If this French band had a slogan, may I suggest it would be “No Nonsense”. “Aucune Connerie”, perhaps? Excuse my French. Like their EP “Vermines”, this album is a collection of one word titles which give a clue that the Miasmian world is not one of milk and honey: Délivrance, Prophétie, Calvaire, Répulsion, Malemort, Aversion, Destructeurs, Pestilence. No translation is necessary. “Vermine” was an intense, in-your-face black metal affair, with twists and layers within but not so much so that you could accuse it of being soft or wimpy. Au contraire. So I was under no illusion that “Répugnance” was going to be another fiery journey.
To war we go with the thrashing black metal of “Délivrance”. This has the uncompromising nature of Impaled Nazarene or Dark Funeral about it. Smoking guitar work interrupts the blasting drums and fury, but nothing was going to interfere with the heaviness and fury. By way of a change creeping nastiness characterises “Prophétie”, to start at least, but as is typical of this band the evil and destruction spread out explosively. It’s carnage out there, but controlled by Miasmes with breaks and changes of tempo. What doesn’t change is the level of fury or malevolence. Roaring, aggressive, violent, wild, fiery … backed up by a growly bass Miasmes set about deconstructing everything around them. Some are dirtier than others – the rampant “Répulsion” is particularly so. This album constitutes one track after another of heavy assault and intense fury. Breaks and tempo changes can be found, as on “Aversion”, but it’s like destroying a wall with less violence for a few seconds. The wall is still being destroyed, whatever the pace. In the case of “Destructeurs” it’s fast. We’ve been through plague (“Peste”). The final act is “Pestilence”. Miasmes devote six and a half minutes to one last act of fast and hard intense malevolence, cranking it down while turning the screw only at the end.
I like this band. What you get is rumbustious blasts of cold air without undue complication. There are no real nuances, and everything’s heading in the same destructive direction, but this is compensated for by the masses of energy, fury and bile.
(7.5/10 Andrew Doherty)
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