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7.0
- Band:
Darkenhöld - Duration: 00:47:38
- Available since: 06/06/2025
- Label:
-
Les ACTeurs de l'Os shadow productions
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Out of time and space, as are given to those who have never given up on a certain elitist approach to black metal, more handing their creations of an intense aura fantasy. At the finish line of the sixth full-length, the Darkenhöld don't give up an inch; And even if, perhaps, the trade increases compared to the surprise, we are talking about another center for the Nice trio.
As always, the influences are manifold, and they feel. On the most majestic/medieval side of the transalpine black metal (Aorlhac, Véémence …) to the Emperor, passing through the basement and ruins sung for decades by the masters Summoning, the band summarizes Norwegian frost, perverse French malignancy and a cloaked magniloquence of dark myths. Compared to the previous discs, a strong subtext of classic metal in the construction of the songs emerges, in particular in the guitar riffs, revisited in a darker and effectively balanced key by the keyboards: often delicate, on other more strange occasions.
It starts with a very epic and cadenced midtempo: “Codex de la chevalerie” immediately makes the desire to give atmosphere clear, first of all, and is a component that underground the most aggressive, and more delicate pieces. In particular, the two instrumental: the too short – for its charm – “temps enfouis” and even more “sortilège ancestral”, seductive and perverse, between dungeon synths and orchestral drives. For the rest, it is pure black metal for gourmet, which touches its peak, in our opinion, in the disturbing “dans l'anttre de la vouivre”: a piece with a standard, but extremely enthralling construction.
As mentioned, the peaks of the previous “Arcanes & Setitilèges” are not touched, but to imagine that pitched and guided only by a dark singing and by a river torch in the basement of an abandoned castle, the Darkenhöld remain a solid reference.
Daniel D`Amico for SANREMO.FM
