Fuck my Axe and yours truly, it's a very special story. The Savoyard group has been in the news as much as its rancid compatriot Black Death for several years now, being part of this dynasty of groups politicized to the bone, claiming nationalism and patriotic sovereignty at the top of their lungs with some success. A good big success well established even, to see the emulation around the dedicated artifacts. Everyone knows the astronomical sums at which the Black Death albums are exchanged, and it didn't take more than ten minutes for several of the items on sale at Hammerbolt or on the B.M.H. online store to be sold out on the day of the release of
F.E.R.T.
From its creation until the release of its second album, the band was mainly known for its patriotic-libidinous promotional photos and the famous refrain "B.M.H copies K.P.N". Even after several listenings,
Ab Origine Fidelis and
Le Grand Suicide have never managed to represent anything other than two albums of very classic black music, indeed well influenced by Famine, for a great general scarcity of interest in the end. At the time of its release, I hadn't even offered a listen to the
Breviary of Chaos. In my narrow little mind, B.M.H. was the second-rate band that it was good form to make fun of, helped once again by the group's promotional photos which gladly hit the nail on the head by subtly mixing Aryanism and maddening feminine curves highlighted. It took a friend to tease me for many months with this last album for me to decide to give him a chance, almost two years later (JM, if you go through that...). And there, big and masterful rusty for my face. The
Breviary of Chaos is an album of terrifying power and emotional charge, crossed by monstrous tracks such as "Le Temps des Barbares" or the famous "Une Lame pour les Inâmes". Production, singing, composition, atmosphere... A mandal in the head sent without moving the pelvis. However, with a big black spot, namely the good and audible copy of riffs by the Polish band Mgla, and this on several occasions. Listen to "The Deathsmith" or "The Furious Army" to get a good idea of the magnitude of the thing...
Yes, we're going to talk about the latest album, it's coming.
F.E.R.T was scheduled for release last summer, but finally comes out on October 4th. A big general rush, an album ordered on time, repeated listenings over three weeks. We will atone from the beginning for a big piece, namely the cover painted by the famous Paolo Girardi, the most virile metal warrior east of the Rhône. Superb, at first glance, with a rather obvious reference to Bathory's
Blood Fire Death. But if we look a little deeper, we notice that the Kalashnikov of the fiery Valkyrie in the foreground and that of her biker companion were obviously bought at Joué Club, that some details are coarser than what Girardi has accustomed us to, and that a serious epidemic of strabismus has struck this ardent company. The whole is still very appreciable from above, but the finesse is strangely lacking once the eyes are closer.
Cosmetic considerations over, we move on to the music. The first long track, "Le Crépuscule des Gueux", suffers a little from its excessive length. Good introductory riffs with this characteristic deleterious atmosphere, screams of Thorwald and the newcomer Hreidmarr (which I don't present, even if Anorexia and I, it's a nice tale of mutual non-interest). And then... We don't really know. The track is quite disjointed, with tracks filled with not much except tremolos and wobbly melodies lost in the middle of nothing at all, taken up behind by new more effective melodic passages. So yes, the riffs are not bad in themselves, even if they won't make you fall to the floor, but they are clearly not enough to make twelve uninterrupted minutes entirely interesting. Especially after such a boring ending spread over more than two minutes. Overall, this track is probably the worst of the album. It is followed by the eponymous, unveiled in advance, which for the time being turns out to be the peak of the opus. "F.E.R.T" is a long violent, epic and hateful ride, carried by sumptuous riffs and glorious vocal parts. It took a while for it to reveal itself in full to yours truly, but it is undeniable that this is a real big kill, which should make the hairs of more than one of you stand on end.
First interlude, melancholic and nostalgic, quite successful, with a very palpable atmosphere of regret and sorrow, then back to the riffs with "Insociabile Regnum". And this track is probably the best possible summary of the entire album. Slow and ceremonial opening on a galvanizing arpeggio, increasing in power, then big dissonant and uninteresting passage, before starting again on the same arpeggio overhung by very tendentious lyrics (The "bleeding rats", isn't it?) which finally leads to poignant riffs and a very successful bittersweet ending. B.M.H is inconsistent, capable of releasing exceptional riffs and becoming very boring and generic right after.
"Furia Francese" will please many, with its pleasant warrior chorus and scathing riffs. "Baise leur Monde Immonde" opens with a bouncy riff that I'm sure I've already heard somewhere, before getting a little lost on the way. Finally, after a rather dramatic and military last interlude, "Deliverance" tries to constitute itself as a final apotheosis without really succeeding, too diluted and too dispersed to really mark. The fifty minutes of the album go by relatively quickly. And in the end, we are frustrated at the end. This is the feeling of yours truly, who comes out of each listening with the impression of having been put on low heat for an hour without eating himself in the face the explosions announced. The songs seem to have been built on a model of endless power builds, but which never manage to burst for good. We expect at each turn of the riff a devastating melody discharge that does not come, unlike the previous album.
F.E.R.T is less intense than its predecessor, which is less striking. It has some great passages and good tracks, but wants to do too much. The efficiency is lost along the way, and the group probably tries too much to c.create atmospheres that end up becoming repetitive, generic and finally boring.
F.E.R.T is not bad, it is correct, with bright moments alongside intense moments of boredom. I often had the impression of hearing chord progressions going nowhere, serving only as a support for the two singers. In this regard, we will also note some fairly well-written lyrics, always as focused on racial-political-national-European themes that are likely to displease many. Pretty well done in any case not to classify the band's lyrics on the same shelf as those of the low-end NSMB nazillons (Yes M8l8th it's you I'm talking about, don't hesitate to sit down, take a seat and close it). We still can't escape some
too badass a little ridiculous, but anyway ... The musical quality will always better convey texts with very polemical subjects, as violent as they may be. If Seigneur Voland managed to position itself almost twenty years ago as a reference in black metal and still commands respect today by sending much more extreme lyrics, it is because Xaphan and L.F composed music that is difficult to criticize.
Where the
Breviary of Chaos had made many of the band's detractors shut their mouths who accused it of a band that only had to offer mediocre music centered only on politically committed lyrics,
F.E.R.T puts the table of boredom back on the table. We come out of the album with a pout on our lips, not disgusted but not satisfied either. Bad tongues will surely say that without the riffs imported from Krakow to feed the compositions, B.M.H finally has a hard time releasing a good album. And it's a shame, because Jon has clearly fleshed out his (programmed) drumming, that the singing duo works well, and that the production is quite impeccable.
End of the talks. B.M.H was not able to repeat its 2016 stunt, but is not to be booed. The album will certainly please many, I think that the adoration that the band has enjoyed for a few years by a fringe of listeners will not have a hard time giving it qualities that I have not been able to find in it. So I'm waiting for the next act, hoping for a return to a more direct and percussive music, with more accomplished melodies. This year, we finish the plate without helping ourselves again.
Sample:
BAISE MA HACHE "F.E.R.T" Full album
