L'arrivée de la terne mort triomphante

Chronique

Another year, another release from Gnaw Their Tongues -- and once again Mories is out to create an atmosphere that presumes that the Apocalypse would make for a perfect starting point rather than a conclusion. (Then again, what else can be expected from an album with a song title that translates into English as "Death in All Its Ineffable Grandeur"?) Though, if anything, L'Arrivée de la Terne Mort Triomphante begins with the title track suggesting the after-echoes rather than the explosion -- the grinding factory-about-to-die feeling is almost calm, a slow-burn ritual of percussion, strings, and choral singing combined with growling feedback and harshness that's not too far removed from the worlds of groups like Swans, Neurosis, and even some early Savage Republic. With this relatively calmer if not necessarily quieter mood now set, L'Arrivée progresses from there across its five lengthy tracks in such a fashion as to suggest Mories is singlehandedly reviving orchestral/industrial composition styles from the end of the 1980s, at once magisterial and crushing in impact. The sense of dramatic pauses on "Les Anges Frémissent Devant la Mort" and alternation between near total havoc and the almost contemplative on "Le Chant de la Mort" further underscores how Mories has slowly worked on further refining his approach as he goes -- something that might not have seemed immediately apparent on his earliest work. Having one song end on an echoed, utterly sad string piece overlaid with crackling vinyl/static sound, if seeming overly familiar as an approach in general, feels truly monumental here, as if his embrace of a more serene calm is that much stronger for being such a sudden hush of his musical voice.

© Ned Raggett /TiVo