Anouof thwo

With a name like Hellébore (curiously enough, Google reveals that it's a plant, though spelt without the accented 'e'), and an album title which clearly isn't in any language in existence, Anouof thwo might as well be a black metal album made by aliens. And judging by the music on it, that wouldn't be an inaccurate description.

Aside from the intro and interlude (which are primarily synth noodling), there are only three real songs here. The first, Aootw, revolves around simplistic tremolos riffs drenched in warm 80s synths, resembling a less suffocating version of Darkspace. Both guitars and vocals achieve a very faded, blurry sound which captures the atmosphere of being lost in space pretty well.

Unfortunately, this effect is marred by the nauseating drum programming. Right at the forefront of the mix, they sound fine when played at relatively normal tempos, but are reduced to an awful mess of haphazard clattering whenever a quadruple time blastbeat kicks in. And Aootw has plenty of these.

Les Martiens étaient là..., begins with a laughably cheap synth intro, before exploring a multitude of different themes in its 19-minute trippy mindfuckery, which range from wacky tapping riffs, to moody, lead-driven dirges, to straight-up blackened thrash riffs. Despite its lengthy duration, it's a lot more interesting than Aootw. The slower tempo employed also makes the shitty bass drum sound less of an issue. The closer, ...réfléchis dans l'eau, rounds off the epic with more synths, some weird acoustic guitars, and a pummelling finish, where the synth intro of the previous track makes a motific return.

Anouof thwo is by no means a bad record – especially for a debut; it's got the right mix of catchy riffs and more atmospheric parts, as well as a rather unique approach to atmospheric black metal (much like the German band Galaktik Cancer Squad). However, a bit more subtlety in the drum programming department would have benefited this album greatly.

Dark, yet bright as a cloudless sky in the middle of the night, Hellébore is a one man atmospheric black metal band from Québec City. Given the plethora of “metal noir” bands in the Belle Province capital, this one comes nonetheless as a refreshing comet in the genre’s horizon.

Anouof Thwo was made available online, and then released on cassette in 2013. Despite the forty minutes length, this album is (mostly) articulated around two long songs, “Aootw” and “Les Martiens étaient là...”, the former being without a doubt the best moment of the album. We also find two short intro / interludes, “Étoiles d’eau” and “Udrea”, and one 6-minutes progressive song, “... réfléchis dans l’eau”.

Lo-fi and visibly homemade, it has the primitive, raw emotional charge of a constellation of other black metal bands. Nonetheless, one particular quality caught my attention and showed that Hellébore has something distinct from the mass. As expressed by the cover artwork, Anouof Thwo has a certain “naivety” of ideas, one that is natural for newcomers, but harder to retrieve for a seasoned musician. It takes the shape of weird electro sounds and questionable programming; a very slippery slope that could normally require a project to stay anonymous, but in some cases, like this one, it just happen to become the magic ingredient that sets the band apart. Hellébore integrates loop reverberation over the guitars as well as 80’s space-like synth effects to create a captivating soundscape. Sprinkled over the music, it adds a lot to the atmospheric quality of the whole. Also, positioned in the middle of the five songs, we find an interlude called “Udrea” whose electro/trip hop rhythmic, keyboards and off voice (samples?) bring a short and uncanny momentum between the long black metal songs.

Visibly a one-man thing, it is not a surprise to find programmed drums on Anouof Thwo. Along with the repetitive and hypnotic guitar riffing, the oversaturated vocals, and the rich layers of synth in the distance, it brings Hellébore closer to the universes of Neige et Noirceur and Poète Maudit.

It should be obvious at this point: Anouof Thwo includes incomprehensible names and meanings–or maybe it’s just me who couldn’t find the meanings–making the project obscure and mysterious... Other titles such as “Les Martiens étaient là” (Martians were there) give another reading however, one that is not as serious and that makes me think the Maker of Hellébore is having fun with us.

Overall, this black star is a good discovery. With its odd alien flavour, Anouof Thwo is a very interesting addition to the Quebec atmospheric black metal landscape. Let’s hope Hellébore picks up on these strengths and releases a follow up to this odyssey sometimes in the near future.

-TheBlackHull
[Originally written for theblackhull.blogspot.ca]