No more mercy for Verdun.
Seven years after their last album, and five years after their split with Old Iron, the French band featuring David Sadok (vocals, Le Vicaire), Jay Pinelli (guitar, Doctor Livingstone), Florian Celdran (bass, ex-Fleshdoll), and Geraud Jonquet (drums, ÖfÖ Am) has signed with Transcending Obscurity Records for the release of their third full-length album, Abyssal Womb.
The band starts off gently yet heavily with Funeral of the Cosmic Knight, an opening track that is as heavy as it is melancholic at first listen, but which becomes far more aggressive with the arrival of screams that echo the hypnotic harmonics and their controlled feedback. It’s worth noting the central break, which gives us a moment to catch our breath before we’re once again subjected to a thick sound, leading into Silent Witness, which follows suit with a similar approach, first weaving dissonant tones to captivate us before growing heavier. The rhythm section maintains its haunting, ethereal quality even during the most intense waves, then the pace picks up with He Who Killed the Devil, offering energetic, catchy passages that contrast with the still-airy sections, as well as a few clear backing vocals that emerge out of nowhere. The sound regularly overwhelms us, taking on almost theatrical tones as it leads into La lame et la chair, the first track with a French title, which proves even more intense and suffocating than the others, weaving together images to tell its macabre story before transitioning into Rise of the Atomic Ghouls, the next track. The band switches back to English to continue pounding us with its addictive, unsettling vibe, which permeates the slower riffs before transforming into almost epic elements at a brisk pace on The Man Behind My Eyes, the next track where the contrast is even more pronounced than before. Waves of aggression punctuate the already chaotic path, but the second half of the track becomes even more hellish after the break, regaining a dreamy quality to lead into Les noces du néant, the final track where clean vocals appear first, allowing us to cling to this last trace of gentleness before the screams resurface from the shadows, accompanying our progression through their duality and complementarity before abandoning us to silence.
I had completely lost track of Verdun following their last release, but Abyssal Womb proves to me that the band is far from resting on its laurels! The album is as sticky and abrasive as can be, and that touch of contagious intensity is still very much present!
90/100