Love And Death, possibly the most generally inspiring topics in artistic history, can never be overdone as a concept. Tarnished yes, but never enough where it can’t be rekindled. You would think that listening to any other release Vladimir Cochet is associated with that he would have no affiliation with the pair of words, and yet here we are with a debut of his black metal bastard child Unholy Matrimony producing, without doubt, the most varied and inspired album he has ever released. By far. It’s shocking really.
Love And Death is a very Renaissance-influenced record. This is not the same thing as when bands try and fail to write “medieval” black metal to try to relate to the Dark Ages and epic battles and peasants dying in their own *** because, frankly, that just hasn’t worked so far. Cochet’s influence is more dirge-inspired, as well as forming very traditional sounds with old pianos, bells, harps, organs, and flutes to create the true medieval atmosphere above the melancholy elements. This is most evident in the (guitar-free) instrumentals Le Philtre and Hymne A La Mort D'Iseut. This alone is reason enough to listen if you’re at all familiar with Cochet’s other projects. The rest of the album is black metal with the same influences, but a lot heavier clearly. The production isn’t necessarily raw, but dirty enough to accent the blackened mentality, and the riffs are fantastically arranged and performed, a main attraction in A Prelude To Love And Death where the production really makes the song the powerhouse it becomes. The Feeling Of Not Belonging also brings clean chants and acoustic arpeggios to the table just before blasting into searing riffage and sweltering double bass work, which really is just one of those things that isn’t wholly original but done enjoyably, similar to Amon Amarth in their own respects.
Since the drums were mentioned, you should know that even though Cochet does implement restraint at times with the drum machine, in a few songs, War especially, he thinks as the song gets faster the drums MUST go fasterfasterfasterfasterfasterASADSFASDFHASHDFHA in order to work. Though mildly entertaining at first, it just gets ridiculous after multiple listens. This album’s quality and impact would be greatly increased with a human drummer, and frankly it’s the album’s only flaw.
Unholy Matrimony’s debut is undoubtedly Cochet’s most stimulated and worthwhile release due to all aforementioned qualities as well as being purely impressive. If he employed these elements into any future work of any of his projects, he would certainly be an act to watch, but as it sits there is little besides this debut and the latest Unholy Matrimony release to peak a long-running interest in listeners. Even if you like his other projects, Love And Death is almost a paramount album to look into just because of how well the traditional instruments are implemented and performed. Yet, while Love And Death is too good to be a fluke, you have to wonder where all the talent went after this.
