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Déluge - Ægo Templo review




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Reviewer:
8.0

35 users:
7.26
Band: Déluge
Album: Ægo Templo
Release date: November 2020


01. Soufre
02. Opprobre
03. Abysses
04. Fratres
05. Gloire Au Silence
06. Ægo Templo
07. Baïne
08. Digue
09. Béryl
10. Vers

Why merge black metal and post-hardcore to create a filthy violent sound, when you can merge them to create an intoxicating beautiful one?

You may remember Déluge's debut mostly for it's love of blast beats. As one of our fellow reviewers put it: "They like to blasturbate right in yo' ear hole." But that didn't encapsulate the whole of Déluge's sound then, and it certainly doesn't now. Even on Æther, Déluge knew how to alternate that with beautiful guitar and piano melodies and clean vocals that contrast with the aggressive blast beating and screamed vocals. But you know, the 2010s had an entire genre dedicated to merging black metal and non-black metal to contrast the vicious parts with the beautiful and... *sigh*... blissful parts. And as with most of those cases, you kinda wonder if the black metal part really is even black metal.

Déluge feeling a lot closer to Envy and similar post-rock/screamo bands (and, by extension, also to Deafheaven) is kind of an indicator that there isn't actually much in terms of actual black metal, save from a few moments in the guitar playing, and if you wanna consider blast beats a trademark belonging only to black metal, you can count that as well. Hell, Æther had a lot more black metal comparatively, so expect this one to strip those down and focus on the post-hardcore parts, and by post-hardcore I mean hardcore that goes like post-rock and sometimes feels like shoegaze. There's even less blast beats. But you know, despite what it seems, Ægo Templo is a more diverse album than Æther.

While both albums have titles that constantly require you to copy-paste them, unless for some reason you have "Æ" on your keyboard, Ægo Templo is the one where the vocals go from screamo to sung cleans to spoken word to raspy hardcore. Even residual black metal shrieking. Of course they still work on that good old light/dark contrast, but the blasting is used to better effect, partially because it's also used more sparingly, and the guitar playing sometimes gives this one more of a "floating" vibe than the more grounded post-metal one of its predecessor, while still perfecting the latter as well. The more dynamic songwriting makes it blend the "gaze"-y parts of the atmosphere more efficiently with the crushing post-metal ones, though Déluge still have to work on the ebb and flow that keeps the songs as interesting as they sound throughout their entire runtime.

Though there's still some work, Déluge have grown immensely in the past five years, and you'll be hard pressed to find an album that makes post-metal float like this one.



Rating breakdown
Performance: 9
Songwriting: 7
Originality: 7
Production: 9





Written on 14.12.2020 by Doesn't matter that much to me if you agree with me, as long as you checked the album out.


Comments

Comments: 5   Visited by: 50 users
15.12.2020 - 12:42
Rating: 8
boo-boo

Thanks for drawing my attention to this, totally missed this band's debut!
A spot on review, this album is a true pleasure for the listener. Exactly as you write, kinda gaze-y, but not quite the thing.
----
World won't end today - it's already tomorrow in Australia.
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17.12.2020 - 03:39
Rating: 8
tominator
At best deranged
You've peaked my interest in this one. I'm going to check this one out one of these days.
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17.12.2020 - 10:39
Fallen Ghost
Craft Beer Geek
ÆÆÆÆÆÆÆÆÆÆÆÆÆ

The perk of being Norwegian
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17.12.2020 - 11:58
Rating: 8
RaduP
CertifiedHipster
Written by Fallen Ghost on 17.12.2020 at 10:39

ÆÆÆÆÆÆÆÆÆÆÆÆÆ

The perk of being Norwegian

I will never forgive you
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Do you think if the heart keeps on shrinking
One day there will be no heart at all?
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20.12.2020 - 11:41
Rating: 8
DarkWingedSoul

Also got aware of them this year only.
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