Aluk Todolo: Voix

Gallic avant-occultists leave their trance up to chance

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Jazz fusion has a lot to be held responsible for when it comes to this trio of French ex-black metallers. Within the endlessly scattershot drums and fluctuating rhythms that make up this mesmeric trip there is a shared lawlessness underpinning the freeform cacophony.

Casting off all aspects of black metal except perhaps for its harrowing/elevating effects, it is misleading of the band to describe themselves as occult rock, at least by the current consensus of what that means. It is occult in a literal as opposed to a stylistically superficial sense, conjuring up intentionally meditative atmospheres best appreciated by surrendering completely to the persistent basslines, rampaging maddeningly forward as guitars wail, clash and howl from the outset, willing you into a trance. From the opening instance of the first, nameless track until the deafening maelstrom that slowly bleeds to nothing over the 10-minutes of the last, you are cast in at the deep end of an elongated jam session that at times cries out for an edit, and at others, a sense of direction. An abyssal, utterly polarising experience.