The end of the year looks bleak for Jours Pâles.
Still led by Spellbound (Aorlhac), the project is once again collaborating with Les Acteurs De L’Ombre Productions to unveil Resonances, its fourth album.
The drums were recorded by Ben Lesous at B-Blast Records studio (DarwiN, Devoid), but we also have SD. Ramirez (Psychonaut 4) on lead guitar and Pereg Ar Bagol (Boisson Divine, Skiltron) on accordion.
As an avid listener of Jours Pâles, I immediately notice a change: Sébastien Grenier‘s cover art is quite different from the others, much more violent but still just as symbolic. Sound-wise, the album opens with La frontière entre nous et le néant, an instrumental track that immediately immerses us in heady tones, creating a kind of crazy dance that mixes keyboards and catchy riffs before the fury takes hold, drawing us into the visceral howl of the long Une splendeur devenue terne. The polished and brutal verve of Spellbound immediately grabs us by the throat as he screams over a very jerky rhythm – punctuated by a few clear breaks – with influences clearly marked by Black Metal, but also by much more cheerful melodies, creating a contrast as fascinating as it is disturbing, capable of calming any wave of violence. The vocalist invites us to join him in his decadence before his lament comes to an end, leaving L’essentialité du frisson to take over with a chaotic dissonance that quickly draws our attention to the omnipresent and interlinked vocal parts that naturally tinge the composition with a veil as imposing as it is unhealthy. The mix of lead guitar and accordion gives an even rawer and almost festive touch to the final climax, which finally lets us breathe before Cinéraire develops its coldness before erupting with a heart-rending scream that sets the tone for the entire song, which seems animated by this highly communicative energy of despair. The riffs stumble, get back up, fall again, then rush us towards Incommensurable (song for Aldérica II), a new instrumental that obviously echoes a track from the second album (Tensions, released almost exactly three years earlier), first offering us a moment of respite with soaring harmonics, then charging ahead with a livelier rhythm, retaining that touch of freedom in the leads. Kim Carlsson’s complaints (Kall, Hypothermia, Ritualmord, ex-Lifelover…) join Mouvement ostentatoire rémanent totalitaire for an intense duet between the Swede and the Frenchman under increasingly dark and melancholic riffs, delivering a rare fury before giving way to Viens avec moi. While the name of this composition is relatively simple, it is inversely proportional to the lead guitar, which weaves a veil of complexity that serves as a basis for the rhythm section to regularly ignite, before finally letting us catch our breath before the aggression of Savile. The track starts off with a bang, sometimes returning to the sharper roots we recognize from the first album while embracing new influences that make the rhythm almost unpredictable before the obvious sweetness of La plus belle des saisons, corrupted by vocals. Saturation eventually regains its rights and, accompanied by harmonics, develops an almost ethereal basis for such a discourse, almost too light but quickly giving way to 10-11-2021, the last track, which is also instrumental, closing the album with keyboards, percussion, and screeching guitars before silence.
Even before his first album, Jours Pâles struck me as a fascinating project, and although his evolution is palpable, it remains so. Resonances is aptly named, and it didn’t take long for some of the tracks to start haunting me after just one listen.
95/100
