Premiers Chants by Ossuaire hits hard from the very first note. Funereal bells echo into the void, and chaos descends without warning: sharp riffs, relentless blast beats, and tearing screams. The album gives no respite; each track is a ritual, an incantation where brutality and melody intertwine to create a dense, suffocating universe.
The concept matches the musical intensity: the first part of a diptych, Premiers Chants narrates the fall of Christianity and the rise of heresy. The French lyrics, biting and poetic, strike like swords, denouncing dogma and corruption with an almost liturgical fervor. Music becomes the vessel of a decaying world, each note a falling ash on a shattered altar.
Musically, the album is a controlled maelstrom. Sinister, cutting riffs merge with more atmospheric passages, punctuated by Gregorian chants and spoken voices that lend a spectral depth to the whole. The deliberately raw production reinforces the immersive effect: one feels trapped in a sonic tomb, crushed by the density and darkness of the sound.
Saints Céphalophores stands out with its tempo shifts and sharp dynamics, while La Grande Apostasie, an epic 11-minute piece, stretches across melancholy, virtuosity, and controlled chaos, leaving an indelible mark.
Premiers Chants is not just an album; it is a ritual of darkness, a dive into a sonic and conceptual abyss where Ossuaire asserts its vision of Québécois black metal. Brutal, melodic, dark, and intelligent, the album confirms that this band is an emerging force no one can ignore.
You can get the physical album from Sepulchral Productions and follow Ossuaire on Bandcamp.
- BANDCAMP: https://ossuaire.bandcamp.com/album/premiers-chants
- Sepulchral Productions: https://www.sepulchralproductions.com/collections/sepulchralprod
