NATURE MORTE: Oddity (BLACK METAL): review / opinion to read on Music Waves

At the risk of repeating ourselves, Nature Morte is definitely not your average (black) metal band. Is it even really black metal? The Frenchmen respect certain invariants, from their flayed vocals to their eruptive blasts, not forgetting the rainy melancholy that soils compositions in which every trace of joy is spurned. But equally enamored of freedom, the trio flouts the imposed rules, loving to muddy the waters and follow a winding path that never really takes them where they might first appear. Indeed, it would be tempting to confine Nature Morte to the intimate blackgaze to which Alcest has lent its credentials, an influence that its members also claim.

And yet, there's always this desire to lead us astray, to disrupt a reading process that is difficult to pin down thanks to numerous details. "Oddity" is no exception. It does even more than that. The astonishingly brightly coloured cover is the first contact with the album, and sums up the French band's constant desire to break away from codes. The (bonus) cover of a Deftones song ('Fireal', taken from "Adrenaline") to close the ban, a band clearly light-years away from the black metal universe, doesn't say otherwise. It does, however, reveal that the band's roots lie less in the Norwegian Great Old Ones and elsewhere, and more in the grunge scene, to the point where they have even coined the unlikely label of indie metal.

The result is more curious than ever, if not elusive. 'Bruises & Lace' has typical black metal features (toad voice, furious accelerations...) but oozes a greyish spleen that ties it to post rock, while its generous length (almost nine minutes) adds a torrential dimension. Longer still, 'The Pier' drapes an almost romantic fragility over a harsh underpinning. Skeletal, 'Here Come The Rain' embraces singer Cindy Sanchez for the duration of a vaporous breath that is neither dark nor harsh.

Little by little, as the tracks unfold, we realize that each of them seems to occupy a precise, well-defined place in a whole that flows peacefully but not without a muted menace pulsing beneath the surface. New Dawn', 'Monday Is Fri Day' and 'Banquet Overflow For The Mind House' shine with a dark, experimental force, forming a kind of triptych which, positioned at the center of the listening experience, constitutes both its heart and its goal, the destination of an intimate adventure that the very coldwave 'Nothingness' (with guest Lionel Forest) seems to want to close on a gentle, albeit melancholy note, before the terminal 'Untitled' poisons this conclusion with a noisy crash, leaving more questions than answers about an album that's more disturbing than it looks.

Far from diktats and imposed rules, Nature Morte continue to shape their more-than-elusive identity with "Oddity", their most audacious record, melodic, tender at times and yet no less black metal. Therein lies the paradox of a band as unique as it is precious. - Official website

NATURE MORTE

ODDITY

AUTRE LABEL

BLACK METAL