Country of origin:France

Location:Ussac/Brive-la-Gaillarde, Nouvelle-Aquitaine

Status:Active

Formed in:1994

Genre:Avant-garde Black Metal

Lyrical themes:Occult

Current label:Exu Rei Records

Years active:1994-present

From my beloved fields of rural France comes the strange Aryos, a musical outfit devoted to the cause of the forbidden delights of the flesh. From the pictures in the booklet, showing a naked woman in a number of desperate situations assembled with images of polish poetess Lilith von Sirius, hindu statues, egyptian motifs, insects and some sort of temple, and the annotation "When you listen, burn a black candle and a red one, then burn santalwood or dragonblood", you know right from the start this is not going to be your standard mindless black metal fare.

This recording begins with a beautiful dramatic piano piece somewhat reminiscent of Frédéric Chopin's works (though seemingly entirely composed by the keyboardist Aliltéas Gornnec himself), accompanied by a sample from a movie I don't recognize where a man tells a woman who accuses him of blasphemy his unforgiving thoughts without reservation, before drums come in and the track evolves like in a fever towards a chilling final spoken passage. Then only a lonely fuzzy and trebly guitar sings its infectious, diabolical first line, suddenly to appear walking hand in hand with drums, organs and disturbing guttural rasps. The fury is unleashed, and we are immediately transported into a furnace of lust, a nightmarish lust that burns and scorches inside like a venereal disease.

As the audial experience continues, a blend of pleasure, bitterness and morbid fascination numbs the senses of the listener and forces him to wonder when will it stop and if he finally truly wants it to stop. All of it is so disturbing and yet compelling. As the waves of scraping guitars, ominous organs and inhuman voices follow one after another, sometimes gaining speed, sometimes calming down only to become more menacing, an altered state is reached, where one could very well not remember where is he and what was he doing before being immersed in this warm pool of uncanny, deliciously nauseating sounds.
At times, vague human silhouettes appear like ghosts in the dark, seeming to play (ir)religiously their own tragedy, uncaring of the listener's presence, in the form of feminine voices either screaming, speaking unclear words or well, having an affair. Finally, the buzzing guitars turn mute and the epilogue of the ritual, a prayer opening with percussions, permeates us with the authentic ambience of Lucifer-knows-what-obscure-rite certainly including candles, incense and similar things. This sort of curious 'field' recording keeps on for eleven minutes before ending with an ominous, quite creepy noise.
After these forty-two intense minutes, one feel exhausted, and yet pleased, like after having sex in a satisfying manner, which will be up to the reader to define if it is a thing they are ready to endure or not.

On a more critical note, the only deceiving part of this album is the production. Do not imagine a typical lo-fi sound à la Darkthrone, though, as this offering was recorded seriously in a real studio, but was unfortunately not mastered, leaving a quite raw quality of sound that somewhat have a tendency to hurt the atmosphere of the otherwise fine compositions and the repeat-value of this little jewel.

Globally, a very successful avant-garde album that will send shivers down your spine and haunt you for long, despite the technical limitations of its production. Experience it, you will not be disappointed.