When the Last Christians Die

A French band calls its album "When the Last Christians Die". At the latest since the cowardly and murderous attacks that shocked the French capital in November 2015, this title sounds idiotic. Generally speaking, black metal has to think about the question whether the rejection of religion really only means the rejection of Christianity. (Exceptions like Lord Belial's "Purify Sweden" are very rare.) It is not dangerous to be against the Christian church, but to raise the voice against Islam can cause delicate effects in view of a pigheaded minority. But I do not want to make a digression. The second album of Dark Plague is my topic. Two things are true. Firstly, it marks an improvement compared with their debut. Secondly, I cannot speak of a recommendable work.

The songs are slightly better than those of their first album. Admittedly, this was no big challenge. Be that as it may, Dark Plague have integrated a few slower parts that have an almost mesmerizing effect. The riffs, for example the main riff of the opener, achieve a fairly solid level. I would even dare to say that the opening track is a good black metal standard, if we do not complain about the fact that it is slightly too long. Eight songs with a playtime of more than 56 minutes always constitute a difficult configuration. Compactness is not a strength of the guys. Worse still, the majority of the tunes still lacks of dynamism. But the band has learned to handle tempo variations in a more skillful way, although some breaks, for example during the second tune, do not work. No doubt, progress has been made.

Yet there is still so much room for further optimization. The vocals are a little bit more variable than on the debut, but they still appear as an unhealthy mixture of a frog and a dwarf. Spirituality - please do not forget that I am speaking of a black metal band - occurs only rarely. Instead, the lead vocalist sounds like an ill-mannered child.

Some songs are still simply unbearable. "Déliquescence" shows mercilessly that a band can create a track of ten minutes length without any good part. The fourth piece offers nothing but a stupidly clattering snare, the shrieks of the ill-mannered child and pitifully miserable leads. The slightly melodic leads at the beginning of the fifth track ("Doppelgänger") relieve the pain, even though they do not surpass a mediocre level. But the sixth number contains some relatively exciting parts. Despite its stupid title, this song belongs to the better pieces of the album. Unfortunately, the output cannot shine with its sound. Similar to the debut, the production is flat and seems to be made by an uninspired amateur.

The pretty complex song patterns indicate the high ambitions of Dark Plague. Too bad that the guys are still not able to manage complexity in a more or less flawless manner. "Sombre Invocation" is one of the songs that suffer from an incoherent design. Its acoustic break seems to follow the maxim "every good black metal album has an acoustic break, therefore we need one at any cost". Believe me, I would be very lucky if I could write a more positive review. But from my point of view, most sections of the album fail to meet the criteria for thrilling black metal. The formation from France still has a long way to go. However, sometimes it needs just a little effort to get a great effect. I guess that the easiest task is the selection of a more intelligent title for the next work.