Sanctvs resumes its quest.
After returning for a split album last year, the Canadian band led by Mortheos (Gevurah, Atramentus, Oriflamme) has signed with Osmose Productions to unveil its second album, De l’Abîme au Plérôme.
Rex Hominum begins with a slow, haunting sound that betrays a very raw, Old School mix, serving as an intoxicating introduction that quickly ignites with the macabre growls of its creator, who now pours out a steady stream of darkness. There is, however, a slightly more chaotic and catchy passage that breaks the imposed rhythm before returning to a more natural melodious dissonance and more solemn majestic moments before moving on to the furious Sacrifié sur l’autel de la rédemption, which follows with scathing harmonics, heralding a new wave of fury that soon imposes itself on us, but we note that the musician takes pleasure in flooding us with his murderous blast. Vocals also become more striking under the devastating strikes, but the charge eventually slows down, allowing Thrène pour un monde révolu to soothe us with its first misty notes, which are once again swept up in the hurricane punctuated by long, hoarse roars that give it an even more desperate feel. The storm slows down and offers us a particularly welcome moment of contemplation, then everything bursts into flames again around us, leaving us facing a ultimately desolate landscape that echoes Tabula Rasa and its episode of saving gentleness, unsurprisingly erased by the fury of man, who does not hesitate to unleash himself before releasing his bloody harmonics that very naturally join in with the prevailing decay. Although the track grants us a few moments of respite, it remains imbued with the heart-wrenching apocalyptic dynamic that guides its accelerations before giving way to Tour d’ivoire, which lets its riffs tear us apart at will in this heavy and icy atmosphere, alternating between imposing slower passages and emaciated screams that dance together until La Lumière de l’infini, which arrives rather quickly. This track is already the last on the album, and it doesn’t fail to spew its invasive darkness from the very first moments, allowing it to settle in permanently—even in the semblance of respite we are granted—and precipitate us towards its own downfall: a gloomy, rather muddy and dissonant finale that gradually fades away.
Although discreet, Sanctvs offers us an unexpected and grand return with this new album. De l’Abîme au Plérôme is a cold, austere record that depicts a landscape as suffocating as it is inhospitable, which doesn’t hesitate to let us breathe at times only to plunge us back into its darkness.
90/100