YEAR OF NO LIGHT - Consolamentum (2021)

The French YEAR OF NO LIGHT exists for 20 years already. After such an impressive time of creating super massive and heavy music, it is not so surprising that the band's celebratory album Consolamentum is not far from a masterpiece.

The album, as could well be expected, is made of "lengthy, sprawling compositions of towering walls of guitars and sombre synths" that emanate the sense of gloomy hopelessness. They can easily start from guitar drones and go all the way to massive and hyper-satisfying crescendos while not really hurrying at any point. Quite the opposite, the compositions take their time to unravel which makes them extremely engaging for the listener, who is not able to go anywhere without hearing the whole thing. It is true for the longest, monstrous tracks like the opening in Objuration and for the shortest but arguably the most exciting Alètheia. 

This last song is even said to be "one of the most agonizing and arguably one of the greatest moments in heavy music of the past decade", and that's no exaggeration as it makes almost 8 minutes of crazy galop with the incredible pace and incredible weight of the sound - it seems unnatural for anything that heavy to go so fast, but perhaps it's the years of experience that make it possible for the artists to conceive such a beautiful monstrosity. The album's title comes from a term in the Catharic Church's lore where it stands for "a ritual that brought eternal austereness and immersion in the Holy Spirit" and that fits within the band's interest in "the fall of man and salvation through darkness". This dark and cathartic music depicts those in the perfect way.

Consolamentum costs whatever you want to pay.

Check: Alètheia

Country: France

Genre: psychedelic post-metal

Label: Pelagic Records

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