Howls of desperation and screams of pain colour San Francisco’s Bosse-de-Nage and their third record with human emotion, very real despair and incredible sadness. Torturous wails often counter beautifully serene passages and a multi-dimensional abstraction echoes throughout this haunting release.
Known for their bizarre literary references and nods to French surrealist poetry, the enigmatic four-piece often go against the black metal grain by fusing indie and post-rock elements into their sound.
The post-punk bass of Desuetude jars with the anguished first track, The Arborist, and lays the foundation for a record of contrasting yet curiously coherent fractions. The individual pieces alone make no sense but in the hands of Bosse-de-Nage these odd choices work in deadly harmony. The military beat of Cells flows into shrieks of unending hurt, which in turn stagger towards the desperately sad The God Ennui.
Bosse-de-Nage speak in uncomfortable shades of darkness and solitude and III is heartbreaking in its honest depiction of an unravelling mind. An Ideal Ledge closes the album with stuttering crashes and cries of pure horror that cut with sharply terrifying insight.
