Les vents de l'oubli

Sacrificia Mortuorum are another example of how I began with the latest material and worked my way backwards. I do it often and it’s more appealing to me. Seeing where a band is now, compared to many years ago, in reverse order, is just more appealing. I’m not sure why, so don’t ask. It just is. As I was saying, Sacrificia Mortuorum are another example of how I’ve done that. I began with the second full-length, ‘Maturum Est’ and eventually found myself at this piece, ‘Les Vents de l'Oubli’.

First things first, are there any major differences? Hell yes there are! To me, this is almost unrecognisable from the latter material, which is what I started with. I was initially very shocked at the differences between what we have here, and what I was facing on the second full-length. My opinion of ‘Maturum Est’ increases every time I hear it. It’s one of those ‘special’ works. You know, the one’s you can listen to time after time and find something new about it which you like? Yes, it’s one of those types of albums. However, this one is not. Perhaps I was under the impression Sacrificia Mortuorum are another black metal band, in a long list of bands, that keeps the same sound for years without changing. In my opinion, if that were the truth in this case, having listened to the second album first, this would have been another remarkable effort from the French outfit. However, it’s lackadaisical. Whilst the second album had a pattern, in terms of song lengths, this does not. To me, this interrupts the flow of the album. It stops and starts with nonsensical fillers positioned here and there. There purpose? I have no idea. They certainly didn’t prepare me for what was to come. In fact, I found myself wishing I had skipped them.

‘Les Vents de l'Oubli’ was the benchmark in the beginning. It was what the band aimed to beat, in terms of appeal to the audience. In my humble opinion, they successfully managed that. The second album is a concise and consistent vision of what the band are presumably all about. The lyrical themes would suggest paganism and national socialism. Whilst the vocals are indecipherable on both albums, they’re much stronger second time round. You can clearly see the intent on ‘Les Vents de l'Oubli’, but it isn’t portrayed strongly enough to hold it’s own for a long period of time. The vocals are nothing in comparison, nor is the guitar work. Essentially, black metal relies on the guitar work to do near enough all the work. Whilst percussion has it’s place, especially when bands tend to use the double bass affect to signify the aggression, the guitars are what makes black metal special.

The riffs we’re introduced to on this album are creative, but strung out. Whilst the tremolo affect does the songs justice on occasions, the album is seen as rather bland. The riffs aren’t as repetitive as I had initially expected, but they create nothing but noise, instead of harnessing at atmospheric quality and expressing it vividly through the use of instruments. There are some qualities which remain the same on the second album as they are on the first. For instance, the tones of the guitars are similar. That fuzz-induced hypnotic hyper-blasting backdrop is essentially the same, but isn’t as affective. I can’t quite put my finger on why this album is lacking, in comparison to the other, but it is. I’d suggest listening to it merely to see the progression made by the band, but other than that, it’s rather mediocre, which makes me sad to say.