The debut album from the mysteriously named VI, ‘De Praestigiis Angelorum’ is an eight-track blast of atmospheric and icy black metal from members (and former members) of Aosoth, Aborted and Antaeus. This French three-piece mix choral sounds, lightning fast riffing and ungodly growls to primitive, demonic effect and the band have enough experience to temper the blackened grind with occasional snatches of eerie melody in order to maintain maximum impact. It’s an ambitious debut offering and one that will appeal to black metal veterans. Aptly released to coincide with the long, dark spiral into winter, ‘De Praestigiis Angelorum’ is a powerful, mesmerising record that plums the bleak depths of black metal and adds in a touch of post-rock majesty to keep things both memorable and bleak.
Opening on an atmospheric note, the post-rock-styled ‘Et in pulverem mortis deduxisti me’ mixes eerie choral work against arcing feedback before the band launch into ‘par le judgement cause par ses poisons’, a filthy blackened smear that stands starkly at odds with the haunting beauty of the opening track. With its cacophonous drums and tinny, blisteringly fast guitar riffs, ‘Par le judgement cause par ses poisons’ is not exactly reinventing the wheel, but VI do tear into the track with admirable passion and commitment and, buried deep in the howling murk, a melody lurks, slowly coalescing out of the crackling distortion and low-in-the-mix samples. ‘La terre ne cessera de se consumer’ initially starts out as a mid-tempo grind only to explode into unholy light, in a blaze of lurching, misanthropic riffs and guttural howls. Once again, however, slithering underneath the bombastic riffs and scarifying screams, there’s a subtle melody that draws the listener ever further into the darkness, as the band explore fragments of post-rock alongside their own devastating black metal attack. The lengthy ‘regarde tes cadavres car il ne te permettra pas qu’on les enterre’ justifies its expanded (7 minutes or so) by exploring the darker side of post-rock, the band breaking away from the sturm und drang of the previous two tracks to engage in the richly textured atmospherics of a horror movie films score. It is deeply unsettling and leaves a much more lingering impression than guitar pyrotechnics alone might achieve.
Tearing into the listener with remorseless savagery, ‘une place parmi les morts’ is an obsidian raid on the senses that leaves the listener stunned, although even here the band can’t resist twisting the song’s conclusion into something new and unexpected rather than simply grinding the listener into the dirt the result of which is that the fiery ‘Voilr L’homme qui ne te prenait pas comme seigneur’ sounds even more ferocious by contrast, the band indulging in the sort of wind-swept blackened fury that powers the likes of Winterfylleth. Similarly possessed ‘Il est trop tard pour render glorie. Ainsi la lumicre sera change en ombre de la mort’ rages with a graceful fury that sees subtle melody woven into the most brutal of musical backdrops. The album closes with the suitably epic ‘Plus aucun member ne sera rendu’ which proves to be a near perfect mix of blazing guitar might, guttural vocals and mechanistic percussion before everything dissolves in a slow, ambient fade-out that haunts the listener long after the disc has wound its way to a halt.
‘De praestigiis Angelorum’ is one of those rare examples of a band doing everything right. Veterans of the scene, the members of VI already have in place the experience and skill necessary to carve out a unique place in a crowded genre and they do so by balancing elements of post rock and sinister choral music with stunningly powerful black metal bombast. The pieces are ambitious, but not overly complex and the music frequently achieves a momentum that hypnotises and draws the listener ever deeper into the bleak, frost-rimed world VI inhabit. In short, ‘De Praestigiis Angelorum’ is one hell of a debut and a must for black metal fans.
You can pre-order the album now from Agonia Records by following this link.
