ninehertz

There was a surge of French blackened hardcore around a decade or so ago, with the Throatruiner Records label as its figurehead. I’ve been kinda missing it, a steady flow of enraged, impassioned and visceral music that has turned to a trickle. There are still signs of life in the scene but not nearly as regularly reaching my ears. Pilori remain however and thank goodness for that, a band that have been around for a decade, who impressed on our first listen on a split with Dakhma, and have been getting stronger across every subsequent release.

Sans Adieu continues that upwards trajectory, a fearsome and accomplished album of ten tracks. Listening to their opening trifactor of songs is to witness as much – opening with the blunt force of Lèse-Majesté, with its beefed-up production, and almost metallic hardcore beatdown riffs catching you right in the chops. That chaotic start is then contrasted with the more traditional blackened hardcore feel of À Pierre Fendre, stalking in the shadows before a change in pace to a jumpy, rabid guitar provides an electricity, a similarity across its length to This Gift is a Curse. Le Couteau par la Lame is all blistering riffs and manic, fidgety guitars.

Its middle features a fascinating change of pace with a dramatic, dark orchestral interlude, which is unexpected and moving, and adds extra emphasis to the following La Présence des Absents, which hardly needed an invitation. It is a blur of the blackened threat of Hexis and the menacing darkness of Plebeian Grandstand, Pilori’s peers and equal to the sheer force of both bands. It is a wonderful black hole of noise that pulls you into its bone crushing density.

This is an album of incredible heft and despondent murkiness. That is also contains stylistic shifts subtly deployed points to the maturity and growth of the band. Pilori are now at the pioneering level of their sound, elder statesmen, and Sans Adieu is the evidence, their crowning achievement.