Review Summary: Ascendio!
Let’s talk about consistently solid bands for a second here; they’re a reviewers’ bread and butter. Imagine going into a listening experience and knowing, just knowing, before a single note is played that you
are going to have a good time. It’s a great and wholesome feeling that’s similar to the vague analogy that follows: Just like a child climbing their favourite tree, finding a new branch to sit and observe the world.
Ascension is another branch on the maturing Regarde Les Hommes Tomber (now read as: “RLHT” for brevity’s sake) trunk. Its songs…these leaves, never to fall from their consistent hold on a black metal grip, resilient to the seasonal push that bares the leaves of other more well-known acts. While the group’s previous albums all maintained the same divinity found in the self-titled debut,
Ascension is yet another solid outing from these French-born magisters of blackened metal. Honestly, I expected no less.
Regarde Les Hommes Tomber’s third studio effort relives the cacophony found in their earlier exploits and layers on the vocal agony of screamer, T.C. and more moody song progressions. The jury may still be out on whether RLHT are sludgy black metal or blackened sludge (with the latter being my preferred description for their tumultuous soundscape), but
Ascension is a massive undertaking. “L'Ascension” sets the mood quickly, firmly rooted to the excellent blending of the two genres mentioned above and similar to that of
Exile (and to lesser extent, of the self-titled), these newer compositions favour jarring, often disjointing atmosphere that embed themselves into the very riffs and powerful screams that permeate the record’s length. But it’s the band’s consistency to their older music and the molten displays of furor that define
Ascension’s excellence. “A New Order '' launches into swarth-ly displays of a-typical black metal, but holds true to the more minacious atmosphere of sludge based music where RLHT’s music screams admonitory prevalence. With all this in mind; Regarde Les Hommes Tomber epitomizes rage, hate and matches it with musical furor at every turn. But mindless hate isn’t all the RLHT brand showcase on their latest effort. The album’s longest tracks (and central features) “The Renegade Son” and “The Crowning” both inject melody into the album’s rather one dimensional features. It’s a trend that surfaces when it’s needed, rather than for the sake of it, rather than ‘because it needs to be there’.
It’s this musical awareness that sees
Ascension rise quickly within the ranks of modern black metal. “The Renegade Son” is bold, sauntering and primal in its design. The simplicity to Regarde Les Homme Tomber’s un-simple music allows for each riff, every subtle melody to cut through a very complimenting production. “The Crowning” is likewise deliberately frantic. After a slower dissonant introduction melody, the saunter comes full circle - although
Ascension falls quickly into the sludge laced atmospherics of their black metal compositions. The album’s shortcomings (few and far between as they are), fall into the somewhat same-y blending that occasionally melds each track into a molten display of a single motif. It’s a small gripe, but no so dismissible to be completely ignored. For
Ascension is very much an album that is an entirety to be absorbed in a single sitting, rather than the individual parts shining separately than the whole.
While the larger sonic landscape found here sits well within its own hybridisation of sludge and primal black metal, the fierceness of Regarde Les Homme Tomber’s
Ascension is a testament grown from their back catalog.
Ascension is a triumph of sorts as this French born magnate defies a mid career slump. It’s unfortunate that even with this sort of consistent success that they’ll stay firmly rooted to the genre’s underground, ominous and unforgiving in design - but there’s hope here that soon, Regarde Les Homme Tomber will receive both the accolades and attention they deserve.
