Review Summary: “Champ du Sang” is a drop in a pool of “weird black metal,” but Vous Autres avoid drowning in exchange for a thoughtful experience.
Drifting between dramatic melancholy and indefinable rage, Vous Autres’
Champ du Sang is a record of two identities. Like most French black metal, it’s brazen in its weirdness and stifling in its atmosphere. Songs like “Vers ce ciel noir” sink heavily with a Deathspell-esque flavor while others, like “Pauvre animal, simple patin,” writhe like something from middle-late era Blut aus Nord. But for every scalding moment there’s one of levity; post-black melodies and soothing ambience bridge the gaps between the commanding plod of grisly black metal violence. “Sans lendemein” begins with a Fange or Altarage flair but spirals down to an unsettling murmur, just as affecting but less pronounced.
“Weird” Black Metal is difficult to find. The genre has spread across the landscape to the point where nothing out there has yet to be bathed in its shadow. But
Champ du Sang is delightful in its reverence for France’s best (there’s even a bit of Gojira in there.)The band’s execution is
well trodden, but in the best ways. Vous Autres know how to spin a good blackened record with all the grime and drama attached, borrowing enough and wildly imagining the rest.
