À Terre - Embrasser La Nuit

Angry Metal Guy

There’s nothing wrong with sticking to an established genre template, but it’s interesting when a band opts to mix things up. Bordeaux’s À Terre could be said to go a step further, claiming the musical DNA of their debut Embrasser La Nuit was guided by the provocative question, “Is making Cult Of Luna or Converge really that original these days?” As a sludge/post-metal ensemble, the group’s self-awareness about their debt to the big names, leads them, in Embrasser La Nuit, to sprinkle in a handful of other influences, mainly from the French rap and hip-hop scene.¹ But the real question isn’t whether or not what À Terre have created makes for a novel take on post-metal or sludge. Instead, it’s a question of whether or not what they have created is good, regardless of its callbacks or imitations.

There is certainly an air of uniqueness about Embrasser La Nuit. A trap-beat-led, post-metal version of rap (“Tous Morts,”) is not something you hear often. But À Terre don’t settle into any one distinctive style so much as flick between them, and not unnaturally. Classic sludgy trudges marry well with the hardcore stompiness that rears its head on multiple occasions (“Paris sous les Tombes,” “L’Appel de la Nuit”). The post-metal leanings lend themselves by default to the passages of ambience (“ÂCÂB,” “Presque Morts,” “Nous Sommes la Nuit”), which itself pairs as easily with rap-style delivery as harsher rasps. Flashes of greatness come in the form of a cascading pattern of synths smartly woven into an escalating build (“ÂCÂB”), or an alarm-bell riff playing to the tune of a -core/sludge mash-up (“Paris sous la Tombes”). À Terre play their interpretations of these blended genres well, but as as the elements continue to brush shoulders with one another within songs, the energies give way to indistinctness. And there grows an uncomfortable sense that it all amounts to another less-than-memorable iteration of a subgenre’s core sound.

EMBRASSER LA NUIT by À TERRE

À Terre can write sludge and post-metal. They know how to craft some battering riff-rhythm patterns (“Paris sous les Tombes,” “Nous Sommes La Nuit”), throwing in some group, and layered vocals for that satisfying touch of aggression. Their atmospheric tendencies are also appropriately sombre, and chilling, particularly as they tend towards the stripped-back-to-slow build style that marks some of the best of post-metal’s traits (“ÂCÂB,” “Prophétie”). In reminding the listener of greats like Amenra, Cult of Luna, Isis, and more, passages—and by extension, tracks—gain familiarity and the halo of quality shines on them. Yet, when I hear the pained, atonal screams over minor synths and the tides of gritty chugging (“Prophétie,” “L’Appel de la Nuit”), it’s like hearing Amenra with 90% of the emotion stripped away. The gradual increases in tension and intensity that rise and fall (“ÂCÂB,” “Presque Morts”) are not unaffecting, but their impact is greatly softened by À Terre’s tendency to force, rush, or otherwise fail to properly capitalise on them. They are at best simply inserted, if still decent (“Prophétie”) and at worst, totally undeveloped (“Paris sous les Tombes,” “Presque Morts”). Likewise, the bite of the surrounding sludge feels relatively toothless thanks to the fact that the impatience that characterises the hardcore stylings infects even the stiller moments: off-the-cuff edginess bringing angsty riffage too soon, and ambience breaking sludge far too frequently and abruptly. What results are compositions lacking in conviction, possessing none of the rawness or introspection that they ought to, combining to form something awkwardly bland.

Embrasser La Nuit thus makes for a surprisingly uneventful listening experience; surprising, because everything is technically good, and yet somehow anaemic. The glimmers of brilliance are good only insofar as they are imitations, while the exceptions to the established formula in the form of ‘experimentation’ (“Tous Morts,” and, at a stretch, a more synth-heavy approach in spots across the record) are vastly too brief to create any meaningful intrigue or spice. Leaving individual tastes aside, this kind of music should never be boring, and in fairness, calling Embrasser La Nuit boring would be overly simplistic; it’s too uneven for that. There are stretches of atmospheric musing (“Prophétie”) and snappy boisterousness (“Paris sous les Tombes”) that are, in isolation, good. Their collection nonetheless leaves more than a little to be desired.

À Terre speak to the concept of originality, but ultimately, their debut does not suffer because it lacks it. It suffers because À Terre’s homages to genre mainstays fail to elicit the profoundly affecting responses in their audience that their incarnation demands. The music is a surface-level representation of its inspirations, with only glimpses of depth. With relatively little raw humanity, despite its literal components, and a lukewarm commitment to the true presence of its pugnacity and its magnitude, Embrasser La Nuit makes only the barest of impacts.

Rating: Disappointing
DR: 5 | Format Reviewed: wav
Label: Self-Release
Websites: Bandcamp | Facebook
Releases Worldwide: January 24th, 2025

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