Bosse-De-Nage

ii

Flenser Records 2011

California's madness inspiring black metallers Bosse-De-Nage deliver their second full-length album.  This is my first exposure to them and after viewing the ambiguous cover art I was at a loss as to what to expect when I put this CD in the player.  Volume II Chapter I begins the album and is somewhat deceptive as the first two minutes imply the music will be doom, bordering on drone.  After this initial set of ploddingly paced riffs a distinctly quicker tempo sets in and basically carries through each track until the final moments of the album.  Nonstop fluid riffs flow forth like a cascading waterfall.  They wash over the listener, drowning out all extraneous sensory input.  Similar in a way to Darkthrone's Transilvanian Hunger, but with a more American feel.  Picture if Transilvanian Hunger had been written by Wrest of Leviathan.  B's vocals are seriously tormented, like a much sadder version of Varg's emotional shriek.  Marie In A Cage is up next and continues with the theme of blasting drums and cold, melodic riffing.  However, you start to notice the really interesting drum patterns and the emotional edge to the riffs.  The riffs are not as flat and as ambient as I initially thought.  However the album is still about being lost in the textural flow of the songs as the drift into one another.  This mental odyssey only ends as the final moments of Why Am I So Lovely? Because My Master Washes Me fade into soft notes of ambient white noise, which leaves your mind unfettered to flow into the dark void.  Bosse-De-Nage has made me a convert with their second album of hypnotic black metal.  It remains structurally focused while leaving my mind to drift into self-exploration and inner sorrow and strife.