The French are revolting again but they do it so well! Griffon are back with their third album and here they set things out historically with bloody revolutions as a theme. This isn’t a call to arms or an album designed for listeners to go and take to the streets and show dissent, hell there’s enough of that going on already nowhere more so than in France where as I write this, the farmers are up in arms and blockading streets. Musically it all takes me back to the Anarcho-punk scene when bands led with agitprop agendas and caused many a scuffle against the opposing forces in power. Unfortunately, it pretty much came to nothing, just look at the nightmarish scenario we are in now but again all hail the French for the revolution, the guillotine and the heads that rolled.
Griffon have shaken things up themselves with their brand of blazing black metal and have plenty of spirit along with a highly intelligent way of presenting their ideology. Of course they do so in their natural tongue but this CD comes with a very helpful overview of what is behind each of the songs in English. They also have provided a mission statement stating this is both for and against The Republic and adhering to the laws and freedoms it provides whilst rallying against abuse and despotism.
To give an idea on the first song ‘L’Homme du Tarn’ which comes under a foggy blanket of gun fire, we are taken to 1914 and the socialist deputy Jean Jaures who trying to calm the situation in Europe prior to world war I found himself assassinated for his efforts. Raging, adroit blackness swarms away and there is a powerful performance as expected from Aharon. There’s plenty of statements made in oratory fashion, savage snarls and fragrant clean vocals that have more than a touch of bands like Solefald and Borknagar about them. Music moves from incredibly dramatic to slow, moribund and atmospheric. We get a break here from the manic power to acoustic shimmering guitar and vocal narration before being dropped back into fist-smashing power. I’m not going to explain each of the six songs but none should really be needed for ‘The Ides Of March’ which ferociously stabs way and leads into gorgeous underlying melodic tension. Voices come from the grave of time, boots march and vitriolic chants ring out. It’s stirring stuff make no mistake and the neo-classical guitar peels give it a huge sense of majesty.
Each of the songs is packed with emotion and power. The album may only be 37-minutes long but there is so much going on in it that it takes time to fully embrace it all. Classicism is at the heart and at times such as when we embrace ‘A l’insurrection’ it’s delightfully pompous but never in a way that you feel it is showing off, the players deliver with zealous gung-ho attitude and make it all sound so natural. The drumming bombast here is so powerful and it’s like a massive stage play, luckily it’s upbeat and passionate and not ‘Les Miserables’ in the slightest. Counterpoising incendiary galloping fervour with roguish vocal cavalcades along with heady guitar flourishes, the likes of ‘La Semaine Sanglante’ never stand still for a second. Mind you the bloody week of 1871 that is depicted by Parisians taking arms and forming a republic was no doubt similarly tumultuous.
I knew that there was a danger here of finding myself overwhelmed as I was with the recent A/Oratos album ‘Ecclesia Gnostica’ a band also containing Griffon’s Aharon. This has come damn close too and is a fantastic follow up to ‘O Theos, O Basileus.’ I certainly feel spoiled having both bands deliver such brilliant albums so close together and with the subtle sounds of war tempering the symphonic embellishments of last and title track here I am aware I could quite happily listen to both on repeat until the cows come home (that is if the bloody farmers allow them to). Great stuff here and if you like absorbing music with a historic backbone this will captivate you on all fronts.
(8.5/10 Pete Woods)
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