Genre: Symphonic Black Gothic Metal
Line Up:
Wolfmond Production publishes the second full-length of this Transalpine reality with an illegible moniker; the latter is simply pronounced Divided Self and holds a precise meaning and intent for the band: to investigate the continuous struggle between good and evil within each of us, hence the internal "division", a concept borrowed from the work "The Divided Self: An Existential Study in Sanity & Madness "by British author R.D.
The four Frenchmen propose a Black Metal with strong Gothic and Symphonic influences, generally unusual in the French scene, with some more Rock inserts; ten tracks with a limited duration of about forty minutes in total that run smoothly from start to finish.
The compositions are original and the riffs engaging, you can perceive references to great names in the panorama, but these are ideas and not copies. The compositions are based on a good alternation of more rhythmic and Rock-like parts, in which interesting bass digressions emerge, inspired clean vocals, "romantic" guitar solos, and flashes with more emphasis but controlled, the latter never play a role mainly as a whole, perhaps, for this reason, they are more incisive, as in "After Dark", one of the most varied and successful songs.
Excellent recording that allows you to fully appreciate the execution of each instrument, nothing prevails over the rest, balanced in an intelligent way and suitable for the proposal; the drum's sound is rather compressed, the guitars dry and modern, and the metallic and distinguishable bass, the scratchy and versatile voice, synths used sparingly, an appreciable result.
However, at the end of the listening, albeit valuable, there is little left to the listener, it is not a question of lack of personality, but rather of that flicker that allows a good job to be an excellent job.
Andrea B.
