It’s a tough job for any band coming back with a new album after an extended break. It’s been almost four years since Svart Crown released ‘Profane’, an album that at its time of release knocked critics and fans back with a blistering mix of brutal death metal and dissonant black metal. Expectations were bubbling over how the French overlords of blackened death could possibly compete with an opus of such ferocity. Svart Crown’s answer to that conundrum is ‘Abreaction’, released through the band’s new home, Century Media Records.
Following the gloomy and atmospheric opening track ‘Golden Sacrament’, the album truly kicks into life with ‘Carcosa’. An almost frightening barrage of blastbeats, shredded riffs and JB Le Bail’s thunderous roars explode from the speakers with the force and destructive power of a nailbomb in an elevator, taking what feels like a layer or three of skin with it. This really is music as an act of aggression, and even when the song subsides with an eerie interlude before reigniting in its second half, the effect is stunning and terrifying to behold. That is not to imply that Svart Crown are one-trick ponies, or that they lack dynamics or texture in their sound: ‘The Pact: To The Devil His Due’ is an altogether slower, creepier endeavour than its predecessor, spilling over with serpentine guitar leads and ground-shaking double-kicks that twist your guts rather than smash your face in.
Though Svart Crown’s atmosphere draws heavily from the grand black metal orchestrations of Emperor, sonically they’re very much rooted in death metal. Ironically, for a European band, there’s little of the ’80s/’90s Swedish sound present here, instead the band draw more from the likes of Deicide, Morbid Angel and even Nile in the way their riffs contort and their drums pummel. The closest comparison would be Behemoth, but even then Svart Crown have an altogether darker and more oppressive vibe about them, something that comes across in tracks like ‘Upon This Intimate Madness’, a slow-burn anthem that seeds dread in its first half before striking with a barrage of jagged riffs in its final bars. The band are able to play with different tempos in a way that many extreme bands cannot grasp – lots of acts pick either ‘fast’ or ‘slow’ and go with it, but Svart Crown strike a good balance between the two, showing an innate knack for when to peel faces off with full-throttle onslaught and when to dive deep into the blackest pits of despair.
‘Abreaction’ is not a perfect record by any means, however. It feels a little unfocused at times, with some tracks overstaying their welcome by a good minute or two. Much of that is a simple byproduct of their genre as a whole though, a good majority of black and death metal getting bogged down by riff-after-riff-after-riff tedium, something that unfortunately creeps into any form of music that is trying to steer clear of traditional ‘pop’ song structures. With a bit of editing this could have been a leaner, more direct album that grips from start to finish. As it is, however, ‘Abreaction’ is a little too long and meandering at points, and though none of the music within feels lazy or unnecessary, as a whole it starts to drag in the latter half. The album does however feature some of its most impressive and surprising moments towards the end, namely the unexpectedly thrashy ‘Emphatic Illusion’, the second to last ‘proper’ song. Though not necessarily the most ‘extreme’ moment on ‘Abreaction’, it feels like the most exciting, as it brings a different flavour that isn’t found anywhere else on the record.
As a whole, ‘Abreaction’ is an album Svart Crown should be proud of. Though maybe a little tedious at times, there are exhilarating chunks of Satan-fuelled savagery to be found throughout. Svart Crown have not revolutionised blackened death metal here, but they’re certainly contributing to its dark legacy and that’s more than enough to warrant some serious horn-throwing in their general direction.
JAMES LEE