Houle sets its sails.
After a debut EP and a string of acclaimed concerts, the band, made up of Crabe (guitar), Græy Gaast (bass), Zéphyr (guitar), Adsagsona (vocals) and Vikser (drums), unveil their debut album, Ciel Cendre et Misère Noire, in collaboration with Les Acteurs De L’Ombre.
The wind, then a few sea chanteys, and we’re blasted into La Danse du Rocher with its shrill screams, our first taste of the band’s icy melodies. The haunting vocals are quickly recognizable, just like the musicians’ harmonious violent approach, along with a bewitching bass and a few light touches of clean vocals to mark the break before the storm rages again, carrying us all the way to Mère Nocturne. The track immediately becomes darker and more dissonant, accentuating the waves of violence that regularly crash down on us with their striking tones combined with the fury of the vocalist before slowing down on Sur Les Braises Du Foyer, where oppression gradually builds between majestic tones and heaviness. The track is long, and the atmosphere changes throughout the composition for which an as intriguing as fascinating video clip was shot, but the main tipping point is the central break that ignites the rhythm before it drowns in melancholy. Darkness and anguish resurface with Derrière l’Horizon and its martial touch, but once again the track is subjected to airy volutes, giving it a more vaporous aspect, confirmed with Et Puis Le Silence, a melodious and soaring interlude lasting just over a minute. The bass takes the lead again to begin Sel, Sang et Gerçures, closely followed by bloody guitars and hypnotic Black Metal roots that speed along, stopped only by rare, imposing pauses, such as the unifying choruses before the solo, then the finale. The album closes with Née des Embruns, a twelve-minute composition that begins with the sound of waves, then a soothing melody, and finally that tortured but captivating voice that slowly sets the scene, setting the rhythm on fire and taking us along for the ride to the sound of their deep wrath, but also the lulls that lull our spirits to silence.
Their first EP won over many a sailor, and Houle continues its voyage across the seas with Ciel Cendre and Misère Noire. Ever more gripping, ever more anchored in its contrasting darkness, the band has definitely progressed on all points.
95/100
