La mort du soleil

About five years on from "Royaume de Glace", this third album from Sombres Forets seems a more introspective, contemplative effort with a greater emphasis on atmosphere and intense emotion. Melody and riffs dictate the nature of the songs with less busyness and more space within. Annatar is allowing the mood and subject matter of the song together to dictate its direction. In contrast with "Royaume de Glace", all songs are now sung in French which I think is a wise decision: Annatar probably realised that his music would have a limited appeal in an English-speaking Canadian market already saturated with Anglophone ambient depressive BM within its own borders and from the US, and he would have found his own language a better vehicle to communicate intense feeling and opinion.

The music has a softer edge this time and a deep cavernous echo effect gives it a three-dimensional sculptural feel. Annatar's singing is more dominant in the mix than it has ever been although his voice can be thin and a bit ragged. There may be post-BM influences in some of the music - certainly the BM tremolo guitars seem less constantly noisy though they are always present. Montreal's famous children Godspeed You Black Emperor may be one source of inspiration. Sometimes the pace is relaxed, allowing for plenty of emotional drama to burst out. Lead guitar solo break-outs now appear but don't usually dominate the songs where they appear.

Although on their own the songs are quite good, bunched together on the album they tend to sound very similar and could just about run straight from one into another and you would not notice much change. A lot of riffs and melodrama is packed into each song and considerable anguish and agony are expressed as well. Over 52 minutes, so much unhappiness and personal torment delivered so intensely can either be exhausting or a complete turn-off depending on listeners' mood. Very few songs let rip with explosions of BM anger and rage at an unforgiving and indifferent world that looks askance at individuals' pain as they struggle through life. There is more melancholy and passive acceptance of dire fate it seems than there is of fury against so much unfairness. One stand-out is "L'Ether" which includes a thumping drum introduction, clear guitar melodies as well as tremolo BM-string texture streams and passages of acoustic guitar wistfulness. Other instruments that feature on the album include piano (especially on one of the middle tracks, "Au Flambeau") and possibly violin and mandolin in some parts.

All tracks are long - quite a few go past the 9-minute mark - and arguably they could have been edited for length as within them there's not that much escalation of intense emotion or other conflict that would result in a dramatic and memorable climax. Entire tracks are pretty much ongoing purges of sorrow and intense feeling.

For Sombres Forets, this album builds upon previous work and extends the act's range much further into melodic post-BM territory. However a lot of BM acts have progressed from depressive BM to depressive melodic post-BM rock in similar ways so this move for Sombres Forets doesn't come as a surprise. It was a significant leap from the first album "Quintessence" to the second "Royaume de Glace" but this move into depressive rock with near-operatic intensity and something of the nature of a confessional somehow seems expected. It's as if knowing that this recording exists, we realise everything Annatar had done so far with Sombres Forets was pointing in this direction all along.

I think now if Annatar wants to stand out from the pack with Sombres Forets and not give the appearance of following the herd, he has to consider sticking his neck out into musical territories far from BM.