. The two men head back on an impressive rhythm part to suddenly fading. Post Burial this time begins with a text from Victor Hugo, but words progressively become weighing, and guitars labor to hold themselves, while the whole rhythmic finally explodes. Jerky, tortured, wicked… Riffs soften with clean vocals on the background, then crushes everything on its way again before slowly dying in the darkness. Way more direct, Post Judgment begins with a sample then attacks with cold and fast riffs that finally morph into some airy notes, drawing a lot on different cymbals, and saturated vocals finally disappear. A kind of interlude.
Don’t panic, wild howls are back on Post Pardon. Once again the rhythmic is fully unleashed, and the few moments where it is restrained are just an excuse for a heavier explosion full of harmonics, jerky riffs and intriguing notes. Some keyboard tones sublimates breaks before the other instruments express themselves, and it’s far too quickly that we lead to Post Break. Really short and atmospheric, this track progressively brings us to a serious and realistic statement before beginning calm riffs that allow us to prepare for the end. So it is religiously that Post Heaven begins, right before a crazy technicity. The band wanted to top it off, and this icy riff that falls upon us is a perfect illustration.
The easiest thing to do with Violence Mortuaire is to let yourself seize into Quidam’s transcending universe, a rich and diversified album. The hardest thing to do is to not hit the replay button once the last track end to attempt to catch once again every shade of their music. An insane project, maybe a bit outlandish, but that works at full power.
80/100