Par le sang versé

I personally have always enjoyed the idea of epic/medieval black metal bands. Yet for quite a bit I had no one to really point the finger too and say "These guys are the peak." Then out of nowhere I was recommended this album by a friend shortly after it came out in 2019 and my god I was blown away.

Véhémence manages to combine victorious and triumphant melodies into almost everything they do. Especially the riffs and guitar work as a whole, each riff is blisteringly fast yet still focuses heavily on its melody. Which in turn helps create a thick grand atmosphere. With the acoustic guitar and various other medieval folk instruments such as the flute solidifying and strengthening the atmosphere even more. I also really enjoy the moments when these instruments get their own entire sections dedicated to them. They are nice pace breakers for the album without the need of sacrificing its atmosphere.

The drums and bass aren't far behind though easily keeping up the pace of the album while providing a strong base for everything to bounce off of. The drums though in some ways may even surpass the already amazing guitar work. Switching from insanely fast, firing on all cylinders speed to anthemic war drumming. It never stays as one pattern constantly changing with the song changing around it. And the vocals follow suite constantly spicing itself up to keep the listener on their feet. He has the typical black metal scream mixed with howls, growls, raspy cleans, and straightforward cleans. Which over its near hour run time as an album is much appreciated.

With all this being said I feel this album is a modern classic in not only medieval black metal but black metal as a whole. And though you could argue it feels cheesy in some areas. It would be disingenuous to say this album is derivative in any way to its forefathers. Par le sang versé is a beast in its own right that advances the genre rather than sitting on tired tropes.

Now to first preface this review this is probably my favorite black metal album of all time but I feel the obligation to illuminate some of the shortfalls of this album. This album suffers from what ill call too much epicness and while that is a very arbitrary thing to nitpick I feel like this album suffers from that especially on track 1, 5 and 8, This is most evident on track 8 and while I know the second half of the song is just trying to do a epic close to the album it still drags the song down due to the large repetition. Track 5 also suffers from a similar problem and it is very similarly egregious but this time it is more palatable due to the presence of vocals during that section. Alright thats me done being nit-picky on to why this album is so amazing.

I'll start off with the guitar work and for this album it is superb. The riffs are not too overbearing and the overall high production value/mix of this album compliments that leading to the guitars overall sounding great. The guitars are perfectly technical and variation to riffs is always added when needed to progress the song further. While the guitar work is great the bass suffers on this album from a lack of attention that is commonplace in black metal when compared to the black metals contemporaries i.e. death metal. The drums on this album perfectly suit the speed and variations that are so prevalent especially with all the acoustic breaks and epic sections. The drums do not drown out the rest of the band while still being very audible and sounding great.

One of the first things someone will notice while listening to this album is the medieval aesthetic utilized here both visually on the album cover and musically in both the instruments used and the song structures of nearly every single song on this album. Now i'm not great with identifying medieval instruments but if the lineup on this site is correct both the guitarist and the vocalist both played different folk/medieval instruments such as the psaltery and the flute which really demonstrates the talent of those musicians. To examine song structure I will be mainly looking at one song in particular track 2 which seems to have the most fluctuation song structure. The song begins furiously with a great scream accompanying it, the riff continues alongside the vocals until the song reaches its first hiccup with a small acoustic break only about a minute and a half into the song, This immediately sets the tone for the rest of the song but this break is only temporary and the song continues back into a flurry of amazing riffs and eventually the song reaches a peak after what can be considered a small guitar solo and the song enters the bridge. The vocals follow the guitar nearly note for note helping establish that harmonic atmosphere.

All of those elements create an amazing album deserving of extremely high praise this is the pinnacle of the genre.

To preface this review, I had no prior knowledge of this band and was not recommended to it by anyone, it came upon my own stumbling on Bandcamp. I saw the album cover artwork and the French name of the band and was immediately reminded of the illuminated manuscripts of the Middle Ages, which depict some of the most beautiful illustrations of life and history from hundreds of years ago. I thought I would take a gander at this project, and while I did expect some form of 'medieval' black metal, I was in no way expecting this to be one of the greatest masterpieces I have heard in quite a while. This album is very special, and while it is very difficult to try to describe music to someone through text, I will give it my all to tell you everything I can to convince you to check Par le Sang Versé out.

First off, the vocals are a mixture of everything I love about the broadness of black metal. I believe there is one vocalist named Hyvermor in the record according to online sources, but this guy manages to evoke the voices of some of the very best. By that, I mean there are times where his voice is similar to the gritty shouts of Thurios from Drudkh to the screams of Austin from Panopticon to the lower growls of Nathan from Wolves in the Throne Room. There are also incredible folk elements to many of the songs that include whispers and monologues as well as a backed chorus echoing the vocalist's screams. The chorus is an enchanting success in fusing folk metal with black metal, and its moments especially heard in L'Étrange Clairière : Partie II that are some of my favorite. There's also a part in La Dernière Chevauchée with these dramatic keyboard trumpets, a militant drum pounding in the background, and the chorus behind the vocalist as he shouts declarations of some sort that could be envisioned as the rallying cries of a militia before war. I also hear an impressive entanglement of moments where the vocals lead the guitars and vice versa; it is so obvious that the members of this band were trying to make something that was engaging and exciting to remember.

The guitars are also out of this world. They are incredibly melodic and geared to be eclectic and memorable. Frankly, the riffs are all so catchy I can't think of one that seems off from the rest. In terms of inspiration, I definitely hear Agalloch and Dissection, the two of which are near impossible to get close to by most, but this band manages to play as equals to those two. That alone is impressive. The guitars synchronize beautifully, and while elegant, are easily capable of taking your breath away like a cannon slamming your chest. There is a 2-minute acoustic solo accompanied by a flute and chirping birds towards the end of the album, and you can't help but imagine a lone traveler journeying through the French forestry to better or worse. I can't emphasize how much the ambiance and riff-work are capable of teleporting you to another time and place far from where you stand now back into the Middle Ages, a time of great uncertainty and war with moments of peace that were long needed and long cherished.

I am so thankful to the drums for not getting in the way as well, in addition to the ambient noises. The drums are excellent throughout the whole album, they have moments of absolute pummeling and fast blast beats as well as what can only be described as a sort of marching rhythms. Just like the drummer boys of past battlefields, the percussion directs the songs in directions you cannot ever expect; yes, it's melodic, but that doesn't mean you can anticipate the songs by any means. The ambiance does use a lot of artificial sounds but sparingly in the sense that each second is not chock full of sounds of nature or sword fighting but is used when it can add to the music. The third song called L'Étrange Clairière : Partie I, however, is an impressive display of what one can do with those sounds; this project somehow manages to use a select few sounds of a sword unsheathing and coins jingling from a pouch while accompanied by an incredible flute in creating a sort of physical theatre of rhythm. If you have ever heard or seen Stomp on Broadway, this is the black metal version of Stomp.

I think what stands out also from the band is that they don't try to sound 'evil' so much as they are trying to convey a time in history that was important to them and to Europe, emphasizing that the Middle Ages, while hundreds of years ago, still play a role in how French society and history is being shaped even today. Having listened to Par le Sang Versé about half a dozen times now, I can firmly say that I have no favorites, this is one of those records that are best heard in its entirety. While most of us in the underground probably listen to albums in their entirety anyway on vinyl, I feel even leaving the room during one of the songs takes away from the whole album. Each song is an important sort of dialogue to the next song and so skipping any of them would be the equivalent of skipping an entire page of a cooking recipe. Altogether, this album is something I rarely hear in the underground today but I think it is these sorts of albums that keep us anticipating and continuing to listen to black metal even after nearly thirty years. Véhémence has probably created one of the most creative displays of art that I have heard in a very long time, and I see absolutely no wrong in the making of this record. I hope to see this album out on vinyl soon and I hope to see more people talking about this project.