The Borgne machine marches again.
Created in 1998 in Switzerland by Bornyhake (vocals/drums/guitar), the project has now released ten albums. The tenth, Temps Morts, comes in 2021 with the help of Lady Kaos (keyboards, ex-Ipsum, live for Asagraum), Basstard (bass, ex-Dynamite Abortion, ex-Kakothanasy) and Onbra (lyrics, Serpens Luminis).
If you’re not familiar with Borgne’s Industrial Black Metal, To Cut the Flesh and Feel Nothing but Stillness will throw you in the middle of this ice-cold and unhealthy universe, populated by warlike and penetrating sonorities. Industrial influences add a majestic dimension to the sound, then a dark ambience is spreaded on The Swords of the Headless Angels, a song on which keyboards have a really important place. The track knows how to be oppressive or sharp, while the worrying outro drives us on cold but catchy sonorities before L’Echo de mon Mal, a quite melancholic song. Stabbing and heady riffs stick to this french voice and this machinal rhythmic, creating a strange ambience that will calm down before a visceral part, then Near the Bottomless Precipice I Stand, a song that picks into Old School influences, strikes next. The composition still offers a heavy and catchy break before the end.
I Drown my Eyes into the Broken Mirror offers some kind of interlude made of quietness and anguish, soft but dark sounds, letting some clean vocals appear before Vers des Horizons aux Teintes Ardentes, the next song. Once again, the drum machine offers a cold sound that contrasts with disturbing and dissonant riffs, then the ambience will turn into soaring sonorities, while Where the Crown is Hidden offers majestic and heavy riffs. The tempo becomes slower, offering sharp harmonics and suffocating vocals, then the catchy Even if the Devil Sings into my Ears Again comes next with this melting of dancing Electro and sharp Black Metal. The sound slowly bursts into fire, giving birth to a both unholy and accessible contrast, then the long Everything is Blurry Now, a nearly fifteen minutes composition, comes to close the album. The sound progressively comes, while being still haunting, coming to some kind of climax before the middle of the song. The second half of the song is very ambient, offering some decompression airlock into the darkness before coming back to our world.
Borgne’s universe is peculiar, this is true. However, Temps Morts is an album that can be as accessible as violent, offering ice-cold and automatic influences, thanks to keyboards and assumed drum machine, but also weighing. In my opinion, it’s the project’s culmination.
90/100