Par un sourire

Let me start by saying this is by no means a bad album, it just gets a bit boring and repetitive after a while. I'll start with the positives. The musicianship is solid but not to complex. It's actually above average for depressive black metal. The production is reasonably fuzzy, but it creates a cold and bleak atmosphere. The vocals are mostly made up of deranged howls and screams with a few standard black metal rasps thrown in for good measure. The over all atmosphere of this album bleak and depressing, but there are slight glimmers of hope in the music and the lyrics.

The guitar is relatively simple and normally play at slow to mid pace. The drum are also simple and blend in with the guitar very well. Vocals like the ones on this album are often annoying, but the psychotic scream are well executed and make the album even more depressing. The bass is virtually non existent. You can hardly tell that it's there at all, but (imo) bass isn't that important in black metal anyway.

Now on to the negatives. After listening to this album for a while it starts to get boring and repetitive, which isn't unusual for depressive black metal. All the songs start to sound the same. The same sort of droning riffs are played repeatedly through every song. The vocal also start to get boring as well. The screams seam to all sound exactly the same and the pitch is so high that it sometimes hurts my ears. Unfortunately it's the same with the drums. They just repeat them selves over and over again until the end of the album.

Over all this is an okay album. It's worth a few listen, but after that it starts to become boring.

Best tracks: Tu es inscrite dans les lignes du plafond (Histoire d' Isabelle partie une), Lebenskraft.

Worst tracks: Tu es inscrite dans les yeux que j'aime (Histoire d' Isabelle partie deux), Mit einem Lächeln.