ALBUM REVIEW: Le Bannissement – Cantique Lépreux
Since the release of their debut album Cendres Célestes in 2016, Quebec’s CANTIQUE LÉPREUX have become one of the best hidden gems within the vibrant and underrated French Canadian black metal scene. Their first album – along with 2018’s Paysages Polaires – showcased an impressively atmosphere-drenched, melody-driven style of black metal that is indebted to the genre’s 90s heyday whilst eschewing some of the rawer and overtly aggressive undertones of that style in favour of something decidedly more immersive and powerful. The band’s latest, third album, Le Bannissement, refines their excellent sound even further, with a more technical and imaginative approach to songwriting that places this among their best work to date.
Le Ravissement starts things off in epic fashion, with soaring guitars, thundering drums and keyboards creating a vast, powerful sound, with the coarse rasp of the vocals standing in stark contrast with the lightness of the music. Grandiose leads and haunting ambience help to build an immersive, melodic sound that has one foot firmly planted within second wave black metal, but injects just the right amount of punchy flourishes into the mix to make it accessible. Fuir takes an energetic approach to this formula, and is driven by its brilliant riffs, intricate drumming and harsh vocal accompaniments, veering from one great hook to the next with ease, with the keyboards once again filling out the already substantial sound and injecting, along with hypnotic guitars, a cavernous, ethereal edge that makes it even more compelling.
Rivières Rompues adopts a lean and frenetic sound with lots of chaotic bursts interspersed in amongst the song’s expansive moments, providing a visceral take on the band’s style, with an urgent pace and tortured, howling vocals only adding to the demented side of this offering. There’s some great acoustic interludes and technical touches to the guitar work that push the musicianship to higher levels, with the rest of the music similarly embracing an animated style that, as the track ebbs and flows from one motif to the next, adds an unpredictability to proceedings that makes this lengthy and beguiling song incredibly effective.
Archétypes couples the darker, more discordant components that have been hinted at in the last two tracks with a slower pace, creating something gloomy and bleak that is more jarring than earlier efforts. This is countered by the magnificently grandiose faster sections, which take the monolithic melodicism further, with the keyboards and slick leads complementing each other extremely well here. Par La Gueule Des Fantômes, with its speed-driven leads and machine-gun precise drums, is an exceptionally focused and searing slab of black metal that seems almost restless in its constant changes and generous dose of riffs. The blistering tempo and imaginative songwriting are paired with caustic vocals which, although fairly spartan, inject an acidic quality into the similarly acerbic backdrop.
Le Rêve Primordial brings back the acoustic guitars and darker side that was present on Rivières Rompues and Archétypes, but uses them to complement rather than counterpoint the fantastic, adventurous guitars, blending together the two sides of the band’s style seamlessly and making for a much more layered sound in the process. Consécration heads back towards the razor sharp, bombastic sound that lies at the heart of this record, with stunning guitar work, feral vocals and juggernaut drumming crafting a weighty backbone around which the subtle keys are interwoven, lending this a heady and atmospheric sound that is even more grand than much of what has come before it, closing the album with arguably one of its most dramatic efforts.
With Le Bannissement, CANTIQUE LÉPREUX have created what is easily their best album to date. This record sees the band reach new creative heights, from the high levels of musicianship through to the more varied range of styles and influences that are present throughout, making this music not only more advanced and adventurous from a technical standpoint, but also much more varied in the range of styles that it draws from, with some of the lighter moments here sounding more akin to power metal in their more bombastic moments. In terms of pure black metal, it’s rare to find an album that manages to do as much within the fairly rigid confines of the genre’s sound tropes whilst still sounding impressive and imaginative, and this is certainly one of those rare exceptions.
Rating: 9/10
Le Bannissement is out now via Eisenwald.
Like CANTIQUE LÉPREUX on Facebook.