Par un sourire

The first thing, that attracts positive attention, are the names of the songs, as they indicate that Par Un Sourire seems to be a conceptual record. Due to the lack of lyrics I can not really confirm that, but I want to lay this as a fundament for the review.

The standard structure of a dsbm song should be well known, but to alleviate the comprehension of the review, I will now give a short overview. Most of the songs are build out of 1-3 long-drawn riffs, the vocals are ranging from harsh growls to incomprehensible screams and there aren’t really any surprises in the structures. When you take this and combine that with a bad production and maybe some samples you will receive a standard dsbm record.

Nathaenael didn’t really change anything here, although the only songs that use samples are the start/end song and the production is really well done, although it still maintains the needed rawness. The vocals are clearly incomprehensible on the whole record, but that really fits the atmosphere in my ears, and I think good comprehensible vocals would have been counterproductive here.

If you compare Par Un Sourire with the ordinary dsbm record you’ll see, that it does not really accommodate more riffs, as no song exceeds the three riff rule I mentioned, same goes for the songparts. What clearly is different, is the quality of those riffs, as they are quite catchy and sparkling. Same goes for the drums, which may not stand out if you see the whole metal scene, but in terms of dsbm they are really more vivid and better staged than normal.

The compositions seem to be narrative, which would underline the thought of the conceptual record. While the first and the last song are using samples of a young lady, which talks about her pain and suffering in this world, the other songs seem to handle an inner war. This could be indicated through songtitles as Wieder Allein, Freiheit or Lebenskraft. The general, depressive atmosphere, is accomplished by a glimpse of hope in each of these songs, as you might hear in the song Freiheit where a shriek guitar melodie seems to set one of those inner wars to music.

Although the songs seem to have those narrative structure, the principle of 1-3 riffs per song still is a big problem, as they add some lenghts in the course of the record. The same could be said about the vocals, which really fit the atmosphere, but due to the monotony of style they lack variation. The last point of criticism are the transitions between the several parts of the songs, as they sometimes seem to be enforced or uncompromisingly bumpy. One of these kind can be found in Wieder Allein as the whole song fades out, breathes through for about two seconds and then starts with the outro, which then ends abruptly after a short while. This might be a stylistic element though, at least in the first and/or last song, where this silence should maybe set the focus on the samples.

Conclusion:


Par Un Sourire is a well done record, that is above average in terms of dsbm. It is in fact such a good record, that I would say it clearly surpasses Nathanaels main project Thränenkind without a problem. The record does accommodate really good riffs, which sometimes reflect the main concept of the song nearly verbally (like you can hear in the last song). Some other points add something negative and others again are a matter of taste, like the incomprehensible vocals.
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nilgoun - http://threnodies.com