After a demo and a split recording, both coming out in early 2023, French raw lo-fi BM / dark ambient solo act Cachot d'Effroi (Dungeon of Dread) took a leap of faith with its self-titled debut album. After hearing this a couple of times at least, I daresay this leap of faith will be well rewarded, maybe not straight away, but gradually over time – this album is a very powerful work of dark malevolence, combining gritty, grinding raw black metal guitar noise and subtle dungeon synth melodies into an evil fusion that can be terrifying at times, if not all the way through the album. Cachot d'Effroi is one of two black metal / dark ambient / dungeon synth projects of one Carcasse enchaînée, the other one being Duelliste, one of whose demos I reviewed earlier this year. I can't think of why I didn't review Cachot d'Effroi's first release at the same time other than I had thought about it and then just plain forgot!
The album gets off to a good start with a short instrumental of doleful dark synth tone melody and blazing guitar rumble that then passes into an equally doleful depressive raw BM piece, "Les chemins de l'oubli", all scorching, crumbly-textured tremolo guitar storm over a lethargic beat and background orchestral synth drone sigh. The crabby vocals are almost swallowed up by the harsh stormy textures but now and again the gruff abrasive voice breaks through the music and reveals something of its deeply demonic character. The synth melodies have a doomy character that borders on melodrama, and which eventually pushes the guitars into a blackened doom direction.
With third track "Vertiges depuis la forteresse" though, Cachot d'Effroi really hits its stride with a long bleeding-raw guitar solo that erupts into a desperate scrabble of black noise storm over which the cold vocals preside like a remote and impassive tyrant god. Keyboard accompaniment and a second, clean-toned guitar help to define the track without being too noticeable and the result is to add a subtle refinement to the evil drama. The power and the malevolence continue in subsequent tracks with dramatic melodies and strong booming riffs, all while the vocals slaver in the background. The drumming may not be particularly strong but that doesn't matter when the rest of the music, with clean guitar and synths adding their own special flavour of pestilence to the tremolo guitars and steely bass, is so beefed up.
Just when you think the music couldn't be any stronger than it is, it goes to the next level, this one of potential derangement and madness, on "Vanités des confins", where the guitars speed up and the cold ambience is stained with hysteria, with the vocals yelping in the background and the percussion galloping for its life. As the song continues, it gets madder and madder, and the music turns into a whirling demonic force. "Frisson fantomatiques" is another major highlight with a strong repeating riff and a cold synth melody wrapped around it over screaming vocals and thumping percussion. After breezing through "Oxymore" which doesn't offer anything we haven't already heard here, the album concludes with the darkly mysterious ambient instrumental "Enchaîné et meurtri".
I'm sorry that the album doesn't finish as strongly as it could have done in the last couple of tracks, and so Cachot d'Effroi's best moments are in the middle tracks from "Vertiges depuis la forteresse" through to "Frisson fantomatiques". These songs are possessed of a malefic power and strength in their deep booming or rumbling riffs, doom-laden beats and additional guitar and synths, with Carcasse enchaînée's creepy vocals flitting around the edges of the music or deep in the thick of a rapidly developing psychosis. Above all, Cachot d'Effroi's particular fusion of raw noisy BM and dungeon synth gives rise to music at once very theatrical yet restrained and subtle in the use of individual BM and dungeon synth elements. I really think this album has "cult classic" written all over it.
Sample:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zYsbMDRXyf4
