Country of origin:France

Location:N/A

Status:Active

Formed in:2014

Genre:Avant-garde Black/Sludge Metal

Lyrical themes:Satanism, Misanthropy

Current label:I, Voidhanger Records

Years active:2014-present

A great thing about small boutique labels is the sense of curatorship. I, Voidhanger records occupies a space for me that Profound Lore used to fill maybe five years ago. Everything on that label I can find, I will listen to, and with high expectations. If I've ever been looking out for an interesting new sound, I'll raid the I, Voidhanger roster. Surprisingly, the debut of Antagoniste didn't come to my attention through one of those raids, but an offhand recommendation from a friend. The Myth of Mankind appeared to slide beneath the radar for most people. From what I've seen and read, those that did hear it were divided. For the life of me, I don't understand the controversy. The slowburning approach to experimental black metal here has been heard before in bands like Terra Tenebrosa and Blut Aus Nord, but Antagoniste do a fine job of making it their own.

Unlike the better-known bands I'd probably compare Antagoniste with (the aforementioned pair of bands come to mind first) there isn't the sense that these guys are locked into a single identity. At least at this point in their career, they're exploring multiple atmospheres and approaches. The Myth of Mankind covers so many bases: atmospheric black metal ("The Demiurge") post-metal ("The Wanderer"), even Blut Aus Nord-y industrial. The first time I listened to this album, I wasn't consciously aware that Antagoniste were in the midst of testing out different sounds for themselves. Part of this is simply because these approaches have a tried-and-true compatibility with one another, but some of the credit also lies with the way they've handled the material. Some of the lighter build-ups sound almost hopeful-- something you'd never hear from their more developed counterparts-- but the smooth flow of the album allows these discrepancies to work.

The abundant gearshifts on The Myth of Mankind make it somewhat difficult to peg their sound in a word or two, and for that, I'm glad. The foundation of Antagoniste is based firmly in Blut Aus Nord's atmospheric 777 trilogy, but they're fleshing it out in a way that allows other influences to come through. Would it be fair to call this a post-metalized equivalent to The Desanctification? While it sounds as though Antagoniste are still wading through their prospects as far as style is concerned, they have a quality execution on par with their influences. The guitars are crystal clear yet no less oppressive. The vocals, most interesting of all the band's parts, are oftimes indecipherable in their murkiness, although they're self-aware enough to know when a more straightforward scream is appropriate. The Myth of Mankind has all the adventurous trappings of a debut, but the delivery of a far more advanced band. With their identities still a mystery, I wouldn't be surprised if Antagoniste turns out to be the product of already-established in the French scene. Hell, maybe there's some association with Blut Aus Nord themselves. Time, as always, will tell.

Originally written for Heathen Harvest Periodical.

The sludge genre is not an initial attractor to me personally, not to say there haven't been a few dozen outstanding bands and works that I've relished within this style, but I find a lot of the recordings put aesthetics like guitar tone and repetition above quality riff scripting and thus I rarely come away with any sort of emotional resonance. Reading in advance about Antagoniste, it seemed this would be a little left of center, using a bit of that heavier, simpler chord structure and tone but twisting and glazing it with all manner of progressive departures, blackgaze influence and lots of change ups in tempo and purpose. As it turns out, The Myth of Mankind is a bit of an oddball, not an unusual fit for I, Voidhanger records which has produced a lot of interesting, unique, often enigmatic artists; but I do feel like this debut lacks some amount of the cohesion and control it might take to leave a bigger footprint.

I won't go so far as to claim it's completely 'chaotic' in nature, since there is plenty of structure and logical succession to the riff patterns. In most of the tracks, you've got these fat, drudging chord patterns that are sauteed in ringing, chiming, atonal guitars for atmosphere. Almost like a mesh of Isis and later Ulcerate, only which black metal charges thrown in that are heralded by the snarlier, wilder rasp vocals. It's also not quite as 'dry' in feel as that comparison might seem, since the French project has a lot more happening at any given moment. Tracks like "The Barren Lands" and "The Fall of Man" are at once both shining and claustrophobic, with vocals that follow few rules or boundaries and just roil in their own viscera. Some of the low end rhythm guitars and bass bounce and churn along with an almost mechanical groove metal precision, and the ultimate result is that the album takes on a sort of organic industrial dichotomy where their own leaden, deadened limbs have been used to replace robots on an assembly line, and the unnerving nature of the hissed rasp seems like a few rubber conveyor belts came loose and are bleeding oxygen as they whip about the space. The drums are a little busier than I'd have expected though, and they do slightly alleviate some of the moments here where I kept zoning out.

As a more pessimistic, vocal-driven alternative to an experience like the Blut Aus Nord 777 trilogy, which experimented with a similar droning, ambient/industrial characteristic but didn't get quite so calamitous or sinister, The Myth of Mankind is a functional enough record. The issues for me were that: 1) the riffing here is far from exceptional, bland patterns of chords that never really took any unexpected turns, and were just expressions of volume and fuzzed, gut-ripping tone rather than mesmerizing hooks...perhaps too accurate to their mechanistic disposition, and 2) the vocals really didn't feel adequately painful or tortured, just a mass of arbitrary hisses and snarls that felt more like the mating of wounded animals than any sort of poignant, memorable force within the music. I do appreciated bands stepping outside the circle, but it's not like this sort of hybrid hasn't been attempted before more successfully. If you're into this really dissonant, soundscape sort of album which pretty liberally contrasts its own lights and darks without any restraint, then this might prove an unsettling ride into some crypto-philosophical terror zone, but this really didn't push the right buttons for me, and apart from a few moments (as in "The Black Sun") where that sunshine and hatred fell into a sudden congruity, or the ambient escapism took over completely, it felt a little too forced into asymmetry, a square peg that didn't quite fit into its round hole.

-autothrall
http://www.fromthedustreturned.com