I’m not sure what it is, but France seems to be the “trendy” country for metal these days. Gojira and Deathspell Omega are the most recognizable but there are plenty of quality bands coming out of France. The latest to grace my ears is Erlen Meyer and their self-titled album. And they don’t sound anything like Gojira or Deathspell Omega. Trying to pinpoint who they do sound like is rather difficult.
An ominous instrumental introduces the band before launching into ‘Nuit’. The shortest of the non-instrumental tracks, ‘Nuit’ is also the most immediate. The basic elements of Erlen Meyer are present on the track; groovy sludge riffs, slower doom parts, “post” guitar melodies, spoken word passages and serious pissed off screams. Vocalist Olivier LaCroix has quite the set of pipes on him. Every word that comes out of his mouth drips with contempt, disgust and pain. What he’s so upset about is hard to ascertain however as all the lyrics are in French. And my French isn’t good enough to figure it out.
Backing LaCroix’s tortured voice are guitarists Jeremie Noel and Pierre Berger, bassist Jeremy Abella and drummer Karol Diers. Diers actually replaced their previous skinsman Romain Djoudi, who was killed in a motorcycle accident. No doubt that loss, mere days before recording, fuels some of the fire that burns inside Erlen Meyer. That fire burns fairly hot at times, such as the end of ‘Sans Fleur ni Couronne’ but more often than not the band opts for a more bruising and/or soothing approach. Their sludge-ridden doom riffs are heavily repeated and often accentuated with pretty melodies. They can play soft or hard equally and they excel at setting a certain mood – anxious, sadness, etc – only to erupt in a fit of rage.
That all sounds well and good but the problem lies in attention span. Throughout the album it can be felt that the same could be accomplished without resorting to such long songs. With three songs over eight minutes, plus one almost ten, it’s a lot to handle. Generally a fan of extended track lengths, I just found that Erlen Meyer are lacking that “je ne c’est quoi” to justify those lengths. Perhaps if I knew what they were screaming (excellently) about, perception might change but for whatever reason the band isn’t really intriguing enough to bother with a translation. Singing in English might not be what they need (express yourself in whatever language you want, by all means!) but there does seem to be something missing to take this band from a good band to a really good band. No doubt they’ll figure it out and we’ll be hearing more from them in the future
6.5/10
Matt Hinch