The Foam of Despair

You know I've been listening to this stuff for nigh on thirty years now. I thought o had heard, or at least knew about, all of the good stuff out there. A very long list of albums I should check out one day which only gets longer. I thought my listening career was set in stone for the future.

And then I heard this thing.

A band I had never heard of, despite them being over twenty years old, from just over the water in France. They play doom, and as a mark of quality are on Aesthetic Death which gave Esoteric and Fleurety early releases. But what doom! Definitely a blackened guitar tone, but there are enough instrumentals and ideas to qualify as post metal, and pace to maybe even touch into sludge. Vocals are what you'd expect from blackened doom and the lyrics are occasionally in French so I have no chance at understanding them. There are also samples thrown about, yes in French, perhaps just a touch too many in places.

There are six tracks snd the opener is probably the most notable one, featuring a languorous saxophone solo in the coda. Only this tune has the sax, I might like to hear a little more of that but it could easily be overdone so perhaps restraint is the order of the day. But all tracks are at least good and feature a high level of musicality. The first track of the B side has a particular percussion note I can't place and has the most overtly black metal riffing going on before breaking into an atmospheric interlude and then it comes back! 

Vinyl presentation is excellent too - thick white disc, gatefold sleeve with lyrics and other blurb. The cover art is really something as well, wonder if it was inspired by those wintry days along the Pays de Calais where La Manche is whipped into a frenzy by an unrelenting easterly. I like the inverted image used on the B side. Vinyl mastering is excellent as well, sounds much more open than streaming versions (less compression maybe?). 

What I'm saying here is this is stupendous and if you like blackened doom at all you'll love this.