Year of No Light

Nord

Crucial Blast 2007

Emotional and atmospheric is the style of shoegazer doom that France's Year of No Light bring us.  Nord is Crucial Blast's rerelease of Year of No Light's debut which was originally released on Radar Swarm in 2006.  Sweeping melodic passages slowly and methodically sway over monstrous strumming while screamed metalcore-esque vocals.  Additionally Godflesh styled dissonance screeches and squeals over those same megalithic riffs creating an unsettling mood which permeates the entire album.  A good example of what I am talking about can be heard on the 9 minute long Traversee.  Of course the industrial pounding of Godflesh is absent from the album.  Nord is a very emotional album in a similar way as say the Cure with its distinctively melodic riffing which also bears some resemblance to the riffing employed by Year of No Light.  Plus they also utilize a calm clean guitar passage on Les Mains De L'Empereur which lulls me into a sense of longing before laying layers of oppressive melody on top of me as the guitars and drumming surge back in.  A certain almost ambient quality resides in the music which to me sort of calls to mind the fading twilight in winter as the last rays of light dance on browned dead leaves.  A certain sense of hopelessness sinks in.  The Ambient quality is hit home in the form of a keyboard soaked passage within the middle of the 8:37 minute Somnambule.  All the lyrics appear to be in French but don't let that dissuade anyone from paying attention to the Julien Perez's tortured vocals which suit the music perfectly.  Year of No Light is a very moving band that brings a complexity of emotion and a sense of heartfelt longing to me every time I listen to Nord.  Crucial Blast did well to pick these talented guys up and I look forward to years of having my heart ripped from my chest with each successive album from Year of No Light.