Band:	Pensées Nocturnes
Album:	Vacuum
Style:	Neoclassical, Depressive black metal
Release date:	April 2009

01. Lune Malade
02. Flore
03. Dés-Espoir
04. Coups De Bleus
05. Epitaphe
06. Repas De Corbeaux

A band that recently received the attention of the Black metal underground is Pensée Nocturnes. It was as if at some random moment all small forums dedicated to the unknown and obscure decided to ooze with praise for this band. Since I try to keep up with the scene, but am also broke most of the time, I was in the middle of an internal conflict on whether I'd have to check them out or not, when I heard a muffled sound near my front door. "Well fuck me sideways", I thought, "life's giving me a head's up!". I had just received "Vacuum", the '09 debut album by the French Black metal act Pensée Nocturnes.

So yeah, the life of a reviewer is glorious and glamorous and full of bedding hot chicks and whatnot, but I'm sure you want me to stop bragging and instead give my opinion on this album. Well, let me tell you: this is some high quality shit. What we have here are six songs, sixty minutes, of a unique blend of Depressive Black metal with Classical-music influenced piano melancholia. That may scream "Mystic Forest" to you, but there's plenty of difference between the two bands. Firstly, an awesome intro such as the one to "Coups de Bleus" with its intense bluesy guitar would never have been possible on any Mystic Forest (or Eikenskaden for that matter) release. And secondly, Pensée Nocturnes doesn't do the 'whirlwind piano' as I like to call it (blending furious riffs with fast and intense piano), but instead relies on mournful Depressive Black metal with separate relatively light yet really saddening Chopin-influenced piano parts. There are more genre a-typical instruments wonderfully utilized here, but I'll grant you the pleasure of finding that out by yourself.

Vocally we're dealing with a crossbreed of a (non-psychotic/non-ridiculous) Nattramn (Silencer) and an early Kvarforth (Shining). Yeah, that's a pretty heinous combination. Wailing and shrieking Vaerohn works his way through this album, belting out the most pained and dammit-she-left-me-too screams. A pure joy to listen to, honestly. Without doing anything different from the usual suspects, he has a fresh and extreme but non-ridiculous tone. The album does have a few dragging moments here and there, for example the song "Epitaphe" which could've been a lot shorter, but overall it's a captivating, twisting and refreshing listen. And perhaps more important, something that you want to hear a second time.

In conclusion, Pensées Nocturnes is not a completely unique listen (Mystic Forest and A Forest Of Stars do/have done similar things), but it is for sure more original than 99% of today's Black metal. What's more, this guy is dead serious about his work, offers songs with great balance as if he has years of experience, plays each instrument with great aplomb and never sounds pretentious at all. A talented fellow, that's for sure. With the recent releases by A Forest Of Stars and now Pensées Nocturnes, inventive Black metal gets a real boost. This genre is far from dead. "Vacuum" gets my special, exclusive and much-desired stamp-of-approval. Now get the hell out of your basement and buy this album.