J-Man At first acquaintance, Inhale the Sacred Poison can be quite a difficult listen. With virtually no melodies to grasp onto, Folge Dem Wind's second effort will certainly take some dedication and focused listening sessions to fully understand. Even after a solid 5 run-throughs (the number I've given as I write this review), I still feel like I have even more to learn about this album. Inhale the Sacred Poison is a raw, often dissonant, and frequently cacophonic, experimental black metal outing that will unquestionably take some time for the average listener to understand. Although Folge Dem Wind's second full-length is inaccessible at first, don't at all mistake that with the actual quality of the music. This is a strikingly original, and at times groundbreaking, album that is filled with strokes of genius. There are some unremarkable sections throughout Inhale the Sacred Poison's 50 minute duration, but it's a generally strong effort from a band with tons of potential.

The music on Inhale the Sacred Poison is experimental, occasionally avant-garde, sounding black metal (not unlike fellow Frenchmen Deathspell Omega). There's some jazzy sections (even including saxophone soloing), as well as mellow acoustic sections and epic progressive portions. This is an eclectic album, and an unfortunate byproduct of that is a tad of inconsistency. The amount of dissonant riffs and eclectic song structures that occupy Inhale the Sacred Poison can really make for a difficult listen at first, but (thankfully) the album did grow on me over time. The musicians on Inhale the Sacred Poison are generally excellent - Folge Dem Wind is a tight-playing unit with plenty of talent. The vocals are usually in the typical black metal-style, with a few "weird" sounds and clean singing sections.

The production is pretty raw, but still contains a nice level of polish and professionalism. This isn't the most revolutionary mix you'll ever hear in a black metal record, but it gets the job done.

Harsh and dissonant avant-garde black metal like this is generally a mixed bag for me, so you could say that I've been pleasantly surprised by Inhale the Sacred Poison. This took many listens for me to appreciate (and it will probably take a dozen more before I can confidently say that I "get it"), but the trip was well-worth it. Folge Dem Wind's second full-length is lacking a bit in the consistency department, but it shows a band with an adventurous attitude and original sound - that certainly doesn't go unnoticed by me. Inhale the Sacred Poison is a favorable 3.5 stars from this reviewer - any fan of avant garde black metal is advised to check this out.

Vehemency Inhale the Sacred Poison is essentially made by the book - code666’s book. Folge dem Wind plays meandering mid-tempo black metal with a firm grip on avant-garde music, a style very common to the label’s roster, and Inhale the Sacred Poison is pretty much on the same level of quality as the others, meaning that it’s a very enjoyable piece.

There’s a lot of odd dissonance in the melodies throughout the songs that run for six minutes on average, but the band knows when to give something easier to the listener too, such as the jazzy saxophone lines in the end of ”Behind the Grey Veil” and ”Through the Eye of the Immortal” where the reciprocity of the two repetitive guitar melodies works like a charm, a definite highlight moment on the album. Vocal duties are handled well as gurgling mid-range screams, and there’s not much to complain about the production either that is neither too polished nor too raw.

But there are moments when the band seems to be stagnated (”Awakening in Unity” for instance), as if not knowing where the songs should progress into, hence marching in place a tad too long sometimes. It is to be remembered, though, that Inhale the Sacred Poison isn’t an easy album at all, so that multiple listens are required if you want anything out of this record. Perhaps I’m not fully acquainted with the album yet and only because of that find some parts of the record unmemorable - who knows.

All in all, Inhale the Sacred Poison always leaves me satisfied afterwards. Although it’s not the most consistent avant-garde black metal album out there, all the superb moments on the album - that keep getting stuck in my head - compensate enough. Inhale the Sacred Poison deserves a favorable rating and the attention of those into somewhat modern experimental black metal.

adg211288 Inhale The Sacred Poison is the second full-length album by French Black metal outfit Folge Dem Wind, released in 2011. The album contains eight tracks of music and lasts for around fifty minutes, so it’s not an extra short extreme metal offering. Normally that would be good, unfortunately this album actually makes me wish it were shorter.

First impressions of the music on offer is of the very raw sort of black metal, but at times this has an almost avant-grade edge to it mainly due its pure weirdness. I think that Inhale The Sacred Poison has much potential to please the fan of raw black metal, a style that I myself have been known to enjoy on occasion, there is far too much emphasis on raw noise for me to find this really enjoyable. I am not one to attack a metal group for ‘making a racket’, because that phase is to me the weapon of someone who doesn’t know any better, but unfortunately as far as Inhale The Sacred Poison is concerned I find myself leaning towards using it. I can here mixed good ideas in the album right from the off, but those good ideas and sometimes shoved to the back to allow raw aggression to take the lead and while raw aggression is actually very good for the atmosphere of most black metal, for me it’s just not working for Folge Dem Wind here.

When the band is playing in a more normal black metal style without trying to go take the music in more experimental directions, they actually produce a pretty tight sound, but when they change it so often sounds out of place and inconsistent, though occasionally an unexpected idea comes up and actually works really well.

But my biggest problem with the album is the vocals. For me black metal growls are usually better than those found in death metal but this is not the case here, there is too much sounds like the vocalist is trying to make noise over create actually lyrics, sometimes sounding like the only intent is to make raw primal noises, something that is heard right from the word go in the lengthy title track.

Once the album has got going, about the fourth song (Through the Eye of the Immortal) in for me, I started to understand the atmosphere of it more, which is the reason why I don’t want to totally bash this album. This is actually a pretty solid song, but by this time I was put off of the album by the first two tracks, Inhale the Sacred Poison and Of Blood and Ether. I do however think that someone who is more into this style of music than I am could really appreciate this album, although I myself will remain of the opinion that it gets off to a very shaky start which ruins the listening experience for me. There is actually a lot more good material on offer here than I initially thought, but it’s patchy. The latter half of the album is definitely much more solid than the first though.

Part of me wishes I could like this album more, I can hear good ideas here and even though the vocals don’t generally sit right with me (they have their moments) I think that with some better material I could have come to enjoy them. What good ideas there are could easily have been collected together and made into a shorter but more solid album that what Inhale The Sacred Poison turned out as. Even the tracks that I think are the albums best like Through the Eye of the Immortal have their bad moments which I find rather sad. Overall this album sounds too much of a wasted chance for me. As I said there are good ideas here, and enough of them at that to have produced something really special, which in turn could have been made even more special if the vocalist stuck to his strengths. As it is I think this is an above average effort, even when thinking in terms of how fans of the style may receive it, but no more than that. There is unfortunately nothing on offer that really strikes me as amazing and I found myself wanting it to be over just to complete this review. If you like raw and experimental black metal than you’ll probably like it, because in its own way this is a good album, but for anyone else - steer clear.

(Originally written for Heavy Metal Haven)