French black metal has an array of talent across the spectrum from the perfidious (Deathspell Omega) to the atmospheric (Blut Aus Nord) to the brutal (Otargis), yet it also boasts an underground that’s just as potent as the nation’s death metal scene. It’s not clear why Orob sat on Aube Noir for five years after finishing the recording in 2017, but we should be grateful they decided to release it. This is a dark and mystical flame of post-black metal with many enchantments and an abundance of imagination.
Led by the inspirational hand of Thomas Luke Garcia, Orob invite you into an hour-long journey through space and time, like a wise deity on hand to show you around the universe. The cancer on our planetary system is humankind. The penultimate stanza of closing track, ‘The Great Fall’, could be the motto for this record: “If a seed ever grow again in this place/ It shall be crushed with the hammer of progress/ For a man will survive and start over/ And its only purpose, is to drown itself in the dazzling reflection/ Of a lifeless metal dawn.” The musical accompaniment to this cerebral experience is harder to define and more gradualist in its supreme power. Opener, ‘Spektraal’, mixes the dark alternative rock finesse of Placebo with black metal lung exercises and discordant arpeggios that know neither major nor minor chords as their purpose. It grows on you like an Argentinian wine, just as the follow up, ‘Astral’, invites a bewildered frown upon first listen. The bass choir vocals and contorted guitar arpeggios flicker in the mix like voices trapped in limbo. Enslaved and Negură Bunget come to mind, but you’ll find it difficult to place the Orob sound.
How many albums squander their best songs in the first quarter of a record? Orob avoid this pitfall with ease. You’ll find yourself tapping the desk with your fingers at ‘Breaking of the Bonds’, but not because it’s an easy composition with a catchy refrain. Far from it. Listen how the black metal tremolo riffs disappear in a thick fog of distortion and conceal the sinister tones of a French horn in the intro. Garcia’s decision to reset to a clean guitar progression and chalky bassline is a risky one, yet he succeeds by way of a thrash metal detour through a barrage of crusty skank beats and palm-muting riffing. You’ll hear the experimental thrash of Voivod in ‘Aube’, but English avant-garde metallers, Voices, also spring to mind in the way the band stride through numerous modulations and moods in the space of six minutes. And lest we forget ‘Betula’, one of the few songs that reveals its design on first listen? Here, they give us everything we crave – the Triptykon experimentation, the crunchy breakdown riff, the Wagner drama, the spoken word contemplation. Yes, please!
As an album that thrives on risk-taking, it’s inevitable that Aube Noir demands more attention than most records. Yet you can also listen to the cadences of the music as easily as you’d stream an electronica album. Let the music guide you rather than place expectations on it. In this manner, you’ll find nothing intimidating about the ten-minutes of ‘The Great Fall’, with its post-rock tangle of guitars giving way to an exquisite harmony of male and female vocals. One moment you’re hearing Swans, the next you’re breathing in the transgression of Burzum. The decision to end it with a sweep of doom metal is yet another example of Orob’s alignment with the stars – almost everything they do is a success on this LP.
Aube Noir has the makings of a cult classic, but let’s hope the Toulon quartet have another record up their sleeve to cement their good work. You’ll find little to dislike here, aside from a few weak blast beats and a dry guitar distortion that could be chunkier in its heavier moments. These Gallic transcendentalists come shrouded in darkness but find a glimmer of triumphant light among the abstract reasoning and dense guitars. Orob is a name to watch in the future.
JVB
Verdict
Release Date: 14/12/2021
Record Label: Self Released
Standout tracks: Breaking of the Bonds, Betula, Aube
Suggested Further Listening: Voices – Breaking the Trauma Bond (2021), The Meads of Asphodel – Damascus Steel (2005), Darkestrah – Chong Aryk (2021)