YEAR OF NO LIGHT

ZZZZzzzzzzz........Napping in a Mud Pot

Year of No Light is a post-metal band from France and NORD is their debut album. While all post-rock and post-metal can be hypnotic, YoNL is mind-numbing. They seem to know their genre well, but their take on it is quite color-by-numbers. The band insperses sludgy riffs with some semi-clean post-rock strumming and melancholy leads. These are standard for the genre, but none really ascend to the level of cold beauty that some bands achieve. This elusive quality is what separates dull, boring work from the mildly sublime. On NORD, YoNL sits firmly in the former category. Their black-ish harsh screamed vocals do absolutely nothing for me. None of the riffs are memorable. Melodies are cookie cutter.

Some who enjoy the new black ambient works might get more out of this record than I do. If having music that evokes the sound of suffering through a migraine appeals, then NORD is your album. Perhaps sitting in a dungeon in sweltering 110 degree summer heat. The heaviness is there. The feeling of oppression is communicated. Occasionally there is a little trippy vibe that I can identify as something other than unpleasant. But there are certainly no surprises, no signature elements to move this album out of the genre's pack. Frankly, the album is pretty boring.

The clean parts are much better than the heavy sections, but unfortunately those occupy less than 1/4 of the album. Even so, every true post-rock albums has ten times as many good ideas. I reserve 1 star reviews for truly aversive, painful stuff. This is just dull.

The debut album by these gloom mongers.

My approach to this album is from the funeral doom angle. A genre I know well. Year Of No Light may also have had their origins from there...... or the hard core genre. But they have taken a large chunk of funeral doom, added a large chunk of post rock and then filled in the gaps with shoe gaze, hard core and post metal. The result is this album.

Nord (and Post Metal/Rock in general) is the art of mirroring the new generations of drop outs and those disillusioned with the world and their parents generations (including this reviewer..... they don't like me & my generation ! ). The result is disfigured music with black metal vocals and disonant melodies. In the middle of all this dissonance, there is a lot of beauty too. Some of the songs here are great. Some are purely good. But this album never becomes dull.

Is this a great album ? No. Although some of the music here is great, there are some less good things here and it seems like the band was still hunting down a good sound. But it is a very good album and a good introduction to this band. It is a good debut album and very creditable.

3.5 stars

Ausserwelt is the 2nd full-length studio album by French post metal act Year of No Light. The album was released through Conspiracy Records in April 2010. I was fairly impressed by their debut album Nord which was both aggressive and doomy but also pretty melodic. A very well balanced album.

Ausserwelt is also a high quality post metal album, but there´s one big difference when compared to Nord. The already sparse aggressive vocals are gone and Ausserwelt is a completely instrumental album. With the loss of the vocals I think the music loses a dimension but Ausserwelt is still a very impressive album. Imagine how Sigur Ros would sound if they played doomy post metal/ shoegaze. The grand and cold soundscapes that the Icelandic act creates is akin to how Ausserwelt sounds. The music is guitar driven and there´s a wall of sound approach to the proceedings. It´s quite emotionally overwhelming at times. There are only 4 tracks on the album but they last from 9 minutes to 13 minutes each so there´s enough value for the money and more than enough time for the songs to develop. The first two tracks Perséphone I and Perséphone II seques into each other to form one long track. While both Hiérophante and Abbesse are good songs too, the highlight are the Perséphone tracks.

The production is professional and detailed.

Ausserwelt is a good album by Year of No Light and a 3.5 star rating is deserved. It´s purely a personal thing but I miss the vocals and the extra dimension they created in the music. It´s of course an aquired taste if you´re able to enjoy fully instrumental post metal albums.

Nord is the debut album from French post metal band Year of no Light. I don´t know much about the band except that I was pleasantly surprised when I listened to Nord. The album was released in 2006. Year of no Light consists of two guitarists, one bassist, one drummer and a singer who also operates keyboards.

The music is very heavy and I´m more than one time reminded of Isis which is also due to the use of distorted hardcore growling vocals. Year of no Light also has a very melodic and sometimes allmost symphonic edge to their music which reminds me of a band like Shels. There are actually a considerable amount of melody amidst the heavy riffing which suits me fine. In post metal the riffs have a tendency to overstay their welcome but that is not the case with Year of No Light. They do play their riffs many times but they always build towards a climax and their way of doing this always seem to work.

The musiciaship is very good. The band is tight and I especially enjoy the sparse use of keyboards which means that Year of No Light has an extra trick up the sleeve when it is needed.

The production is very powerful.

The cover artwork is well done and gives you an indication of what´s inside.

Year of No Light is one of those albums that moves my boundaries when it comes ot liking a genre like Post Metal. It´s really enjoyable for me that some post metal bands appeal to me even though the genre as a whole isn´t the most exciting music style for me. Nord is so good that I´ll even reward it with a 4 star rating for being very heavy yet melodic and memorable. Great album.

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.

I was had no idea what to expect from a french post metal band, especially a french post metal band with an English name, but spoke french. Anyways the first thing I gathered from this band was: PURE POST METAL! These guys are the most post metal band of any post metal band I've heard: brutal vocals, spacey guitar interludes, primal drumming, soft moments, and absolute blood bath moments. I also noticed that the recording on the vocals was kind of muddy, which was a let down, cause I wanted to hear some french brute scream in french, which would be a new and exciting thing for me, sadly it's hard to even make out a syllable.

Good thing about the album is that it doesnt follow a musical trend that most post metal bands seem to follow, but at the same time the songs are very similar, therefore making the album seem like one long song, which is a very good thing IMO. The album starts on a heavy note, a VERY heavy note, with hardcore-like tendencies to build up, then come to a screeching halt, then brake down with lots of power and emotion, and some times do small interludes with undistorted guitars with delay, drawing on an influence from Cult of Luna no doubt. Towards the middle of the album, the music gets softer, and becomes more instrumental and beautiful, with keyboards letting the music flow, a break amongst the chaos going around. Then it comes back, but in a more sublime way, keyboards now give a backdrop, while the guitars are playing simple power chords, these two elements make the music seem more emotional, making very very fun to listen to.

The first part, very Neurosis influenced with lines upon lines of yelling and screaming with brakes towards the end, repetitive, and not much fun. The second part, sublime, and very smooth, with a constant ebb and flow. The third part powerful and emotional, with the trademark of Isis written all over it. I feel bad for giving the album a three star, maybe upon further listening, I will edit, and give it four, but that first part kills me every time. until then, three stars.

YEAR OF NO LIGHT play a style of music that matches their apocalyptic name. This is Post-Metal in the ISIS mode. With 2 guitarists, a bass player, a drummer, and a vocalist who sounds like he just came out of the pit of hell, YEAR OF NO LIGHT's goal is to pummel you into submission. I gave up rather quickly. I was surprised to learn these guys are from France.

"Selenite" is a great opening instrumental track. It's heavy yet catchy with some Post Rock style guitars before 3 minutes. The second song with the title that doesn't end is rather fast paced with screaming vocals that are down in the mix quite a bit thankfully. Actually this is the case with the vocals throughout this record as they are almost used like another instrument. This song smokes,an amazing tune ! "Traversee" has a slower paced beat with guitar sounds that fill the air. Nice. The vocals 3 minutes in are screaming out but the guitars are screaming louder. The melody is actually catchy but the sound is so loud ! This is a sonic assault like I have never heard before. "Librium" is a short,spacey instrumental that allows my speakers to cool down.

"Les Mains De L'Impereur" is a crushing song with crushing vocals. 2 minutes in a doom like atmosphere arrives with a BLACK SABBATH feel to it. Lots of bass and bottom end.The song does get close to being pastoral before some ripping guitars come in to end it. "Tu As Fait De Moi Un Homme Meilleur" might just have the best sounding instrumental work yet. The guitar melodies are heavy and the vocals are from the depths. Check it out 2 1/2 minutes in. "Somnaubule" is a little faster paced. It's a catchy instrumental that ends with a few minutes of spacey atmosphere. "Prosodia" is another instrumental that is mellow with slowly picked guitars Post Rock style. There is some computer generated sounds to end it. The ninth song has another very long title and the vocals are back. This song has an amazing soundscape with great bass and scorching guitar. "La Bouche De Vitus Bering" is the final song and the hardest to listen to. I usually skip it because the vocals are throat ripping in this slow paced tune.

This should have come with a warning label ! Anyway I really liked it but listen at your own risk. 3.5 stars.