Svart Crown
Abreaction
(Century Media)
Describing Abreaction as a project that took four years to reach the light of day whiffs entirely on its zeitgeist. Nothing from Svart Crown survives when exposed to the light.
Instead, their decadent songs of blasphemy, spiritual agony accented by a few titillating perversions are a breed of rock bottom scum that thrives in only one place: the darkest edges of the human spirit. The fifth album for Svart Crown, and their first on Century Media, has been hailed as a significant notch up of their previous material. The French band, featuring a new drummer and guitarist, last released a record in 2013 but you would hardly know that four years have ebbed since Profane. Whether or not Abreaction offers anything truly new for the extreme metal four-piece, fronted by founding member Jean-Baptiste Le Bail, their latest is an over the top, brutally loud record.
And for the most part, sheer volume spells, formula complete.
As an exercise in that prescription, Abreaction is a smashing success. This is a blunted collection of blackened death metal. From the opening track “Golden Sacrament” through its merciful closer, “Nganda” there is hardly a pause given for breath. Svart Crown doesn’t reprise their core sound; instead, they press inward. Le Bail has been wise to keep his band steered in a single direction toward the sinister heart of a world that has gone increasingly mad. He doesn’t reach for thematic interludes or prog-metal notes on the record, choosing to rip at the seedy underbelly on topics of conflated sexuality “Orgasmic Spiritual Ecstasy” and the religion, on “Transubstantiation”.
Rather than pepper Abreaction with nuance and suggestion, Le Bail has spattered his latest abominations with blood-curdling vocals (like on “Carcosa” which is maybe the best track on the record) and searing guitars that at all times break down the fourth wall, take “Khimba Rites” for an example of the band’s capacity for uniting speed and force. This is my greatest source of hesitation in giving Abreaction a better review than the one affixed above; the production lacks much refinement. Every instrument in the mix feels as though it’s been pushed to its outer limits and left to dwell there. This makes the band feel like they are afraid to reel back in and tease the listener, even on tracks where they are clearly willing to experiment, like the doom laden “The Pact: To The Devil His Due” which feels too altogether blown out at the seams to ponder much.
Abreaction is an exhausting record. My sense is that the description they might have been shooting for was relentless, but that was the last record, a couple of notches back.
