(written by Islander)
Today we premiere a full stream of Le Déclin, a new album by the veteran French band Ataraxie that will be released this coming Friday, October 25th, by Ardua Music and Weird Truth Productions.
To make it was an enormous undertaking. The results speak to that: Four songs, each of which is in the range of 16-22 minutes, and a total running time for the album of more than 80 minutes. You could think of it as four EPs released simultaneously, and you could choose to listen to them that way, but thematically they are all connected.
Before you reach the end of this article you’ll find extensive comments about the album from Ataraxie bassist/vocalist Jonathan Théry. As he describes them, the lyrics of the songs are about the negativity and sickness of the modern world — the descent of humanity into ignorance, absurdity, the rejection of science, the glorification of malignant fantasy, the rise of depression and disease, and an unwillingness to confront what could be done (or must be done) to prevent humankind from extinguishing itself.
Given the way that most metal bands make music, it’s unlikely that the lyrics (in French) were written first, and the music written to follow the lyrics. But there is still an undeniable unity between the themes and the sounds. The music itself channels anger, disgust, agony, isolation, and ruin on a global scale, as well as moments that seem to capture the value of what is being destroyed.
photo by Ben Redcatcity
As they have done before in previous albums, Ataraxie fashion their daunting musical edifice with foundations made of doom/death metal stylings from the early ’90s and the slowest of death metal bands from the ’80s and ’90s, but using still other ingredients in building upon them. They thrive in the creation of contrasts in sound, style, speed, mood, and intensity. It’s how they can make such long and fundamentally bleak songs succeed.
The magnitude of the contrasts derives in part from the fact that Atarazie‘s lineup include three guitarists. When they are all simultaneously involved, the power and intensity of the music can swell to towering and devastating proportions, especially when the band dial up the distortion to zeniths of ragged and ruinous vibration, a tapestry of moans, wails, and radioactive pain — harmonies of mutilation and misery.
The high tides of power derive from other sources as well, among them the crushing weight of the bass, the bunker-busting impact of the drums, the abyssal agonies of gargantuan, serrated-edge growls, the wrenching pain of tortured screams, and ravaging howls that go on and on, all of them spine-shivering in their effect. (The album features one of the most harrowing vocal performances you’re likely to find this year.)
The tides also crash at different speeds, many of them in slow motion, deep in the channels of catastrophic funeral doom, but some of them driven by racing storm fronts — such as the dense, gritty, and ravaging whir of the guitars, the piston-like pulse of the bass, and the tumultuous upheavals, torrential blasting, and furious hammering of the drums that occurs within “Vomisseurs de vide“, “Glory Of Ignominy“, and “The Collapse“, with truly cataclysmic effects.
At speeds in between, the music can sound like the earth shaking itself apart and the mass ascension of dying souls into nothingness.
photo by Ben Redcatcity
On the other end of the scale, the band make room for guitars that slowly reverberate, clean and clear, brittle or glistening, haunting in their resonance, and the bass seems to dolorously muse or dismally throb as the drum methodically go off like gunshots. Similarly, the vocals softly intone spoken words, nearly gasping, nearly hopeless. At such times the music seems to gaze upon the human world and to ask, how is such stupidity even possible?
At other times, the clean guitar reverberations provide ghostly and wistful glimpses of fragile and evanescent beauty — as if manifesting what is special that is being destroyed.
At those low tides of power, the music can be spellbinding — not pretty or placid spells, to be sure, but spells of heart-ache, dismay, and grief. Even the high tides can create mesmerizing effects when rolling in slow motion; at those times you might be induced to close your eyes and sway, drowning in the cold and crushing currents.
In short, on their new album Ataraxie continue to fill up the small niche where they have chosen to make their musical home, filling it to overflowing with a particularly extreme formulation of doom — pulverizing, soul-shattering, unwilling to avert its gaze from the wrongness of so much around us, unwilling to pull their punches in reacting to it.
ATARAXIE LINE-UP:
Frédéric Patte-Brasseur – Guitar
Hugo Gaspar – Guitar
Jonathan Théry – Bass / Vocals
Julien Payan – Guitar
Pierre Sénécal – Drums
All mixing was accomplished between January and March 2024 by Sylvain Biguet. The mastering was performed in April 2024 by Collin Jordan at The Boiler Room. The cover art was created by Arnaud Daval.
Le Déclin is available on variant vinyl, digipack CD, and cassette tape formats, and digitally from the band. You’ll find pre-order options via the links below. It comes recommended for fans of diSEMBOWELMENT, Evoken, early My Dying Bride, Morgion, Cathedral, Esoteric, Asunder, Mournful Congregation, Spectral Voice or Incantation.
Earlier we promised to share extensive comments about the album and its lyrical themes from Ataraxie bassist/vocalist Jonathan Théry, and you’ll find those after the links. They are worth reading.
PRE-ORDER:
https://www.arduamusic.com
https://arduamusic.bandcamp.com/album/le-d-clin
https://weirdtruth.jp
https://ataraxie.bandcamp.com/album/le-d-clin
ATARAXIE:
https://www.facebook.com/ataraxiedoom
https://www.instagram.com/ataraxieofficial
COMMENTS BY JONATHAN THÉRY
It’s always hard to speak about one’s own music because we never know where to start or to end. Let’s open a refined beer to get inspired and write these lines.
First, rest assured as Le Déclin still sounds like another Ataraxie album. Once again, we tried to not repeat ourselves as it has remained our motto for almost 25 years now. Our music will always evolve over time and now even more as a function of our grey hair density. Thus, you shall find the same French-spoken bleak doom/death metal with ultra slow doom riffs, furious death metal blast beats and extreme vocals.
In terms of production, this album was a real challenge to record because we did it in various studios just to make all logistics much easier to handle for everyone. Yet, it had been supervised by Sylvain Biguet (from drum takes to mastering) who handled two previous albums. Long story short, we tried to sound filthier than Résignés, thanks to a more crushing bass sound and fuzzier punishing guitars. Yet, we also did our best to keep the acoustic drum sound as massive as possible, pure gloomy clean guitar parts, and epic 3-guitar arrangements. Really glad that Collin Jordan managed to magnify the entire work of Sylvain during mastering.
Lyrically speaking, the album finds its whole inspiration in the negativity of our modern and sick world. My objective was just to share my personal thoughts about it and insist on the fact we’re already almost doomed! Front cover illustrates the visible consequences of global warming as it will be the biggest challenge to overcome for the survival of mankind, and most of the important leaders still don’t get it. You’ll find below further details about lyrics of each song:
1. Le Déclin
The overall decline of mankind as an earth species. Its continuous fascination for the mediocrity and absurd reasonings.
A sick imaginary world that dictates deviant behaviours, never stops nourrishing insanity, comforts people into ignorance, and makes them forget what truly matters, ie, the ecosystem that has kept us alive.
The apathy to solve real problems leads us step by step towards chaos and extinction.
2. Vomisseurs de vide
The hypnotizing attraction for lowness, silliness, and voyeurism. The glorification of sinister leaders who rule insane fantasy worlds with hollow concepts or alternative facts.
The lower, the better, most of the real experts are now questioned or mocked by the masses because they don’t have millions of followers. The less educated or most idiotic shitheads are glorified like human divinities. What do we keep on educating people for?
3. Glory Of Ignominy
The reign of false concepts and aimless or complex absurdities. In parallel, simplistic solutions are only given by populists instead of promoting real finely shaded solutions.
Facts and knowledge are too often ignored or mocked. All beliefs always prevail and people systematically get offended when they are questioned a bit about them. Qualified expertise is too much ignored and doesn’t have any real value any longer.
4. The Collapse
The true loneliness of each human being in these troubled times. The hammers of insanity, bitterness, and our hollow existence. Depression or disease are not taken into account seriously as it is not a priority for too many countries. The most insane concepts are rising and anti-science movements took power. An empty legacy at the end for too many human beings, nothing meaningful or noteworthy to remember.
I hope you’ll enjoy the first premiere streaming as much as we enjoyed making this album.
Doom on,
Jo