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Sael: The sixth extinction

14/10/10 || cadenz

Another interesting black metal debutant, Sael from France, approach us with “The Sixth Extinction”. It is an intriguing three-quarters-of-an-hour, with quite diverse aural innards. The heart and soul of these Frenchies is brutal yet melodic, semi-chaotic and semi-progressive black metal. Many tracks are tremolo/blastbeat-oriented, but slower passages such as the ending of “The Venom” break off the battering when needed. We’re also in for some weirder proggish riffs and thrashy down-picking, but Sael have managed to arrange most of the parts in every song as well as is needed for a red thread to be discerned.

The production is good but nothing exceptional, every instrument is clearly audible (thankfully even the bass, more on that later). The musicians pull off their stuff well, good drumming and guitarism though the solos don’t quite convince me. The shrieker/growler’s rasp is OK and the occasional clean vocals sound nice, but a tad off-key. Maybe that’s intentional though, fuck do I know. The very sparse use of keyboards makes them instantly pop up to the surface whenever they decide to appear from their hideout, but I can’t say they do that much of a difference really. Maybe that’s intentional though, fuck do I know.

I have to give an extra mention to the bassist MGP (Massive Glorious Penis, I presume?). His imaginative bass lines often differ from the guitar riffs, bringing much welcomed depth to the texture. Many bands/bassists forget to explore the possibilities of this noble instrument, but Sael’s bASSman gives us cool stuff like the wandering chops (on what sounds like a fretless bass) during the fusionesque interlude on “Priest of Nothingness”. Also, the numerous unruly and uneasy bass lines beneath chordal tremolo riffs and blastbeats bring to mind Ulver’s “Bergtatt” and “Nattens madrigal”. The Norwegians seem to be a big influence, even judging by other standards, such as the Garm-ish clean vox at the end of “Mantra of the Fourth Age”. Other bands that Sael remind me of are < c o d e >, Pantheon I, Enslaved and early Satyricon.

The, in black metal oh so crucible, atmosphere on “The Sixth Extinction” is aggressive and chaotic but not that evil. I can dig along to the tracks and they’re all quality songs, but I don’t feel the oppressing aura of blackness that should emanate from all truly great BM recordings. I’m not saying that Sael’s first-born is soulless, but it is somewhat lacking on the ev0l department. For a debut, this is very solid stuff and I hope next time they can dig deeper into the fiery pits of the abyss of their collective soul and conjure forth an even fiercer and more malignant behemoth. Just turn on VH-1 if you need motivation for genocidal rants.

Also, please hire a better cover artist – that looks like a fucken depiction of an utopistic North American war scene, where the Statue of Liberty is being drowned by a fucken red maple leaf in the gray waters outside Newfoundland. Let me now make the totally unnecessary remark on how fucken stupid that looks. Maybe that’s intentional though, fuck do I…yeah, you know.

7,5

Information
Released: 2010
Label: Pictonian Records
Website: Sael MySpace
Band
Serge: vocals
Iconoclast: guitars, backing vocals
Arioch: guitars
MGP: bass, FX
Py Marani: keyboards
VR: drums

Tracklist
01. Being Judas
02. Priest of Nothingness
03. The Venom
04. Mantra of the Fourth Age
05. Inner Wrath
06. I Searched for the End of the Spiral
07. The Sixth Extinction

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