GRIS - À l'âme enflammée, l'äme constellée... (2013)

Genre: Métal noir québécois

Label: Sepulchral Productions

Rating: 9/10

It was astounding to me when this first came out the progression that Gris had made since Il était... The instrumentation on this album is nothing short of astounding. They went from being just another, albeit actually decent, depressive Black Metal band, to a phenomenal spiritual Black Metal band. Mokṣa is even the title of one of their songs (a Vedantic Hindu concept). Back to the topic at hand, namely this album, it spans two CDs: the album clocks in at 71:43.

The opener, "L'Aube," is a beautiful arrangement of acoustic guitar, a wonderful intro to this masterpiece of an album. "Les Forges" has some incredible basswork; in fact, the bass is the highlight of the album for me. Ultra catchy riffs on bass! This song features Icare and Neptune's incredible multi-instrumentalisms, with Neptune contributing guitars, bass, violin, and Icare on vocals, drums, and cello. This is for the entire album of course. Their multi-instrumentalism was never more exemplary than when paired with Annatar of Sombres Forêts in Miserere Luminis, where they would switch around instruments onstage mid-set. This album actually gives Miserere Luminis a run for its money, and that's saying a lot. At any rate, it is difficult indeed to keep track of where one is in the listening of this album, as the songs are so cohesive, and frequently long ("Les Forges" is 15:43 in length, but you will hear no complaints here).

It is in fact pointless to do a song-by-song review of this album. It is really all one piece of music with no real flaws. It may be the best MNQ release besides the Miserere Luminis album. The only thing which made me not give this album a 9.5 is the guitar production - it can be hard to hear anything other than distortion when they're playing chords. That aside, I fervently hope you get this album, which you could do here, and enjoy. Bon voyage!