Silhouette – Les Retranchements
Release Date: 28th January 2022
Label: Antiq
Bandcamp
Genre: Gothic Metal, Doom Metal, Black Metal.
FFO: Lacuna Coil, Within Temptation, Cradle of Filth.
Review By: Jay Creepy
Metal combined with almost operatic vocals isn’t anything new these days, in fact the room is cluttered with Nightwish, Evanescence, Lacuna Coil, Within Temptation….. nothing wrong with it, mostly decent music but tends to move towards the mainstream faster than Marilyn Manson. Silhouette from France are still in that dark place where the beams of light from above haven’t spoiled them just yet. For the record I’m more the split male and female vocals of Basement Torture Killings, but Silhouette are quite different from everyone I named prior apart from Lacuna Coil. LC still have that hard edge to me, and a whole lot of power.
Pictures of the band all stood around some ruins looking moody, sometime arms folded, captures the lost essence of Euro horror flicks from the 70s and 80s. Ascension, the beginning of this album, is calm and soothing, bringing a sense of upcoming doom. Vocals are delivered like those on a folk song, and the backing is atmospheric, akin to the Euro horrors.
La Première Neige has wonderful music, solid without being a ballad, and then mid way kicks your head in by exploding into fast pounding rhythms and noise. But there is a problem. I tried it through headphones and I popped the album onto a peg to try on my hi-fi, once the vocals sound, everything fades way too much, the mix is appalling. I really hope it is a fault on the promo copy and not the release. There is a great back and forth between vocals, and then we are into the old school (with squeaks along the guitar strings) Au Seuil de l’Oubli, the mix is better now, but there’s another problem…. predictability. Same concept and structure as the prior tune. Slow, goes fast, combined lyrics, then slow again. I do like this, but it’s beginning to be a bit too much Cradle of Filth for me. I do wish the lady had stayed with her folksy singing from Ascension as well because there was a true difference that removed Silhouette from the normal path.
Les Retranchements has a killer of a riff to break us in, and clean male vocals (guest Clement Chateau) took me by surprise. It is very gothic but like two people singing in a huge cathedral, then suddenly screams like Colin H of Amenra take over. Les Retranchements is by far the pinnacle of this record. Doesn’t do the slow and fast routine, though the muddy mixing is back shamefully.
Sadly after this the last track then Outro goes rapidly downhill. What a missed opportunity! The band are talented and very tight, but whoever is commanding and choosing the structure and concepts is way too influenced by pop goth – it states on the promo information that Achlys is behind the guitars and composition. Nice guitar work but step away from the rest. Believe me, I really wanted to enjoy this, yet too many obstacles knocked everything off the rails. The write-up has depth, is fantastically worded, but words cannot salvage rough production and predictable directions.
(2 / 5)
