Dis Pater

Appetiser EP to the main course full-length recording coming some time in 2021, "Dis Pater" gives listeners a taste of the music and themes of L'Arbre De Thule, a new atmospheric folk BM project formed by members of Russian sludge doomsters Ad Nihil and some other metal bands in the Nizhny Novgorod province east of Moscow. The two songs on this EP tell of a voyage to the northernmost lands of the ancient world to find and claim the tree of life, the Tree of Thule: the band's name translated into English from French.

After a blowy ambient introduction, first track "Passionary Impulses" reveals L'Arbre De Thule in full blackened folk armoury: surging guitar zing, a full-throated, deep-voiced choir, a harsh ragged lead vocal and furious blast-beat percussion going for its life as if all that energy can make the sailing ships go any faster north. Guitar riffs go scrabbly and crab-like as though seeking purchase on any rocks or shores docked at. The music sounds so fresh and invigorated with sea air that in spite of the 8-minute length the song ends so suddenly! "Archaic Memory" quickly takes up the slack left after a quiet and gentle acoustic guitar introduction: the zig-zag riffs are more distinct and the singing is even more shredded than in the first song. A melodic acoustic interjection and then frantic shrieky BM continue for the rest of the song culminating in clean-voiced choral singing.

The musicians are trying to cram in as much of what they have to offer in a short recording though this means the songs, especially "Archaic Memory", come off sounding as if they've been heavily chopped up and edited to fit into a 15-minute recording. The transitions from full-on raw BM ferocity to gentler brooding acoustic music and back can be abrupt and jarring. The ambient and more emotional aspects of the band's work get short shrift. The shouty vocals start to sound wearying on the second track and I feel some fear that the band has probably expended all it has in the singing and in the choral vocal passages which sound a bit like samples and field recordings.

I guess the problem with these taster recordings is how much the band can or should fit in: do the musicians err in trying to impress listeners or labels by putting everything they have on the EP or should they try to leave something in reserve to surprise audiences when the debut album comes out? Here is hoping L'Arbre De Thule have a few new tricks up their sleeves and have added some new elements to their style by the time the main course is due. In the meantime "Dis Pater" is a tasty appetiser but it might not be filling enough, depending on how long the band takes to release its first album.