French avant-garde black metallers Glorior Belli are going to unleash their fourth album The Great Southern Darkness. The listener is in for a round of French avant-garde metal, with the same sort of dissonant intensity of Deathspell Omega, but – and this is, the interesting part – with very clear influences from southern metal, sludge metal and post-metal. This blend generates a rather original, I think, but also challenging style of black metal.
There are the typical black metal dissonant tremolo-picked figures and blastbeats along with the harsh vocals and emphasis on repetition, as well as dark black metal intensity. But the southern-sludge elements are ubiquitous, often appearing on top of black metal sections in the form of a twanging second guitar replacing the tremolo-picked harmony that is more typical to black metal (the more traditional pattern also occurs frequently on the album though). Many of the tunes have a slightly more melodic feel to them and, in addition to the more chaotic and intense black metal elements, there are also a couple of almost straight 70s hard rock passage with a set of bluesy guitar solos, while the drumming is - overall - rich in frantic 70s-like drum fills, which suit Glorior Belli's brand of Southern rock inspired black metal very well. While the base sound is unmistakably black metal, the title track of The Great Southern Darkness is a dark, almost bluesy rock track with references to alternative rock and influences from the heavy rock of the 1970s, and with only few elements of black metal.
I think that this album is interesting, to say the least, and I like the blend of black metal and southern sludge rock – certainly, Glorior Belli make it work very well. Fans looking for a new take on black metal, and sludge metal, should definitely check out this release.
Track Listing
1. Dark Gnosis
2. Secret Ride To Rebellion
3. They Call Me Black Devil
4. Negative Incarnate
5. Bring Down The Cosmic Scheme
6. The Great Southern Darkness
7. The Foolhardy Venturer
8. Per Nox Regna
9. The Science Of Shifting
10. Chaos Manifested
11. Horns In My Pathway
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