Véhémence – Par La Sang Versé

Epic/Medieval Black Metal, the best categorisation for the music that Véhémence from France are offering. The French musicians released their debut “Assiégé” in 2014 which gave them some exposure. 5 years later a masterpiece called “Par La Sang Versé” (By the bloodshed) is their newest output which takes you back in the dark age of mankind, full of war, blood, magic and fantasies.

The songs are very melodic and often alternating between mid-tempo parts and blast eruptions. The band incorporates beautiful acoustic guitars in between the tracks, like in “La sorcière du bois lunerive ” which is a real standout track full of double bass rolls, melodic multi-layered guitar work and catchy parts which will make some heads roll (or bang) and splendid clean vocals mixed with your Black Metal shrieks.

The record clocks in at 58 minutes and makes clear that this album isn’t made for just an occasional spin, or better a quickie. You really got to take your time to grasp this record in full splendour but you will be rewarded with a very enchanting, magic piece of Black Metal that in 1 track has got melodies which other bands would fill on album with.

2 out of 8 tracks are instrumental and fit the overall atmosphere incredibly well. The other 6 tracks are rather long, ranging between 6 and half and 10 minutes. Véhémence did well in the song writing and managed to keep the songs interesting. Acoustic guitars, flutes, clean vocals, percussive instruments, violins, there is a lot of stuff going on here and shows a wide range of influences. “L’étrange clairière: Partie II ” for example has some doomy sections besides the skank beats and the twin guitar harmonies, as well as more roaring, deep grunts.

The medieval folk moments are fantastic and should please folk fans as well. The songwriting is upper class and If you understand French you’ll like the record probably even more.

The choir at the beginning and the end of “La fronde des anges ” gives me goosebumps and opens and closes an epic travel were swords and axes reigned, picked with heavy metal references, just awesome!

The medieval touch was also perfectly captured by artist Hyvermor, the vocalist himself. Stefan Traumüller and Léo Buffet did an excellent job with the mix as well.

Dreamlike, fantastic medieval Black Metal, one you should listen in its entirety and one of the best Black Metal records of the past years! Chapeau! (DPF)