Sanctuaire Readying Feu Sacré

French Canadian Viking-themed black metal/ambient band Sanctuaire announced on their Facebook page that they are in the final stages of mixing their upcoming record, Feu Sacré (Sacred Fire). Hopefully the band have continued improving their compositional skills which advanced from their oft pedestrian Helserkr demo collection to last year’s sometimes inspiring Le Sang sur l’Acier EP.

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Forteresse Announce Récits Patriotiques

French Canadian Gothenburg style metal band Forteresse announced a rehearsal album, Récits Patriotiques, today for all those who care about their boring Gothenburg material that sounds like early Amon Amarth with no tempo changes or variations for beer metallers who do not critically listen to music and prefer to just leave metal on in the background like a heavier version of smooth jazz they can ignore and check in on once every two minutes to see if the band did anything new or are back to scratching their asses. Récits Patriotiques will be released on March 18th, 2017 by Sepulchral Productions on 750 CDs for 750 fundergrounders or hipsters who want to crank frogified Davy Crockett metal to feel special about themselves like kale-flavored ice cream sandwiches. Preorder Récits Patriotiques here if you hate money and wear coonskin caps during sex.

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Sorcier des Glaces and Ende Split, Le puit des morts, Out September 22nd

sorcier des glace and monarque - Le puits des morts

Sorcier des Glaces and Ende are releasing a split CD on Obscure Abhorrence Productions out September 22nd. The song “Le puit des morts” features several guests including Monarque, Nordet (Brume d’Automne), Blanc Feu (Chasse-Galerie, Cantique Lépreux), I.L(Ende) and Athros (Forteresse).

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Sanctuaire – Le Sang sur l’Acier (2016)

Sanctuaire Le Sang sur l’Acier

Sanctuaire hearken back to an imagined Canadian Viking past in the hope of explaining their national hockey skills. Le Sang sur l’Acier presents three black metal songs written in a style similar to their compatriots Sorcier des Glaces but genericized for mass appeal.

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Sanctuaire Present “Graver sur les pierres, les souvenirs d’hier” off Le Sang sur l’Acier

sanctuaire 2015 cover

Monarque Helserkr has released a new track, “Graver sur les pierres, les souvenirs d’hier”, from his Sanctuaire viking-themed black metal project’s upcoming EP Le Sang sur l’Acier.

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Sorcier des Glace announce upcoming split with Ende and remaster of Moonrise in Total Darkness

Sorcier des glace + Ende

Sorcier des Glaces are having a prolific year. Already having released a new album, the Wizard of the Ices has announced an upcoming split with Ende titled Le Puits des Morts and a remastered reissue of their second album, Moonrise in Total Darkness, on their Facebook page.

Sorcier Des Glaces & Ende “Le Puits des Morts” will be released in September via Obscure Abhorrence Productions! A “split” album filled with darkness, isolation and misanthropy… brand new songs from both bands, exclusive ones. There will be some guests on the title track, “Le Puits des Morts”, including Monarque, Nordet (Brume d’Automne), Blanc Feu (Chasse-Galerie, Cantique Lépreux) & I. Luciferia (Ende). A first song will be available by the end of April. Here’s the track-listing of this unholy alliance:

SORCIER DES GLACES – Le Puits des Morts
SORCIER DES GLACES – Glaciale Solitude… Dans la Pénombre Hivernale
SORCIER DES GLACES – Dans l’Immensité Blanche de la Plaine
SORCIER DES GLACES – L’Ombre Squelettique du Temps

ENDE – Notre Falaise
ENDE – Sacrifice
ENDE – Call from the Grave (Bathory cover)
ENDE – Fehér Isten

One may listen to Moonrise in Total Darkness on Sorcier des Glaces’ Bandcamp and purchase the remastered CD from Galy Records.

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Sorcier des Glaces – North

Article by Corey M

An astounding eighteen years after releasing their debut full-length, Sorcier des Glaces releases North, maintaining their streak of high-quality albums. The themes of their last album, Ritual of the End (one of 2014’s best releases), are still present here and revolve around the band’s signature lyrical and melodic concepts; descriptions of people and places undergoing freezing damnation, in their unique vision of death occurring over epic spans of time.

This music holds the rare power to instill visions and sensations of ice-covered ruins and crippling cold by its melodic prowess alone. However, the vocals and lyrics are praiseworthy as well as the delivery is unnervingly clear, poetically orating scenes of melancholic morbidity illustrated by the music. This is achieved by Sorcier des Glaces’ idiosyncratic approach to writing long riffs with slow and steady chord changes all augmented by faster-moving melodies that anticipate and resolve the myriad melodically unorthodox transitions. It’s so rare to hear this style of complex harmonic activity performed this adroitly that the only similar album I can think of that achieves this level of complexity tempered by an intuitive sense of coherency is Far Away from the Sun. That is a high compliment.

In terms of technical performance, the musicians’ set-up is very similar to what is heard on Ritual of the End. Driving drums impel the helical, tremolo-picked, complimentary melodies which the lone guitarist/bassist cleanly divides into trios. The main melodies are carried by the rhythm guitar’s very long chains of power chords and the bass guitar modifies the basic root notes of the rhythm guitar, adding much harmonic depth to the songs. Meanwhile, one or more guitars play high-register leading melodies that expertly illuminate the emotive potential of the progressions. Playing their instruments at such a wide range of timbre and speed creates a broad, orchestral sound. The band’s creative flexibility allows the orchestra to tower indomitably, or branch out and flow smoothly, winding naturally around musical obstacles, like the trickle of water over irregular, rocky terrain.

The musicians even get a little bit more boldly experimental on North, particularly during the title track “North”, utilizing some long sections of cleanly picked chords that mutate and creep toward obscure resolutions while the bass dances its own giddy cadenza beneath the reverberating guitars. Typically this sort of deviation would wreck the feel of a song in the hands of inadept musicians, but here it is a delight. “Dawn of the Apocalypse” features an epic lyrical narrative enhanced by some more extreme shifts in dynamic intensity of the music. None of the changes are jarring or illogical; rather, they occur organically.

Despite the long and winding song progressions, I would recommend this album even to uninitiated metal fans. The sweeping guitar orchestration will ensnare anyone with a keen sense of musical passion, allowing Sorcier des Glaces’ malevolent shroud to obscure their sense of righteousness as they succumb to the awesome power of ice and occultic magic. North is an excellent album that will provide many journeys into the frigid recesses of the unconscious, at once harrowing and wondrous.

North may be previewed and purchased directly from Sorcier des Glaces at their official Bandcamp page.

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Sorcier des Glaces sets release date for North

We had a brief teaser for North almost a year ago. In the mean time, Sorcier des Glaces has released one of its upcoming tracks, as well as a longer trailer for the album, and they’ve also set a release date – February 29th. I’d take this release date with a grain of salt, since Sorcier des Glaces has been known to delay them a great deal for whatever reason. Case in point – this album’s predecessor (Ritual of the End) was originally planned for 2012 but didn’t release until 2014. Still, whether or not it gets released on time, it should be a worthy acquisition; the band’s style remains intact, and that means strength of melodic development and extended songwriting for everyone.

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