This CD, considered by many people as the band's first offering, is in fact the second CD released by BELENOS. Indeed, the band already realised 2 demo tapes : "Notre amour éternel" (1996) & "Allégorie d'une souffrance" (out in 1999 but recorded 666 days before year 2000) & 1 promo tape : "Triste pensée" (1999) ; and the 1st demo "Notre..." had been re-released in'98 on CD format, limited to 500 pieces, by the shitty Italian label Polyphemus records ( label which also released the 1st CD of BELENOS's creator's (Loïc Cellier) side project , ASYNDESS, in 1995). So this 2nd CD is out on a more professionnal label, Sacral Prods, you can see it first with the very nice booklet & packaging : this CD is available on 3 formats : digiCD (limited to 800 pieces), digiCD with logo etched on the front (limited to 200 pieces) and "regular jewel case CD". The presentation is very good, all the lyrics are included in the booklet (except for "le dernier pas"), all are in French - and they are very good, far from the usual clichés in BM - .My first impression is : the drummer is very good, compared to the horrible drum-machine on that first demo. Now there are 3 people in the band (there used to be only Loïc Cellier & Nathalie Leblanc, now gone, on the previous recordings) and all are extremely skilled as musicians, everything is so precise, it's very impressive because the band does not lose its caracteristic "nostalgic / depressive" feeling (similar to BURZUM, that's why the band used to be compared to Varg Vikernes' one) present on its first recordings, in spite of this accuracy (in guitars and drums especially) and thespeed & aggressiveness of the guitar parts. It seems that there is a real osmosis between the musicians (but they have problems concerning live performnce, as some of them don't want to play some gigs the other ones agreed to play...)

Everything is so pure in BELENOS's world, made of sadness and pain . You will experience despair while listening this CD (like so good albums as old BURZUM recordings); and if you understand the lyrics, you'll be possessed by wisdom, the one of ancient people as Gauls, who worshipped a god called ... BELENOS !

rating : 8.5 / 10

© 2001 lord pesten