Je suis autrefois

Hard to believe this is only the French duo's second full-length album in something like 14 years of existence but I guess Epheles just don't like to rush things. Once again the guys deliver a finely crafted black metal work with plenty of icy cold atmosphere. The music is straightforward ferocious BM with plenty of steel, grit and crunch combined with quite liberal use of found sounds, effects and delicate acoustic melodies.

After a beautiful though short instrumental introduction with crystal-toned acoustic guitar against a backdrop of glacial synthesiser tone washes, Epheles zoom straight into "Les murmures du silence", a fast and sharp piece with a minimal music style that resembles an insane shaving machine chewing through wood and spewing fine shavings and needle-fine splinters everywhere at a constant clip. An icy ambient sheen covers the song like a fine cut-glass firmament. Trilling tremolo guitar is ever in the background. "Ne meurs jamais" continues in a similar vein with a freezingly chilly ambience penetrated by phantom spirits roaming barren wastelands: this scene is suddenly cut off by a no-nonsense guitar attack backed by robust drumming, arctic-cold synthesiser effects, demon voices and more trilling guitar folk melodies. The coldness can be very jewel-like, sparkling with all the dangerous beauty of razor-sharp ice stalactites about to fall on our heads.

Bells, sparkling musical toy effects and echoing chants reminiscent of church congregations zealously following a priest in a litany beef up the music which is light on actual rhythm guitar riffs and mainly concentrates on building up intense emotion, especially aggresssion and hostility. Perhaps there's rather too much emphasis on cold atmosphere and repetition which becomes monotonous and boring on "J'ai froid dedans ..." - even apparent perfection can be too perfect for many listeners' liking and sooner or later you start wishing for the band to be a little looser and more lax in the way they play on all tracks.

The title track is the longest song and the one with the most to offer in angst, hostility, sorrow at loss and loneliness. The cold pure synthesiser tones, falling like beautiful crystal raindrops, can be overpowering and a bit hard on the ear. While the musicianship is consistent and spot-on in timing, the riffs sound rather like what you hear in other Epheles songs, with little variation in melody and style of playing. A quiet acoustic guitar passage is very repetitive and quite monotonous in its steady strumming, offering very little in the way of variation in playing and volume dynamics, and this has to be enlivened by quite cheesy voice and sound effects suggesting a slumbering monster with a head-cold coming on. Crunchy metal rhythm guitar is contrasted with elegant pure-toned lead guitar notes.

The final track is perhaps the most rock-sounding piece with an almost lumbering drum-beat bearing up under BM acid guitar showers. As with previous tracks there is a quiet acoustic-guitar instrumental passage in the middle of the song and while this includes a field recording of waves rising up on a beach and falling back, you start to wonder whether this is Epheles' default position to show off their range and impress us all with their ability to be contemplative and moody.

Yes, there's plenty of ice-cold atmosphere of a very chilly rather than ethereal-cold-and-dry sort and the band members are consistent in their song-writing, playing and use of studio and keyboard effects, but this seems to be at the expense of freshness and risk-taking. After a while, the songs start to sound much alike due to the same cold atmosphere and general song structure which is mostly fast and aggressive with a quiet instrumental interlude thrown into the middle somewhere. "Je suis autrefois" is rather too efficient and polished for a black metal album, especially one with a lot of synthesiser-based effects and atmospheric wash.