Limbes comes out of nowhere again to offer us his new album.
Created in 2014 under the name Blurr Thrower in France by Guillaume Galaup (all instruments/vocals, Rance), the musician released a first EP before signing to Les Acteurs de l’Ombre Productions, then unveiling an album in 2021, then changing his name. Écluse, his first album under his current name, was released in 2023 on the same label.
The album opens with Lâcheté, a raw composition which lets hazy atmospheric sounds accompany terrifying ghostly howls under a heavy mix. The visceral Old School approach allows the sound to calm down before flaring up again to call upon those intense and haunting tones, leading us to De courbes & de peaux, a more aggressive track which keeps that dissonant and abrasive touch while offering soaring and majestic melodies in the background. The simple and catchy blast sometimes gives way to much more massive patterns while vocal interventions appear from time to time, letting the rhythmic slow down to become chaotic before finally calming down, letting Corridor bring oppression to life. Fairly constant, the track is also the album’s shortest one, but it will have plenty of time to flood us with deep darkness coupled with hellish screams before Leurre closes the album with a wave of melancholy. Dissonance and speed fuel the contrast between this impressive composition’s violence and beauty which will be brought to slow down before letting saturation overwhelm us again by offering epic orchestrations to accompany the sound until the last moment.
The change of name of Limbes also marks its evolution. Its style remains more or less the same as at the beginning of the project, but Écluse wants to be even more oppressive, more hazy and more visceral.
90/100