(written by Islander)
The names of the people in Détresse should draw attention among ardent listeners of black metal whose appreciation for the art goes much deeper than merely skimming the big names at the surface:
Guitars + vocals: S.P. (Lebenssucht, Einst)
Bass: C.S. (Gevurah – live)
Drums: L.S. (Anomalie)
Well, initials rather than names, but with a bit of searching you can learn who they are. What these three have done together from their locations in Austria and Québec is manifested in a debut Détresse album named Pessimismes that will be released by Vendetta Records on May 17th. The words offered in preview on behalf of the label are worth sharing:
This isn’t black metal with flowery post- prefixes or ambient escapism, it’s sharp, emotionally raw, and utterly unrelenting. The riffs cut deep, the drums never let up, and the vocals come from somewhere that sounds like it hasn’t seen light in years.
Lyrically torn between French and German, Pessimismes isn’t trying to be pretty. It’s six tracks of sheer catharsis, coiled tight with anxiety and let loose with purpose.
What we have for you today, as a test of those words, is the first song revealed from the album, “Die Ruhe Trägt“. If online translation tools are to be trusted, that title means something like “The calm carries” in English, but there might be something lost there because the music is far from calm. And while we’re offering English translations, the band’s name means “Distress” and the album title “Pessimisms“.
“Die Ruhe Trägt” bears out the preview quoted earlier. It is indeed emotionally raw, explosively cathartic, and unrelenting in its intensity. It is also distressing, and powerfully immersive.
The riffing is scathing in tone, grimy and gritty in its tremolo’d boiling, while the lead guitar layered on top of that is more piercing. Together they create roiling torrents and surging waves so dense and vast as to swallow up listeners, and they channel emotional torrents of furious bleakness, like an anguished desperation that spawns rage rather than defeat.
That sense of rage and fight comes through in the drumming too, which is relentlessly vivid. Martial snare patterns appear early and later re-surface. As the riffing violently swarms, blasting breaks open. When the lead guitar desperately writhes in distress, the drums pop like gunshots.
In many of its sweeping movements, however, the music is also unquestionably saturated in agony and hopelessness in its troughs, and in its crests it seems intensely yearning. When the lead guitar slashes, it also rings like ruinous chimes, seizing attention when it does. The raw vocals, as they howl and scream with a harrowing intensity that matches the music, manage to straddle the music’s emotional lines, both ruined and raging.
Almost all the way, the bass feverishly throbs, not too far forward but present in a way that further enhances the music’s own fever pitch.
You may find, as I did, that this is a song that’s hard to get away from. No, it’s not trying to be pretty, and it cuts deeply in more ways than one, but the intensity is so gripping and engulfing that I’ve found myself replaying it repeatedly as soon as it ends. It’s an excellent teaser for the album as a whole.
Well, these are only this writer’s interpretations of the song’s moods. It’s worth sharing what Détresse wrote themselves on social media about the cover art, and the album’s meanings:
Created by Noircevr, this piece captures the bleakness that defines Pessimismes, while also evoking a sense of quiet resignation and introspective melancholy.
A reflection of our inner struggles, ever restless, wandering, torn in between. At last, finding peace in the shadows brought to light.
Pessimismes was mixed by Patrick Stoiber (S.P. within Détresse), and it was mastered by Christian Höll. The album features cover art and logo by Noircevr. It will be released by Vendetta on vinyl LP, CD, and digital formats. For more info, check the links below.
VENDETTA:
https://linktr.ee/vendettarecs
DÉTRESSE:
https://detresse.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/detresse.official
https://instagram.com/detresse_official