Meet Us at the Southern Sign

The underground elite have been shouting it out for some years now, but I will also say it too: the French underground black metal movement is a seriously, and bewilderingly, strong one. Infact I'll stick my neck out and champion it as better than Norway for it's crop of current (read as last 5 years) bands. Another feather in the cap is Glorior Belli from Auxerre who have recently released album no. 3, "Meet Us At The Southern Sign".

The strength of France's key players (Deathspell Omega, Antaeus, Blut Aus Nord, Arkhon Infaustus and Glorior Belli) is that they all sound different from each other, having drawn upon the well of the vast classic library of Scandinavian BM, dragged it into a new century and in the process made the job of BM's naysayers that bit more difficult. The discordant chord progressions fronting opener "Once In A Blood Red Moon" and the spacey Down or "Planet Caravan" feel (you guess the band) of "In Every Grief-Stricken Blues" should be enough to convince you that Glorior are no one trick pony. They are not here to blast incessantly for Satan like 1000 other bands. These 2 or 3 guys (its not always easy to tell) know how to write an album of songs and the resulting feel of a closeted crusty BM feel similar to Secrets Of The Moon, recent Nachtmystium, and Drudkh is a huge compliment to Glorior Belli.

I have insulted bands in the past for using too many flavours across the space of an album but "Meet Us..." is not going to receive such dismissals. Perhaps because I like the 'similar' bands so very very much but the feel of Ukrainian hermits Drudkh in "Nox Illuminatio Mea"; the Enslaved-feel of "There Is But One Light"; and general similarities to Secrets Of The Moon are indicative of a band writing a variety of songs, rather than one undecided upon which seat to sit. Experimentalism is a word under-used in BM which arguably is more fantastically diverse than any other (sub-)genre of real metal these days yet Glorior, a band whose name at least prior to "Meet Us..." wouldn't get them a place in the 'BM Premier League', flirt obsessively close with the term. The band are no Agalloch, casting aside every genre pre-conception in the name of individuality, but tracks like "Swamp That Shame" subtlety demonstrate Glorior's latent potential.

Knowing certain others will pick up on it, for the most part the vocals of Infestvvs are more prosaic than the guitar tone and song structuring behind him but a dry hoarse delivery like this I'll take any day over the gargled shriek of corpsepainted-Darkthrone-clone no. 2675 and with it I leave the album feeling satisfied and contented. Also, knowing confidently that is a very good album because after numerous listens I can just feel that with a continuation of this style, Glorior Belli are destined to drop us a real classic.

Originally written for Rockfreaks.net.

Progression is often a grey area within black metal: too much can be as crippling and off-putting as too little. Famously, this argument rages within the ever-divisive DARKTHRONE debate. Has a clearly seminal band turned its back on legions of fans and aspiring imitators and contemptuously morphed itself into a blackened heavy metal/punk outfit wagging a stiff middle finger in the face of all they once stood for?

Some would argue that DARKTHRONE have never changed and that punk elements can be found in their earliest offerings as a black metal band, and they’d be right, but is it their attitude, rather, that divides people.

As such, it is the waft of progression and its (de)merits that hovers around the ridiculously titled ‘Meet Us At The Southern Sign’ from GLORIOR BELLI, a clearly talented member of the contemporary French BM troupe and consequently, proof that talent is sometimes wasted, or at least misused.

Unleashing filthy, serious and memorable black metal on their debut full-length, ‘Ô Laudate Dominvs’, GLORIOR BELLI appeared agleam, like a French version of WATAIN, musically, lyrically and aesthetically. This was facsimile done correctly, for once. 2007’s follow-up, ‘Manifesting the Raging Beast’, stuck to the formula found on ‘Ô Laudate…’ but added a little “developmental” polish, all expected for a second, and possibly more comfortable, full-length.

‘Meet Us…’ continues the sound forged on ‘Manifesting…’ with obvious hints of OBSCURUS ADVOCAM, but quickly strays into unfamiliar territory that is simultaneously perplexing and strangely interesting. The incorporation of bluesy undertones, a shouted, “clean” vocal style (as opposed to the typical black metal rasp), instrumental sections and welcome tempo mixtures apparently herald a completely different direction for this band.

The track, “In Every Grief-Stricken Blues”, even wields a definite DOWN feel with vocals akin to a mixture of Phil Anselmo and Ozzy Osbourne in its opening moments. Perhaps revealed by its title, there is an overall “southern” vibe to the album’s proceedings.

Production quality is crisp and defined and while it is a richly layered and textured release, there is an overall limp sterility to it. When blues experimentation ceases, the more typical black metal tracks found on this record are sorely lacking when compared to what the band is clearly capable of, as demonstrated by their two preceding full-lengths. In fact, the actual black metal tracks presented here seem like scraps from the table of ‘Manifesting…’ - fillers that never quite made it.

Glorior Belli did it again. After a little regression, in my opinion, with the previous “Manifesting The Raging Beast”, released two years after a stunning first full length as “Ô Laudate Dominvs”, their best release until 2009, the French band comes back with their best work in terms of quality, riffs, fury, anger, melody and a bit of bluesy influences in a few songs that fits perfectly the atmosphere of this masterpiece.

The return of the drummer Antares, who had recorded the first effort of the band and was lately substituted by the Italian M:A Fog, seems to have brought back something that was missing on “Manifesting The Raging Beast” and now completes what was left unfinished, hoping that his new departure from Glorior Belli will not cause negative effects.

The album starts with a hypnotizing sound that soon evolves into a furious and fast black metal, the sound of French black metal, that changes another time into a blues influenced black-hard rock melt with clean and screaming vocals fitting perfectly this special atmosphere, and finally has back an anticlimax. There’s no place for boredom or tiring moments full of nothing or silly ideas: every riff is thought to be the perfect melody to fit the entire song and to succeed the previous one.
“The Forbidden Words”,” Swamp That Shame”, “In Every Grief-Stricken Blues” and “Nox Illuminatio Mea” are perhaps my favourite tracks on this release.

GB can now be considered with no doubt as one of the best band from France along with masters such as Blut Aus Nord and Deathspell Omega: people who have no fear to experiment with other genres, although in a bigger way than them.