The fall is inevitable with Ataraxie.
Since the year 2000, the band from Rouen have been telling us their tale of despair. In 2024, Jonathan Théry (bass/vocals, Funeralium, Void Paradigm), Pierre Sénécal (drums, Hyadningar), Frédéric Patte-Brasseur (guitar, Conviction, Funeralium, ex-Mourning Dawn live), Hugo Gaspar (guitar, Mälemort) and Julien Payan (guitar, Sordide, Void Paradigm) deliver Le Déclin, their sixth album, with Ardua Music and Weird Truth Productions.
Le Déclin, the album’s eponymous title track, begins by captivating us with a few volatile notes gradually joined by the other instruments in a slow march towards the vocal parts. Whether the first words are calm and solemn, they gradually descend into madness and become terrifying screams in the background, then a massive growl that accompanies the permanent melancholy until an ominous lull that quickly shatters to sink once again into oppressive despair, followed by the violence of Vomisseurs De Vide. Though initially expressed in slow throbbing waves, it eventually becomes more vivid, fully exploiting the band’s Death Metal roots with blasts and effective riffs that regularly shake the track’s obvious apathy. The cries of pain remain in the background, accompanying our progress through the devastating rage, which becomes a hazy languid curtain again before giving way to Glory Of Ignominy, whose steady, heady progression feeds this heavy climate. The darkness is once again broken by a softer passage, then by a cry of distress that sets the mood again, rekindling the heaviness and then the violence to close the track before The Collapse takes its place, hypnotizing us with its leads mixed with a crushing rhythm. Dissonant touches reinforce the chaotic aspect of the track, whether in the aerial phases or in the rawer moments that take turns to carry us to the very edge of silence after a melody that is certainly dark but easily lulls us to sleep.
Ataraxie continues its journey in the shadows, playing with oppression, melancholy and pain as if these elements were an integral part of its identity. Le Déclin is a perfectly appropriate title for such a wave of sorrow.
90/100
