Valfunde / Amesoeurs

I say this is a piece of art because I believe that within black metal there are some bands that embody an emotion, a time in history, etc; and then there are other bands that exist for the soul purpose of going nuts with blast beats, chainsaw guitars and the grim vocals so that raging teenagers can bang their heads.

If you are looking for the latter than this is certainly not for you. Judging by the poor score and review by, the last reviewer missed the point of this CD. Yes music exists to bring pleasure through sound, but at the same time also offers a glimpse into the mind of it's creators and introspectively a view of a certain point in human history.

To those who can understand this, this is an amazing piece of music and art to have. Valfunde has a strong Peste Noire feel, with a little mix of the Amesoeurs post-modern, depressive city-center feel (silencer fan's definitely check this out). The shrieked vocals are much the same as heard in Peste Noire as it is the same vocalist.

The first song, Hôpital, is a haunting and quite unsettling melody. This carnival'esque melody creates an atmosphere of pure disgust with the industrialized world. A great musical interpretation of the sickness that comes with modern civilization.

"Serenade" De Verlaine starts out with a melody of clean and distorted guitars flowing together with the drums as a complement. The feeling of triumph in despair is evoken, as the horrifying shrieks mix with the continuing melody. The drums are there only to solidify the melodies, and to keep time as I think it should be in music of this type; though I am sure many drummers will not be impressed.

Les Ruches Malades, the one Amesoeurs song is sung completely by Audrey Sylvain. The first half of the song is a smooth flow of bass and guitar melody, nothing that catches the eye. Later in the song the brighter acoustic melody shines through with the backing of a completely audible bass melody. In typical Neige fashion, the end of the song climaxes with layers of clean vocals, distorted guitars, acoustic, and bass all coming together and then abruptly stopping.

As I do not speak French, some of the true meaning of this music will be lost to me, but I believe the emotion that the artists are expressing comes through flawlessly in the passion of the vocals and melodies.

In a sea of commercial, norsecore, generic black metal it is rare to still find bands out there that can capture the emotion of this art. Strongly recommended.