Review Summary: Extremism married to meaning
Pleine Noirceur sounds like chaos unleashed—but with purpose. This is grindcore that knows exactly when to snap the levee and let the waters flood, and when to pull them back just before the song dissolves. The outbursts feel free, unhinged, destructive, yet never meaningless. There is always a sense of direction behind the storm, as if every blast beat and every scream were chosen with intent. Few bands manage this balance: chaos that feels natural, not staged, but still part of a greater design.
The French lyrics give the record a distinct identity. In grindcore, words are often swallowed by distortion, but here they surface with startling clarity. They are intimate, personal, never cliché. In “Sans Racine,” the line “Sans racine, je dérive” (“Without roots, I drift”) transforms blast beats into a portrait of isolation. “An Ending” carries both resignation and resilience: “J’ai vu la fin, elle n’était pas belle” (“I saw the end, it wasn’t beautiful”). These aren’t generic screams of rage; they are confessions wrapped in noise, fragments of lived experience delivered with unflinching honesty. That alone places *** the Facts in the upper tier of grindcore: extremism married to meaning.
Highlights are plentiful. “An Ending” feels monumental, a song that lingers long after the last note. The title track “Pleine Noirceur” embodies everything the album promises: heaviness, bleakness, atmosphere. “Sans Racine” strikes with precision, its weight sharpened by both fury and restraint. Yet what makes the record so strong is its consistency. No track feels like filler; each piece fits into a larger flow, the band refusing to waste a second of chaos.
In the arc of their career, this album feels like culmination. Since Die Miserable and Desire Will Rot, *** the Facts have been pushing toward this level of control—grindcore that stretches into blackened edges, doom textures, even moments of fragile atmosphere, without losing its pulse. Pleine Noirceur is the point where it all coheres. Mature without being tame, expansive without losing speed, intimate without ever becoming soft.
It helps that the band plays like a single body in motion. The guitars grind and stretch, Topon’s riffs cutting between sharp bursts and broader textures. The rhythm section holds the chaos in place, letting it explode but never letting it sprawl. And the vocals—harsh, desperate, sometimes almost whispered—become the thread that sews the violence together.
At 4.5/5, this is not just a strong *** the Facts record—it is one of the finest grindcore releases of the last decade. Pleine Noirceur proves that extremity can still evolve, still surprise, and still carry meaning. It’s music that smashes through walls, only to show you what’s waiting on the other side.
