Nova

Few of you may still remember the reviews I had written for the demo and the first full length album of Trou Noir, an interesting effort from Russia and France. Their first demo was a real surprise for me, while on the contrary their first full length album was a real disappointment.To be honest I didn’t expect much by this band as it showed that they have offered everything they could with their demo and the following releases would be a repetition of those same ideas.Recently though I received “Nova”, their new full length album, which changed what I was thinking about this band completely. “Nova”was released in February of 2015 and it contains seven compositions of overall duration of about one hour.Here, thebandpresentsthecosmicBlackMetalinthespecialstyleofthetwo previous releases, but this time with many more changes of intensive sentiments and imagery.

The music is harsh and chaotic, delivering feelings of loneliness, anguish, anxiety or panic and images of an immense black landscape which combines the brutality and the tranquility at the same time. The riffs are harsh, mainly of medium speed and repetitive but without tiring the listener. The atmosphere is always dark and mysterious while the alternation both of the feelings and the feelings is done into the proper parts so that the composition drag the listener into this long, lonely and dangerous trip. Although that the tracks are long in duration, the interesting riffing, the changes during the evolving of the tracks but above all the intensive and different images and feelings that they offer, they make the tracks interesting and not tedious at all. Finally, the structure of the tracks is quite good, despite its repetitive pattern which exist in various parts.

Regarding the technique, it is not one of the band’s priorities, although all the instruments are played very well and with no mistakes, something that I found into previous releases. The band gives priority to passion and to deliver the feelings and the images as vividly as they can be. The bass is the instrument that rules into the compositions. It is quite loud and it can be clearly heard, while the nice job that has been done for its lines catches the listener’s attention by the first minute. The guitars are a little lower, somehow distant and discreet, they give that chaotic and panic character to the tracks. The drums mostly consist of repetitive patterns something that in some parts is becoming tedious. Generally they have nothing special and they just set the pace in the tracks, following the chaotic and violent character of the compositions. The vocals are harsh, violent and very expressing Black Metal vocals which fit perfectly to the style of the album. The production is bass and harsh, not so clean, and combined with the mixture they have achieved to deliver a very dark, frozen and quite violent sound. The lyrics are not contained in the cd and I can’t understand in which language they are written.

Three years after their bad first full length album, Trou Noir return and they return for good. They prove that they still have a lot of journeys into the vast, dark space that they can share with the listener. Those of you who have listened to the previous ones and they caught your attention, you surely should listen to “Nova”. I would suggest this album to all those who are searching for harsh, dark and mysterious Black Metal which is mainly based to the imagery and to the feelings. But for sure listen before you buy.