Vehemency
The cover art of Neige et Noirceur’s second full-length La Seigneurie des Loups implies that the album contains a load of wintry black metal, and to some extent that is very true: sharp guitars bring forth cold melodies while rapid (programmed) drums batter like a blizzard and somewhat effected vocals provide chilling atmosphere à la ColdWorld and Paysage d’Hiver. There’s a lot of hypnotizing moments in the music, not unlike Darkspace, given the somewhat machined feeling that the drums cause.
But what makes La Seigneurie des Loups mainly different from the aforementioned is the use of traditional istruments. This becomes clear on the first tracks - ”Croix de feu Croix de fer” and ”Ancien Folklore Québécois” - already. Then comes ”1839”, a short interlude of acoustic guitars playing upbeat melodies. These are the distinct features of Neige et Noirceur that are very welcome, though their incorporation into cold black metal isn’t exactly perfect. Hearing happy flute melodies and warm acoustic guitar strumming amidst fiery black metal has its problems, needless to say.
Nonetheless, La Seigneurie des Loups is dominantly a positive experience in the end. Song lengths spanning from one to sixteen minutes makes the album a hard piece to digest but worthy of diving into. Fans of the bands mentioned in the first paragraph might enjoy this greatly, even if this isn’t a groundbreaking record in any way.
