Throane – Derrière-nous, la lumière (Debemur Morti)
Sunday, 12th June 2016
Because information on bands is so readily available these days, it’s almost too easy to prepare for a review. Social media has pretty much evaporated any sort of mystery involved with artists, while labels are simply doing their part by letting the press know the 5W’s. So on occasion, yours truly will dive into an album totally unprepared, without the aid of preparation. This is not done to amuse ourselves, mind you; it’s to find an unfettered angle on a new, subsequently shadowy outfit, such as France’s Throane.
The one-man project of Dehn Sora, Throne operates in the not-so-subtle vacuum of warped death/black metal on its Derrière-nous, la lumière debut. Relying heavily on production values that cakes echo on the guitars, moves the drums to the periphery, and extols inhuman vocal rasps alongside them, Throane’s side is virtually an entity onto itself. Thus, the hurtling pangs of “Sortez vos lames, que nous perdions nos poings” and “Un instant dans une torche” are resonant for their broad strokes of hollowed-out extreme sounds, where the venture into the otherworldly is made possible by the exact production moves mentioned above. But, Mr. Sora deserves ample credit for his ability to stack sub-melodies on top of one another, and, purvey an atmosphere that isn’t as brutal and punishing as say, Abyssal and Portal, but is just vexing.
Derrière-nous, la lumière (which translates to something akin to “Behind the Light”) is of immense value for its off-hand, almost domineering plunge into the vast chambers of echo-y extreme metal. And as we noted above, it’s more comfortable than you’d initially think, which, in the end, is the album’s (and Throane’s) true worth.
