Lyrics aside, stylistically, you’re in much more familiar terrain from the very get go. Like their Canadian compatriots of Smoulder and maybe to a lesser extent their US counterparts Savage Master, they forge an alloy of soaring female vocals, epic heavy metal in the vein of Manilla Road and traditional old school doom like Solitude Aeternus. Headed by the lovely Annick Giroux, whose singing qualities are on par with for instance the aforementioned Smoulder‘s Sarah Ann Kitteringham or Stacey Savage. The French sung lyrics remain a matter of taste nevertheless. ‘Rosa Mystica’ is their third full length, having started in with the ‘La vièrge noire’ EP way back in 2010 . However, things really got start for the Canadian quartet with the the critically acclaimed sophomore ‘Chapelle ardente’, which set them on the map of the new wave of epic heavy metal.
After 2 pretty up tempo heavy metal tracks, we finally get into the doomy bits on ‘Notre-Dame-sous-Terre’, which gets accompanied by some eerie organ sounds courtesy of Annick and ends with some awesome riffing by François Patry. Definitely, the best track on offer so far. ‘Danger de Nuit’ kicks it up again in almost Judas Priest like fashion. The title track on its turn is another atmospheric piece that sees the return of the organs and has a sweet instrumental intermezzo before it pulls out the Thin Lizzy-esque riff machine in the second half. ‘Le tombeau de l’aube’ is a surprisingly short, rushed stomper that leads into the fiery explosions of ‘Volcan’ which stands out in particular due to the soloing from none other than Pagan Altar’s Alan Jones. Cauchemar then works its magic one last time on the closing ‘La Sorcière’, which is another fine grooving doom track.
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REVIEW SCORE
| 7.2 | With expactations high from their 2016 sophomore release, Cauchemar has delivered the doomy goods in spades provided you can get past the French lyrics. |
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