Ah French band The Negation are against ‘bleating sheep’ and the ‘weak and ignorant’ who use the likes of religion as a crux. We have that in common then and it is that annoying time of year when everyone is particularly acting like sheep as they dash around in their consumerist flocks on mass spending sprees that are entirely unnecessary as society has deemed that they should do so by force-feeding them and fattening them up on bullshit. Yep happy bastard Xmas and I wonder if it too is something that this band would totally negate and opt out of with an elite contempt. Having gone off slight track but it is Xmas eve as I write this, one would hope that this black metal band back up their ideas suitably as far as the music is concerned on this, their debut album.
After tolling bells take us in to ‘Red Wrath’ it’s pretty obvious they do as hell is unleashed in a tormenting whiplash of scything barbed guitars and hellacious and indignant, scorn fuelled vocals from singer A.S.A. It’s got a lethal force about it and also a strong sense of melody and all important atmosphere as the foot is taken off the pedal and things momentarily slow before flying back in a welter of blasting. Over a fair few listens I had forgotten completely about The Negation’s country of origin and had it in my head they were Swedish. They certainly have a lot about them to suggest that as at maximum assault there is a real Mardukian swagger about them and also an orthodox feel that reminds of the likes of the recent excellent Valkyrja album. As the scales melodically go up to a peak on ‘Erased’ well there’s more than a certain storm of the Antichrist about things too. In a nutshell though there’s a whole lot of drive, determination and conviction going on here.
After battering us senseless for a while things do go down a notch for ‘One God’ which seethes away on the boil but does so without fully exploding. This allows the scornful contempt to really come through in the distinctive and slightly eccentric vocal delivery. Having been somewhat restrained ‘Lost For Ever’ bombs in and does so with a cold and harsh feel about it as the weaving guitars strim up a fury and the vocals literally gurgle blood. It’s full on and glorious and it has to be said that for a debut work this is pretty damn impressive stuff. Easing off again dictatorial spoken word parts add a sinister feel about it all and musically the grim flavours are enough to send more than a little shiver down the spine and what sounds like a low in the mix futuristic melody towards the end of the song seems to catch me out every time. ‘The Garden Of Extasy’ is probably the most distinctive track here and although it offers a bit of everything previously heard it has a recurring (but not overly) and catchy as hell guitar hook-line to it that is impossible to dislodge once it gets its claws in. By the time the album hits the leaden groove of last song proper ‘In Agony’ it was pretty obvious on a first listen that this was an album I would want to be playing again and repeated listens have done plenty to consolidate its position. I would really like to see this lot live and reckon they are a likely to be a pretty potent force in that environment. For the moment the album will have to do but it’s doing the job nicely and is well worth checking out.
(8/10 Pete Woods)
30/12/2013 at 11:14 pm
Support !!
excellent album