TRISTESSE HIVERNALE

Why is this on progarchives? One is left with the feeling that it is only or the sake of completeness of the discography of an artist that would undoubtedly become more and more progressive as the years rolled on. This initial release, however, really bears little resemblence to anything progressive. It is pure black metal (one might even go so far as to call it 'trv cvlt black metal'). Sure, perhaps it is a more ambient and interesting black metal release than you proggers tend to anticipate, but this is still definitely more burzum or dark throne than it is king crimson or van der graaf generator.

Everything here is very lo-fi. The guitars hiss with an almost static-y crackle. The drums sound like your mother thumping an old aluminium biscuit tin. The vocals are not so far from the noise of fingernails clawing on a blackboard, except the blackboard is someone's vocal chords, and the fingernails are dipped in acid. And cobra-venom. And on fire.

And yet...and yet...I like it. I wasn't always a progger, you know. The first album I ever bought was metallica's 'ride the lightning'. I was a metalhead before I'd ever heard of genesis. And this is a good ambient black metal album. Not greatness (at least, not yet) but already our one-man-band showed signs of promise.

3/5 (really 2.5, but this band went on to greatness, so i'm being generous and rounding up)