Basalte - Vestige

French Canada, I love and hate you so much. You have given us such wonderful things like Montreal, with its numerous bars (of both the standard and titty variety). We also must give thanks for that sloppy heart attack known as poutine. However, you are also responsible for the worst tourists I have ever encountered, including the actual French. Waves of classe-moyenne blanche Québécois clog the streets of Southern Maine, driving like a retarded southerners trying to traverse London in a giant SUV, looking for tacky shirts that state the place they visited in neon, and abusing sales people when they can't understand rapid-fire French (and these salespeople can barely converse in English for the most part, cut 'em a little slack). Despite you exporting the worst portion of your population for their vacations (which is basically the same thing America has done to the rest of the world), I still love you, French Canada. You have given me slutty young women on vacation with their obtuse parents, you have given me Malveillance, you have given me Metal Noir Québécois, and now you give me Basalte.

Basalte don't really fit alongside the rest of the Metal Noir Québécois scene. Yes, all the lyrics are in French and they seem to have a decent amount of pride in their culture. Musically they are along the Atmospheric black metal tip, but with loads of progressive undertones throughout. What sounds like improv jazzy runs come to life in the middle of powerful tremolo picked riffs, but manage to do so in completely natural ways, never sounding like it was thrown on as an afterthought or to just be in there. The composition and performance is solid and unwavering. My only gripe is the sound of the guitars. It seems that they are lacking the extra gain needed to cut in black metal. However this gripe is not even that big of a deal to me, I have done the same thing with some of my recordings and love some bands who use low wattage tube amps to play black metal. It just feels that this recording could use that extra "oomph".

I think this is a great first release overall, and one definitely worth picking up. And these dudes can come visit me in Maine any time, first Timmys on me, but leave the speedos at home.