Monarque/Forteresse/Csejthe/Chasse-Galerie - Légendes (2014)

I knew I was going to like this 4-way split about 30 seconds into the first tune, Forteresse's "Wendigo", which just completely takes charge and kicks ass far more than I'm accustomed to with their music. It's proud, melodic and endowed with at least two of the catchiest riffs I've heard them write, while still maintaining that nearly hypnotic style they're known for, only hitting a lot faster and harder to drive home that atmosphere. But even before that, the idea behind Légendes seemed exhilataring... Four Quebecois black metal acts, four 'legendary' themes from their homeland, Sepulchral Productions. Most of you reading this have likely opened your checkbooks and are no longer reading what I have to say, but just in case you lie on the fence, I'll endeavor to continue...

The quality doesn't end with Forteresse, for next I was introduced to Chasse-Galerie, the one band here I had no prior experience with, whose very name is derived from a folktale. I don't exactly know how a lot of their other records sound, but here the style plugs in seamlessly where the first tune left off with "La Boies de Belles", a fit accompaniment for some French-Canadian Renaissance Faire, mid-paced triumphant black metal which plays out like a hybrid of Moonspell's classic "Alma Mater" and late 80s Bathory. Dirty and oppressive in terms of production, but nevertheless magnificent, with textured tremolo picked guitars and a pumping, melodic bass-line that stands out below the grotesque, growled ravings of Blanc Feu. A good song, flush with its predecessor and will prompt me to track down their older efforts. That said, the third offering, Monarque's "La Griffe du Diable" is perhaps the best of the lot, a raw, melancholic, odious epic which falls right in line with the A-side tunes, only harsher and more sinister via the raunchy rasping. An excellent song, an excellent band, perhaps the one thing I could find lacking is that there's simply not much unique about it, but we're beyond that with really any black metal in the 21st century.

Another wonderful track closes out the release courtesy of Csejthe. "Murmurs Nocturnes" is a mildly more dense and emotional mirror to the prior material in that it offers the same wistful tremolo picked melodies and obscure beauties, only the use of the synth in there makes it 'prettier' perhaps. If you experienced their last disc Réminiscence on Eisenwalde Tonschmiede, you'll be hooked in short order, as the dreamy darkness there is present in spades. But perhaps even more impressive than any one song is just how fluid Légendes flows as a whole...there clearly seemed to be some collaboration here, interaction between the four acts, so that the split seems incredibly coherent and consistent beyond the 'We're in the same ballpark musically, or pen pals, so let's do a split' mentality' that I usually come across. There's no need for the songs to stand alone and compete with one another, because they work in unison as a 20+ excursion into the imaginations of their forefathers, a smooth thematic blend that culminates in continuity for the aesthetic rampage Sepulchral Productions has been on lately, following up the latest Gris, Sombres Forêts, and Neige Éternelle records with honour, grandiloquence, and style. Merci to that.

Verdict: Win [8.5/10]

https://www.facebook.com/monarqueqc?ref=ts
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Forteresse/312227428819928
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Csejthe/177551675679644
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Chasse-Galerie/115247631868318

Forteresse - Crépuscule d'Octobre (2011)

With their fourth full-length, Crépuscule d'Octobre, Quebec black metallers Forteresse have gone a more traditional route for their parent genre. Their music still conjures up longing, wide open spaces due to the heavy atmosphere that its repetition invokes, but the actual music is pretty straightforward, formulaic black metal with surges of predictable chord patterns above which are strung these stringy, thin tremolo lines that likewise cycle themselves almost. The result is an album which unfortunately wears out its welcome too soon. The majority of the songs eclipse 9 minutes in length with very little internal variation or anything much happening, so the band is relying heavily on the listener succumbing to some trance that never really happens here...

I'm not saying that Forteresse were ever necessarily some bastion of creativity, but I found the songs on the previous full-length Par Hauts Bois et Vastes Plaines to be much more expansive, lush and gripping than these. There, the trio had their airy stretches of atmosphere down to an exact science, but this takes a more aggressive turn, with a lot of standard blasting tempos in which the streams of chords never offer anything extraordinary. The melody lines are indeed pleasant, but too often repeated to death. Often I'll feel like four or six cycles through the same note progression are more than adequate, but they go far beyond that here. Some of the songs like "La lame du passé" or "Spectres du Solstice" are little more than two riffs alternating for almost 10 minutes, and while I like how the guitars serve as a windswept plain that the vocals carve into like scythes, most of the songs simply stretch too wide over the same core concepts. It certainly would not have hurt to incorporate a wider dynamic range, because as it stands, the writing almost feels lazy.

That being said, there are still several elusive traits to the music which prevent me from truly loathing it. For one, I like how the vocals, melodies and chords all interact together to feel as if they're always approaching the listener from a distance. I enjoyed the stark ambient intro to the album: "Silence d'Octobre" to the extent that I hoped for more such passages throughout, French spoken word samples and all. Actually, all of the little folkish dressings to the album are welcome. They feel unique, giving us a good sense of who Forteresse are. Where they come from. Where they want to go. If only these features were more prominent throughout the meat of the metal cuts...because they always seem in desperate need of something more. It does feel like the minimalism of the song structures was intentional, and this is a technique that functions well enough with more hypnotic compositional skill, but here the hooks arrive and depart like bird calls in the breeze, to little enduring effect.

Verdict: Indifference [6/10]

Forteresse - Par Hauts Bois et Vastes Plaines (2010)

The titular 'vast plains' of the third Forteresse album are only too appropriate to its sound, because I don't think I've heard something quite this self assured and spacious all year. Written in seven parts, Par Hauts Bois et Vastes Plaines plays out like a solitary excursion across the Canadian north. In fact, the album is best experienced by closing your eyes and imaging the taint of mankind long disappeared, or the primordial forests and grasslands that once thrived before the manifestation of empire and industry. Both celebration and elegy, it is impossible to appreciate this in a rush, so I'd advise putting aside the 36 minutes necessary to absorb it in full. That is clearly the intention.

It's constituent parts do not offer individual immersion, so to center in on any one would be like trying to visually arrest a mountain when you're already standing in the foothills. Better that you stand back a distance, and acquire the whole picture. Forteresse perform in a slow, saddening style in which the drums create a minimal momentum to support the transient, huge structure of the nearly ambient guitars and synthesizers. The melodic overtones are never harried, thus the album's certainty is entirely dependent on the slow, ebbing effect they will have over time, as the dire gasping of Athros navigates the skies like a wheeling bird of prey, seeking to harvest the human hearts that are crushed by the visions of such an untainted, natural majesty as the Canadian wilderness permits. There will be periods of calm in which the metallic elements drop out, leaving the keyboards alone, or joining them with haunted winds, but the lengthy centers of the album (1st and 3rd parts) are dominated by the drums, guitars and howling.

About the only problem with this album is the fact that its never flexible. You'll either be in the correct mood for its resonant expanse or you will quickly tire of its one track purpose. There are few if any dynamics here outside of where the guitars and drums drop out and return. You will not be met half-way. Ever. There is no compromise, and no complexity. That said, if you find yourself in the position to experience this while hiking across the North American vastness, it will very likely saturate your soul alongside the morning mists and sun-flecked fields of frost, so save it for such an occasion and you'll likely connect better with the vision of its creators. Otherwise, you'll have to let your imagination fill in the curves of the land, from the steep rises of the spirit through the hills and woodlands to the rolling, open ranges.

Verdict: Win [7/10]

http://www.myspace.com/forteresse