Review Summary: Solid-but-standard black metal that happened to have been recorded in a forest.
Black metal comes with common criticisms, most frequently regarding the genre's typical disregard for production values. Often times, many feel the need to apply half-hearted witticisms to their complaints, the most common being a variation of the following:
"It sounds like it was recorded in a forest"
Quebec's Triskèle saw fit to apply this notion literally with their 2003 release
Les Murmures de la Forêt.
The record begins unjustly doing the band, and their idea, absolutely zero favours, starting with the typically overblown and unnecessary sound-effect plagued intro, an intro that was not recorded in a forest, and beyond that, is completely and utterly useless. Thankfully "Révérence" answers many questions one would have. Firstly, "Révérence" dispels the notion that the group is a novelty act, its composition standing on its own two feet alongside the admittedly novel fact that it was recorded in the woods.
The track also answers the burning query of, "what exactly does an album recorded in a forest sound like?" Conversely, it also dispels the mystique surrounding Ulver's
Nattens Madrigal, because if you've heard this and you've heard that, you can tell who really took a trek through the leaves. But to backtrack, for those wondering about the album's production, it conveniently doesn't sound too far off from other "raw" black metal. The only real difference you'll find is the intensely hollow feeling attached to the vocals, and the tendency of the guitars to build upon fading riffs, riffs that seemingly float and reverberate alongside themselves.
Other than the introductory "Prélude" and the comparatively pointless "Finale", the band sticks to their guns sonically. Varying in length, the black metal tracks feature the same approach. The guitars and drums echo alongside typical black metal compositions, with tremolo picked riffs accented with the occasional melody. The drumming is adequate, primal and very fitting. Contrary to a lot of "raw" black metal, the instrumentation on the album is simplistic but not sloppy, though the band makes absolutely zero use of the bass, something that could've effectively distinguished them from the pact. Vocally, the album both exceeds expectations and fumbles about awkwardly, often times in the same song. When the vocals are at their best, they're crisp, harsh and appropriately vile, but Skogen (known to his mommy as Dave Jobin) often gets lost, reverting to an owl-like "HOOOOOO" that's laughable at best, intolerable at worst.
And with that, the album untangles. While you'd think an album (allegedly) produced in the forest would set it above and beyond, the production does very little to distinguish the music. While I do believe this could very well have been recorded in the forest, the after-effects are surprisingly minor, and as a listener, you're left with relatively standard black metal, though it's not to discredit the fact that it's solid enough.
Barring the intro and outro, there are no real standout tracks to be found, at least on the positive side. While the acoustic "Ombres" is excellently placed (and complimented by an opening vocal croak that oddly sounds like a creaky un-oiled door hinge), the rest of the songs mostly stick to the above-noted sound. And then there's the title track, a track so utterly terrible and ridiculous that it almost puts me at a loss for words. Almost. The title track is an 11 minute cut that I can only assume was meant to take the listener on a tribal, ambient voyage, putting them in a supposed trance-like state. It doesn't do that. Instead, the listener is greeted with 11 minutes of bland and repetitive drumming that seems lost in its intent; I can't tell if they're mocking or exploiting the aboriginals who once occupied the land, but I can say they're effectively missing the point. To carry on a little further, the track is a repetitious exercise complete with "HOOOHOOOO" vocals, a triangle and no real point, since random noises essentially break the listener out of any trance-induced state the song could possibly have initiated. It's also placed before "Finale", the album's outro that sounds like a rejected Summoning C-side rather than, I don't know, something that would actually make sense.
Pardoning the fact that the first minute and the last 12 of the album are completely contradictory to the album's main selling point,
Les Murmures de la Forêt ends up being a very solid black metal release that ultimately doesn't do enough to stand above the pack. While the little differences created by an echoing forest are interesting, it's really not enough to push this album above and beyond. Still, it's solid, and should definitely be looked into by any fans of the genre (or by anyone interested in a side-by-side comparison to
Nattens Madrigal).
