Review Summary: Something good blossoming
The UK midlands. Home to Shakespeare, industrial estates, Walkers crisps, Peaky Blinders and post-black metal. Or at least, it is now.
Let me get one inevitable Sputnik comparison out the way ASAP. Corps Fleur’s debut album sounds like what Deafheaven should’ve followed up Sunbather with, and I mean that in the nicest, sincerest way possible. This is a post-black or black-gaze or whatever you want to call it and it does exactly what it should in that sense.
The vocals are standard black metal shrieks. If you don’t like black metal shrieks, you won’t like this, if you do, you’ll get right on board because they’re executed flawlessly here, the only difference is letting the odd bit of humanity come through with a voice crack like at the end of Aboreal, but I think it’s nice to add a bit of character.
Instrumentally, there’s some real beauty here. There are some really nice mellow passages which never drag on too long and always fit in with the song with natural buildups and proper songwriting between the black and the gaze sections and of course, as should be the case, when they go hard, they go hard and fast with blast beats and tremolo guitar riffs galore. There are also some nice mid-paced post rock sections like most of the first half of the broody Lament before it explodes into blasts, which show these guys aren’t just one trick ponies.
Overall, this is a really solid debut album which showcases real songwriting chops and many different atmospheres, often bleak but at times uplifting. From the full on proper opening of the album on Sea of Trees to the ending epic Swansong, this is a damn good time if you’re into post/black/gaze or whatever it’s trendy to call it at the time of reading this, but what really matters is that this album sounds authentic and passionate and not just a rehashing of what is currently a trendy sub-genre.
