À TERRE – EMBRASSER LA NUIT
Release Date: 24th January 2025
Label: Self Released
Bandcamp
Genre: Post-Metal, Hardcore, Post-Hardcore.
FFO: Amenra, Fange, Death Engine, Cult Of Luna.
Review By: John Newlands
Embrasser La Nuit is the debut self released album for post metal band À TERRE from Gascony and the Basque Country. Vocals, bass and drums are recorded by Johannes Buff and Pierre Loustaunau, then mixed by Pierre Loustaunau at Shorebreaker studio. The album was mastered by Benoît Bel at studio Mikrokosm.
The band has four previous releases since their formation in 2020, and they have recently had the arrival of new bassist Christian Simon (ex-Lost In Kiev) for the debut LP release. In the press statement, the band poses the question: “Is making Cult Of Luna or Converge really that original these days?” While the band’s aim isn’t necessarily to answer this question, they do claim influences from French variety, hip hop and hardcore to bring something fresh to the genre.
The album opens with ÂCÂB, a slow paced number with some industrial flares (metal clanging etc) and programmed drums and synth work scattered throughout, providing textures that sit nicely amongst the heavy bass and guitar tones. This track warms us up nicely for lead single and stand out track Paris sous les Tombes, an earworm of a track and the one that piqued my interest in reviewing the band. The track opens with an up-tempo hard hitting catchy guitar riff and boasts a real urgency in vocal delivery. Around the 2-minute mark the track breaks, adopts a more downbeat tempo and the guitars become clean and the open hi-hat gives a washy/ airy feel before diving right back into the up-beat riffing and tempo delivered at the start of the track.
Track 3 Prophétie is a beast at 8:44 mins in length and moves back to the slower tempo akin to the album opener and has a guitar riff that feels like its taken from the Amenra playbook. Around the 5-min mark, the track has quite a jarring interlude in the form of an off-beat drum and bass pattern bolstered with atmospheric synths before moving back to heavy guitars and riffs. For me, it doesn’t add, but detracts from the flow of the track.
Nous Sommes la Nuit touches again back to the more up-tempo side of À TERRE and re-introduces the industrial noises/ effects we heard on the album opener. This track also features gang vocals, which totally work in the setting and really adds something of variety for the listener. Again, we have an interlude/ breakdown at the 4-min mark, which this time features programmed drums and a spoken word passage before returning again to the heavy guitar driven style.
The album closes out with l’Appel de la Nuit, which is another epic endeavour which opens strong with a crushing guitar riff akin to the lovechild of Amenra and Cult Of Luna. At the 4:30 mark we are into another interlude (I’m starting to feel there is a pattern here), this time of guitars, before returning to slow doom paced heavy guitars and synths along with the re-introduction of the industrial motifs featured earlier in the album. The track begins to slowly decay to stuttering static and synths overlain with screamed vocal before closing out.
Tracks 4 and 6 (Presque Morts and Tous Morts) act more as fillers with track 6 perhaps offering a little more to the listener and having more of a nod to the world of hip-hop fused with metal but is unfortunately over and done before it really gets started.
Overall, I enjoyed Embrasser La Nuit, and it is, in some ways, a variation on the very standard and post-metal sound that we have been flooded with in the last few years. Instrumentation, particularly the guitar and the vocals, sound well recorded, with vocal delivery varying and delivered with an interesting and intense tonality.
The injection of some hip hop and industrial motifs is very welcome and in some ways refreshing, however, the synth work and industrial noises are somewhat “stock” sounding. These elements are unfortunately not as well executed as in albums such as Year Two by Doodseskader, which has set the bar for me in this genre.
Lastly, some tracks are a little overlong and even as a post-metal fan that is used to long track lengths, I found my attention drifting. Also, the interludes in nearly every song begins to feel formulaic and a bit predictable.
For a debut, this was well done and filled with some good ideas, but unfortunately not all of them hit the mark for this listener. Hopefully in future releases, À TERRE can work to hone and refine their sound.
(3 / 5)
