The Apostates

One has to admit that Glorior Belli has a quite unique sound. However, this isn't always a positive thing and that's exactly the case here. On The Apostates, Glorior Belli plays melodic black metal but shifts further away from this genre as the album progresses, flirting with nu metal in ''Runaway Charley'' and anthemic alternative rock in ''Rebel Reveries''. The first half of the record could come from Watain while the last few songs of the album make me think of Black Veil Brides.

On the positive side, one has to admire the band's courage to break boundaries and keep an open mind. One might also underline the fact that the record progressively shifts in genre, style and tone and doesn't sound all over the place. The versatile production going from raw to polished somehow manages to fit all genres represented on the album.

On the negative side, one has to wonder who is going to listen to such a record. The different styles are hardly compatible. I could imagine teenagers listening to metalcore and enjoying both the genre's heaviest artists and most emotional performers liking parts of this album. Some of the songs on here would fit on a playlist featuring Ice Nine Kills and Suicide Silence without quite recahing the quality of either. This shows how limited the target audience actually is. On the other side, I'm not really surprised that renowned label Season of Mist managed to support such a strange French artist since the label has quite a few fascinating oddballs among its roster.

If anything, Glorior Belli's The Apostates is entertaining because it doesn't sound like anything else, shifting from melodic black metal over nu metal to alternative rock. Once the element of surprise is gone however, there isn't much left since none of the genres performed on this oddball seem to be played with genuine inspiration. The musicianship is unremarkable and so are the vocals. This album sounds like an ordinary band's desperate attempt to get some attention by putting all sorts of genres into a blender. While some bands manage to combine conflicting genres in fascinating ways like Igorrr, Glorior Belli just plods along and doesn't offer anything that hasn't been heard before. To keep it short, this gimmicky album is worth a spin if you feel bored but just isn't consistent enough to be remembered.