Borgne - Renaître de ses fanges (2025)

Of all the black metal bands out there that go relatively unnoticed, I think that Switzerland's duo Borgne might be one of the most worthy. 27 years of material, much of which is good, and has only gotten better with their infectious recent records like Y and Temps morts. Renaître de ses fanges does seem like a slight step backwards in quality to those, but all of the bands captivating mechanisms are retained for an experience that is overall rewarding. This is 'industrial' black metal, largely delivered through the beats, which are certainly caustic, cold and machine-like, but they're not layering in a lot of the clanking and whirring and techno instrumentation that defines a lot of other acts that hybridize the genres. Really, this is atmospheric and even traditional black metal with the programmed drums and just a few embellishments like spacey, ambient, slightly noisy passages, striking piano sounds, etc. It's not corpse-painted Ministry.

The production is pretty great, just like the last couple efforts, but with an added sheen of rawness, where everything simmers in its glorious, fell majesty. The tracks are almost all on the longer side, from 7-10 minutes, but I rarely felt like any inherent monotony outweighed the immersion. The guitars have a real noxious distortion to them which seems to hover around the chords like an aura of decay, but the melodic tremolo picked lines just blaze straight through, and Lady Kaos' keys settle just below them to create a constant, oppressive level of atmosphere without sapping away from the aggression of the guitars. Bornyhake's vocals are nothing too terribly unique for the genre, but they always sound like they're hovering over the brink. Some of the tunes have a blasted structure, others a more melancholic, mid-ranged flow like the closer "Royaumes de poussière et de cendre". There's still a little bit of a death metal subtext to some of the lower riffing patterns, but not as prominent as on the excellent "Swords of the Headless Angels" from 2021.

And that's pretty much the most negative thing I can say about this, it's just not as packed with hooks as the albums leading up to it. This combines a slightly more primal production with some chord patterns that feel a little rinsed and repeated, not only in the canon of Borgne themselves but black metal as a whole. Renaître de ses fanges is still an effective mood-inducer, you can almost feel like you can close your eyes to this and see the spectral cover figures drifting through an apocalyptic industrial bombed out urban landscape, and there are a few riff patterns in the depths of some of the tunes that are pretty glorious once they're rolled out. The balance of the ambiance to the aggression is also quite nice, I just think the metal progressions don't stand out to me nearly as well as some off Temps morts or Y. Still a pretty dependable effort, from a band I've kept in rotation since at least 2010's Entraves de l'âme, and one that's built itself an enduring legacy nearly as comprehensive as some of their French peers.

Verdict: Win [7.75/10]

https://borgne.bandcamp.com/