Review Summary: Bizarre, weird, traditional black metal classic.
Henbane is one of the most overlooked and creative albums in black metal underground. A strange bizarre traditional black metal album like none other.
Henebane is the second release from Cultes Des Ghoules, and by far the best of their work, technically this album is very standard sound wise in terms of black metal, fuzzy, distorted guitars along with raspy skrieks accompanied by black metal styled drumming, I'd say the vocals are the standout point to this album. They are very traditional black metal vocals, yet they have a bizarre sound to them which creates a very creepy vibe throughout.
The guitar work doesnt use much tremelo picking unlike most black metal, instead consists of heavy downtuned, fuzzy crunchy riffs. Something you would expect out of an early death metal album.
The album is full of bizarre experimentation and atmosphere which in its own weird way conjures up thoughts of somewhat blasphemous witch-craft. Any true fan of black metal will hear familiar musicianship thoughtout, expect to hear early Mayhem, Darkthrone, and sometimes even Beherit. This album reeks of early black metal, yet it never sounds like just another standard band of its kind worshipping the early classics to the point of becoming a blatant rip-off.
In conclusion this is a very nightmarish, bizarre black metal album which fans of the early seen will love, this album beats the majority of early black metal classics in terms of originality and musicianship.
There are not many standout tracks on this the album runs together very smoothly throughout.
Extremely dark, filthy unique black metal which creates an atmosphere very few bands can match. A strange journey through various landscapes, endlessly creating a raw traiditional sound with some of the most haunting melody which endlessly flows together with the horror-themed black metal.
