Surprisingly, Galibot is not my first encounter with mining-themed black metal, as the Germans in Dauþuz have been exploring the niche for years, albeit from a more Medieval and folkloric perspective. This younger French act has a slightly more modern vibe about them, with a lyrical focus bent more on 20th century industrial era mining, which was prominent in Northern France until well into the 60s. I admit that's a fascinating subject to deal with, and as much as I love the wintry, naturalistic, Viking and Satanic schools of black metal, the older me is definitely paying attention to wherever else this beloved music might journey conceptually. The question is, how does Euch'Mau Noir bis translate this theme into its music, and does it succeed?
This is a remaster/remix of an album a couple years old with another track tacked on so it's still pretty early on in the band's development, which formed around three years prior. It's about as straightforward as melodic black metal can get, and apart from a few sound effects, the machine-like efficiency of the drums and overall performances, and the desperation that this niche create through its surging rhythms, rasped vocals and melodies wrought with sadness...I didn't connect the music much in my imagination with the subject. It's there in the din of the cover photography and lyrics...perhaps in the narrative interlude track, but the sense of melody and urgency created through the battering percussion and ceaseless atmosphere of the riffing has an extremely orthodox black metal feel. There are some female vocals, some slight flourishes of other eccentricities or atmospherics, I think the band I was most reminded of here was Switzerland's Borgne, who have a comparable, mechanical feel to the black metal process, although theirs is more tinted by the industrial music fundamentals.
The drums here definitely feel like a relentless machinery, whether it's the intense fills or the precision blasts and kicks, but often they feel a little too flawlessly monotonous and over the top, where some more dynamic balance would have served the album as a whole. The rhythm guitars are vicious and powerful, but I always got the impression they were only about two-thirds of the way into memorable hooks when they rinse and/or repeat. Vocals are well mixed and full-bodied for the genre, trad rasping but with a slightly suicidal edge to them, but they often follow the course of the riffing without leaving much of an impression. Galibot has a powerful, competent sound to it, but it needs a few more peaks and valleys to chisel out the experience into something more soul-crushingly effective, and perhaps some more ambience, samples and other instrumentation to deliver the rich theming.
Verdict: Indifference [6.75/10]
https://galibot.bandcamp.com/album/euchmau-noir-bis-les-nords
Friday, February 20, 2026
Galibot - Euch’Mau Noir bis (2026)
Sunday, February 1, 2026
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