I am going to, Rouen in Normandy, among other places. So I have been psyching myself up for the trip with:
This is black metal from France. Prettier than say, Pete Noire, but pretty raw. A friend had this on their last blizzard playlist and I really love the low-fi but intelligible production, the. atmospheric but succinct songs and the riffs. There's enough accoustic stuff for flavor but this isn't a folk-metal album. I like the reverb-heavy lead guitar you hear in a bunch of the solos.
Caverene - Aux frontières du monde
Really great mid-tempo somewhat atmospheric black metal. I'd like this a lot if it was just a succession of tremelo picking and blast beats interspersed with triumphant lead guitars but they do a good job of mixing up tempos and rhythms. I really did the shrieking vocals - I think they have a lot of emotional heft. And I love that lead guitar line. These guys remind me a bit of Fortresse but maybe just because they play a style of very forceful but melodic black metal and both speak French.
Yeah, everyone knows this album. It's great. I picked it up at the Dark Descent sale along with Blood Incantation's discrography. When I first listened to it on bandcamp I definitely preferred Ecdysis but this has really grown on me. I like the variety of the approaches that they take. "Polaris" sounds like an outtake from The Sound of Perseverance, while the later part of "Acolytes" sounds almost like...post rock?