Hailing from France, Penitence Onrique are an Avant-black metal two-piece formed in 2015 whose debut album, ‘Vitriol’, emerged, screaming, into the daylight in September 2016. ‘V.I.T.R.I.O.L’ is a five-track, fifty-minute work that demonstrates powerful musicianship and an impressive ability to conjure atmosphere. Less raw than the early black metal acts, Penitence Onrique utiles a production that, whilst raw, captures each instrument with a degree of clarity that allows for a greater exploration of black metal’s darker, more progressive hinterlands and the band’s work recalls the windswept might of the likes of Winterfylleth whilst also harking back to the dark, existential despair of Burzum.
Opening track ‘Lame Sur Les Paves’ is a perfect introduction to the band. Rather than attempting to batter the listener into submission, the band adopt a stately pace, moulding the thunderous bass and swirling guitar into an interlaced whole that conjures up images of vast, desolate lands burned black by the scourge of war and the pestilence that follows. Evocative and powerful, the pair use repetition and augmentation to invoke a hypnotic feel, and it’s easy to get lost in the maelstrom as the song progresses. Emerging from a slow fade, ‘Le Soufre’ appears like a dust storm on the horizon, only to suddenly envelop the listener in its choking dust. Employing the shimmering, reverb-drenched sound of shoe-gaze, Penitence Onrique are more concerned with feel than bombast and the result is an album that slowly takes over whatever you’re doing until you find yourself simply wandering your own imagination as the music continues to drown out the humdrum reality of day-to-day existence. Slowly coalescing from the sound of the surf lapping against a pebbles shore, ‘Le Sel’ whips up a storm that centres around stunning percussive work but better still is the glacial beauty of the title track. A lengthy, eight-minute exploration, ‘V.I.T.R.I.O.L’ is a cold, sinister work that takes a full three minutes to build tension before vocals are admitted to the mix. The album concludes with ‘Carpage de fantasme vide’, a track that is arguably the album’s most brutal, blackened moment. Combining icy riffs and harrowing screams, it brings the album to a suitably hell-bound conclusion, although the band’s intrinsic gift for melody remains in evidence.
‘V.I.T.R.I.O.L’ is an epic, imaginative blast of black metal that slowly seeps into the listener’s consciousness. There is brutality and extremity here, but the band frequently bind it up with ethereal riffs that hypnotise the listener, slowly caressing them into submission before the dark forces that lie at the heart of the music emerge. A gossamer-clad, creeping horror, ‘V.I.T.R.I.O.L’ is a truly atmospheric work from two impressive musicians and everything from the stunning packaging and artwork to the dark production showcase an attention to detail that is all the more impressive for this being a debut. A mesmerising take on black metal, Penitence Onrique demonstrate that beauty and extremity can go hand in hand and, for those who like their music both extreme and thought-provoking, ‘V.I.T.R.I.O.L’ comes highly recommended. 9
