NORD

Year of No Light, a postrock / death metal group from French, went through some major stylistic changes in their career. On their debut album the band combines slow burning post-rock harmony played by twin or triple guitars with an almost blackened death metal style. Instrumental tracks and sections like the opener 'Selenite' have a strong sense of melancholy about them, which hits because of the authentic feel of the recording. Nothing too clean here and the guitars have a pleasant fuzz-metal feel. The drums sound a bit lo-fi, but in this case it enhances the liveliness of the recordings. On others songs the band rocks out with intense death metal or hardcore punk energy, but always with a psychedelic edge. On the lower paced compositions the band combines soundscapes, industrial playing and some strong melancholy harmonies. The hardcore punk type vocals and keyboards by Julien Perez are almost hidden in the mix, which suits de desolated feel of the music. I'm not too knowledgeable about more extreme forms of metal, but I like this album for its completeness; different atmosphere, variation, natural sound, tempo's and - most of all - the different kinds of gloomy sadness and feelings of desolation. In fact, the album helps to cheer me up when in need of processing these type of feelings once in a while.