Reflet Crépusculaire

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Band(s): Reflet Crépusculaire
Label(s): Self-Released
Release Format(s): Digital
Release Year: 2024
Review Date: March 25, 2024
Author(s): FelixS

Out of the deepest and darkest corners of the French underground Black Metal scene comes Reflet Crépusculaire, one of the acts that has been intriguing me ever since I first heard it. In the time span of only one year the one-man act released no less than four EP’s. The last three of which form a triptych that were also released together on a compilation tape in 2023. That same year also brought us a split tape with Illuminated Manuscripts from Estonia, so it did not take Reflet Crépusculaire too much time to get a decent discography together and to show the band’s musical direction.

With all these short players, Orbius Tertius, the musician behind the band, must have felt he was ready for a full-length. And that finally materialized into what has become ‘Vanished Scripts’, a 40-minute long exercise in some dense and raw sounding Black Metal. Musically, ‘Vanished Scripts’ is not much of a real departure from the music that was offered on the previously released recordings. The very core of the musical identity of Reflet Crépusculaire has been pretty much the same throughout the full stretch of the band’s existence: Raw Black Metal with plenty of atmospheric elements. Yet, the ideography of the aforementioned triptych had a more distinctly dreamy character for the more prominent use of Dungeon Synth/Dark Ambient.

Compared to those earlier recordings, ‘Vanished Scripts’ is a more straight forward Raw Black Metal affair, but although for the most part it leaves out the dreamlike elements, it does not compromise on the overall atmospheric nature of the music. It reminds me of the Black Metal demos of the less fierce side of the late 90’s and early 00’s that, at the time, were starting to surface in large numbers. You could argue that these demos were reinventing the juncture of Raw and Atmospheric Black Metal, both hailing the straight forwardness of Darkthrone and Gorgoroth and the more intricate ways of forging the genre by the likes of old Ulver and Borknagar, with Taake most likely being the main example of that resurgence. I particularly do feel an echo of Taake, maybe a bit less ferocious, in ‘Ceremonial Litany’, not least because of the convincing howling vocals.

Wrapping things up here I will admit I really loved the earlier recordings of Reflet Crépusculaire for its thoroughly alluring atmosphere, this slightly new take on the same recipe is just working fine as well. Those who have been into the band’s first releases can just rest assured as the basics of the French Black Metal (Les Légions Noires) and its take on the rather Lo-Fi, Raw and even cold folky aesthetics of the genre are still very much part of the band’s musical identity.

VM-UNDERGROUND

Extreme Metal Fanzine est. 2012

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Reflet Crépusculaire – Vanished Scripts

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