10 Years after their last full length release L’acéphale brings their new self titled album through record label Eisenwald. The band, led by Set Sothis Nox La, spend six years recording this album in various places. Those six years produced an epic magnum opus, a 74-minute album counting 7 long tracked yet varied songs.

Set Sothis Nox La, Jared Huston, Charlie Mumma, Danny Costa, Carl Annala and Markus Wolff (recording lineup/members) draw influence from historical and literary themes for their extreme sound. While keeping true to there extreme metal roots they introduce a lot of different styles/influences in their new album.

Throughout the album there are numerous examples of monumental dark folk, spoken word and black metal being intertwined in the songs. This makes each song, even with the shortest being well over 6 minutes long, interesting and very divert in itself. The thing that bothers me with this album is the lack of diversity. While the songs might be dynamic, the album is not. It feels like every song follows the same trajectory switching from thundering extreme/black metal to spoken word. Which transitions to a slower melodic folk and swells back to extreme/black metal. In my opinion it is nice and interesting for one or two songs but not for a whole album.

The one song which really caught my interest was Winternacht, the last song on the album. It’s an epic 20 minute long song in which the influence of Scandinavian black metal is omnipresent. Throughout the music there are spaces where the heavy music is replaced by spoken word. This gives more dimension to the song, it’s like they give more background, more footing to their music.

Release date: April 19th, 2019
Label: Eisenwald
Tracklist:

1. Sovereignty: (Dieu – Die Sonne stirbt – Sovereignty)
2. Gloria in Excelsis Mihi
3. Runenberg
4. Hark! The Battle – Cry Is Ringing
5. Last Will
6. Sleep
7. Winternacht