W.A.R. Black Metal from France. Debut demo finally on CD, with changed analogue sound.
I can't say much about the French black metal scene, since I have heard a few bands only, like Kristalnacht or Peste Noire. But Elitism made me feel that I need to correct this mistake and dig deeper. Because this EP is quite good.
Elitism is a one man black metal project led by HGH, member of Vermine and Vouivre. Yes, when someone says „one man black metal project” (or, like some ironically say „One man horde”), you can quickly recall tons of poor quality black metal releases, often with shitty drum machines and horrible quality, which is often covered with ideological stuff. I was kinda afraid that Elitism will be something like this, since it is a very ideological project as well. But it seems that I was wrong – partially at last.
This is not the very extremal black metal, when it comes to the music. Elitism prefers more majetic, slow tunes. A „Blanc Holocauste”, opening track, is a perfect example of this style - it's like an anthem or march, with lyrics being shouted with a very emotional tone, but not in the very „blackish” style. There is a strong keyboard music wall, mixed with guitars and drums (which aren't impressive – yes, the curse of poor drums in the one man metal projects is still alive). All in all, this song makes you feel like being a part of some gathering or ceremony, something evil and enchanting as well.
But it doesn't mean that Elitism distances itself from black metal. Let's take „Abattre cette decheance”. It is more black metal track, but still quite interesting, with clean vocals mixed with black metal ones – I really like it! It sounds like some kind of a manifesto of pure hate. Elitism continues to remind us about its black metal way with „En response a l'infamie”. This tube starts like a traditional song, it's sung normally, then suddenly it is cut with a series of machine guns, just to be turned into a majestic, slow black metal anthem of darkness and evil.
Yes, evil is definitely the best word to summarize this material and you can find it in every second of Elitism's music, not only because of being NSBM band. It's more about the atmosphere. And it proves that you don't have to play the most extreme metal to make your music sound so dark. Some black metal bands claim that they're evil with their raw black metal materials. Well, I found a much more evil climate in the Elitism music than in the many of these raw bm albums. It's definitely dark and gloomy, thanks to the keyboard parts, but it's never really „climatic” in the way that some atmospheric black metal bands go.
There is one thing on this material that I found pointless. It's „The Gate of Nanna”, a cover of Beherit, surprisingly well fitting to the rest of the material, but, all in all, it's hard to cover such an amazing tune. Also, Elitism's version is not very far from the original, after all. I kinda expected HGH to make a more experimental version of this classic.
„L'odeur des Deportes” is a solid piece of majestic, epic black metal. There is a nice variety of themes and vocals, so this is not boring material at all. Lyrics are not included in the CD, but ilustrations themselves leave no doubt that elitism is NSBM band. So yes, if you feel bad about this genere, stay away from this band. Otherwise, you might find this material interesting. If you think that this genre means some extreme black metal or RAC music mostly, Elitism might surprise you. Their music is slow, melodic and powerful but still dark and radical as hell.
This EP was my first contact with this band, but I hope it's not the last time. Even if this has a very „demo” sound (because it is actually a demo, re-released as an EP later), it is still a good and strong piece of quite original and well played music (save of drums...). „L'odeur des Deportes” stays longer in your memory – and it's not something that I can say about many one man black metal projects.
Sample: https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
