Unalternative Quest

Put this effort/band into your must-check obscurities’ list, but only if you really like technical/progressive death metal with a dark atmospheric twist. Otherwise don’t bother as this nice little 5-tracker offers very little outside this definition, these five Parisians clearly determined to give the French death metal scene a more elaborate twist as opposed to the rigorous, straight-forward bash witnessed on the early feats of Massacra, Loudblast, and Agressor.

The guys were not alone in their fight, mind you, as the two early stylists of French death metal Mercyless and Misanthrope were already operational, the former even on an official release stage, but this underground gem went a step up in terms of musical proficiency, being arguably the first sheer example of intricate, atmospheric brutality from the country.

“Express the Truth Beyond” sides with the Floridian brotherhood with its bouncy Death-esque cumulative riff-patterns, a sure leftover from “Human”, but watch out for more stylized jumps and jolts which arrive accompanied by deep guttural death metal vocals, the riff density becoming bigger as time goes by with sudden faster-paced burrows disrupting the appetizing mid-tempo “idyll”. An inauguration second to none also wrapped by deep atmospheric undercurrents the latter dissipated by the brutal rhythms at the beginning of “Devoted to Daring” which gradually gets engulfed by cavernous twisted miasmas ala Demilich, the riffage becoming creepier and more sinister with a frequent alternation of pace where the bass player has a say every few seconds with echoes of the acrobatic walkabouts of Steve DiGiorgio.

“It Drains the Soul” “drains” every ounce and fibre from the early technical death metal roster with striking, virtuous pyrotechnics those prompting Suffocation and Cryptopsy how to fully shape the dazzling brutality movement that was in its spawning stages at the time although these French craftsmen achieve such mastery without too many super-speedy interferences. “The Elite” has a nervy jarring start, and the hectic rhythms remain the backbone of this piece later on although more linear fast-paced riffs spring up alongside great more melodic decisions the latter “duelling” with the superb technical “skirmishes” to an imposing, dramatic effect. “Naked” “gets dressed” with more impressive mazey rifforamas recalling both “Unquestionable Presence” and “Human” again with the guitars acquiring a more atmospheric, darker shade, the approach suddenly becoming more stomping and slower, finalizing the proceedings in a more restrained, doomy manner.

A big round of applause for everyone involved as this was pretty much the underground baptism of the technical/progressive side of the European death metal field, a work of art that came as the shady analogue to Decision D’s “Razon de la Muerte”, Baphomet’s “No Answers”, and Polluted Inheritance’s “Ecocide”, all appeared in close proximity to the demo here. Death metal was still a relevant presence on the scene worldwide with the situation in France looking good as well, especially after Loudblast’s masterful “Sublime Dementia” which complicated the environment over there literally overnight…

Alas, our friends here never took an advantage of this propitious setting; they remained a deeply buried secret of the French resistance, a one-demo wonder, a pleasant alternative to all things modern be it groovy or post-deathy, an invisible, barely tangible presence wrapped in dark atmospheric “clouds”.