Mon fant​ô​me 

Black metal could give emo a run for its money sometimes. There’s no denying that emotion has always played a pivotal role within the construction of this craft. But – wariness at presenting a formal schematic for such a subjective arena granted – the emotional content of black metal in its original incarnation, when not geared toward aggression or bacchanalian revelry, was more preoccupied with reverence, a profound sense of loss, or the transgressive joy to be found in the acceptance of our own helplessness in the face of forces far beyond our existence.

Various iterations of DSBM, post black metal or folky derivations have distorted this ethos somewhat. The subversive melodrama whipped into a concoction of emotional catharsis, placing the individual at the heart of the experience. This is an inversion of black metal’s strengths as an artform, and no matter how dominant it becomes in the narrative of the style, I will always view it as an aberration

Enter Bordeaux’s Hordous, and their debut album ‘Mon Fant​ô​me’. This is every bit as mid-paced, melodic, emotionally strained, and plodding as any bog-standard Fen album. But there is a hypnotic quality to the riffs and sequential melodic flourishes that immediately marks it apart from the crowd. Each track functions around an elegantly simple rolling arpeggio that burrows into the mind like a lullaby. This is ear candy, but not in the insidiously popular meaning of the word, the layering melodic character of each track enters the listener at a more fundamental level. Each riff could be immediately forgotten, yet also feels like it has always existed.

Although the traditional black metal milieu makes up the predominant timbral range of this album, acoustic guitars serve as a binding texture via interludes and additional layering for the crisply distorted guitars. Vocals are strained, and a little contrived in their melodramatic pleading, but ultimately serve the music well by adding an abrasive, grim edge to this otherwise comforting sound pocket.

Even when Hordous do pick up the pace on tracks like ‘L’éveil’ they manage to maintain this infectious melodic core that speaks of a fantastical, childlike quality as heartening as it is unsettling. But fantastical in a far less literal sense than black metal is wont to explicitly indulge in. This is a yearning for naivety, a yearning to be enchanted by the world once again and to find wonder in the experience of existing, lost to all as they enter adulthood. Ultimately, despite the fact that ‘Mon Fant​ô​me’ suffers from pacing issues and emotive positioning at times, it works by virtue of its ability to articulate that profound sense of loss and sorrow we all feel at the hands of the passage of time, and the knowledge that the overwhelming exhilaration at the new we experience in our formative years will never return.

Originally published at Hate Meditations