Cainan Dawn is back with a fourth album.
Created in 2003, the French band composed of Heruforod (guitar/vocals, Allobrogia, ex-Maieutiste), Keithan (bass, Barús, Maieutiste), Avgruun (guitar, Himinbjorg, ex-Allobrogia) and Kloct (drums, Kloct, Ohio Slamboys, South of Hell, ex-Allobrogia) announces the release of Lagu in 2022 by Osmose Productions.
The album starts with Nun, an introduction which gradually reveals its oppressive and dark sounds before releasing Myctophidae, a track with melodious but Old School heady and suffocating tonalities. The band creates some fascinating fog from which screams escape, offering this stifled rage a heavy and mystical atmosphere before the more soaring final lets Y’ha-Nthlei offers more raw, colder and more mysterious influences. The track lets bass weave the melodies under this wave of saturation while screams easily trap us, letting Okeanos revive the throbbing oppression with dissonant and cold melodies. A few clean vocal parts find their way into the track’s dark rage, which sometimes calms down to reveal more majestic elements while remaining in this as heavy as soothing atmosphere, then Atlantis floods us again with fast and hazy riffs. The band easily takes us into their universe while accelerating or slowing down the rhythmic to place sometimes quiet, sometimes more lively melodies, creating an impressive contrast before the sound drives us to Septima and its marine introduction. The waves will call Black Metal’s fury as well as the its saturation’s quietness, creating an inseparable and complementary couple which will overwhelm us thanks to its growing intensity which will explode before the end and continue on Apnea, the following track, which will succeed in channeling the hurricane to give it as worrying as melodious sounds. Lagu, the eponymous and instrumental track, will offer ambient tonalities before the saturated riffs appear again to reveal melodious and haunting tones, then Profundum, the last composition, lets a soaring and dissonant introduction bewitch us before the sound ignites again, revealing all the intensity of heartbreaking melodies.
Rooted in Old School sounds, Cainan Dawn makes us sail between haunting melodies and dark ambiences on Lagu. Unfortunately, the band remains rather unknown in the French landscape, but I think that this album will improve things.
90/100
