“Ferocious” is the name of this trio hailing from Marseille in France and photos of them standing in an urban wasteland, wearing hoody’s and clutching skulls and swords gives a good indication of what to expect, music that embraces both the past and the modern in many respects. This is the group’s debut release and certainly has a few things needing ironing out sound-wise. The 1st track is sharp and clattery and the second dull and bassy but thankfully after that there is a significant improvement. It kind of suggests tracks may have been recorded in separate sessions to me.
‘Le froid éfface’ gets cold emotion across with a solemn feel built up around both clean chanting vocals and graven rasps. The music is a bit of an intentional cold dirge but as mentioned not getting the full grasp of the musicianship from the recording here although there’s definitely a strong grasp of funereal melody and you feel like in the grip of a medieval plague rite. Although incredibly dense and muddy ‘Tout s’écroule’ sees everything collapse but I am struck by the repetitive, maudlin keyboard sounds which have more than a sense of aged nostalgia about them and are heavily reminiscent of Burzum. There’s certainly a good and solemn melody lurking in there and the chanted vocals at least come across here but the demo quality does this no real justice.
Once we get the definition and clarity in the title track it is clear there is something both special and somewhat unique here and the last four tracks show true potential. It’s the obviously programmed drum machine that brings forth the modern sound mentioned giving things an industrialised clamour although the context is a doomy one with forceful vocals riding over the top sounding like they are unleashing a particularly nasty curse. That keyboard sound is back and really hypnotises and the combination of everything is really intriguing. They hit some really strange and sinister cadences within the fretwork of songs like ‘Noir’ spreading the blackness in an arcane twisting way that with the combination of the very expressive vocals give the vibe that we are being entertained by black warlocks deep in their tomb practicing necromantic arts. It really does get beneath the skin and the atmosphere is palpable. Although evidently French lyrically, there’s something about all this that reminds of age old artists within both the elder and highly regarded Czech and Italian scene. If only Woest could have cast their spell over the recording this would have definitely got a higher mark but again the levels seem to have gone up a notch on the last couple of tracks. Despite that there is a huge potential here and musically this has completely captivated me.
(7/10 Pete Woods)
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