Vehemency Never trust the hype! That’s what comes to my mind after several spins given to Saille’s debut offering Irreversible Decay, but don’t get me wrong, we’re still dealing with such a symphonic black metal album that puts many others in the field to shame.

Saille plays professionally, that becomes clear in the beginning already when the well-played acoustic intro ”Nomen” escorts the album to its first metal blast entitled ”Passages of the Nemesis”, a true sea of tremolo picked riffage where the roughness of rock instrumentation meets the melody of real (!) orchestral instruments. The inclusion of proper orchestral elements is a definite plus, making Irreversible Decay differ from all the cheap synth orchestra black metal bands out there.

Compositionally, the songs are rather diverse and technical, but lacking the spark of originality too. What I’m mostly hearing is Keep of Kalessin combined with some Dimmu Borgir - not that that’s a bad combo, but it does make the album sound a little tame. The tameness and safeness is a problem I have with a lot of modern sounding black metal albums (e.g. it doesn’t matter how fast you play those damn blast beats if they lack all necessary barbarity), so if you don’t mind well produced black metal with modern compositional and productional values, forget what I said above and just enjoy.

There are some true gems among the nine tracks, such as ”Maere” and ”Tephra” which have some of the most grabbing melodies of the bunch, not to forget how much is given space to the orchestral instruments, and it works like a charm. None of the tracks are certainly bad, just somewhat unsuprising. Irreversible Decay is most certainly a positive experience (in spite of all the negativity I gave space for in this review) that all symphonic black metal lovers should look into; for me, a lot more unpredictability would be needed to really impress me, but I’m still enjoying this to a good extent.

J-Man The Orion Prophecy

Although the symphonic black metal scene has become overcrowded in recent years with super-polished Dimmu Borgir clones, Belgian band Saille has taken a much more raw approach with their debut album, Irreversible Decay. Rather than paying homage to these bombastic acts, Saille plays a style of symphonic black metal that harkens back to the early pioneers of the genre (particularly Emperor). Saille's sound isn't groundbreaking or terribly original, but Irreversible Decay is an excellently crafted work of art and a breath of fresh air in the modern symphonic black metal scene. For only their debut album, Saille have gotten off on the right foot with an album that almost guarantees a successful future.

As previously mentioned, the music on Irreversible Decay is symphonic black metal characterized by the founders of the genre. Although you will hear hints of Dimmu Borgir, I hear more nods in the direction of Emperor, early Arcturus, or even a bit of Burzum during the darker ambient-influenced sections. As such, Saille isn't breaking many boundaries, but the end result is nothing short of satisfying. The production is pretty raw without ever sounding lo-fi or anything like that. My biggest (and only) complaint is that the length of the album is just too much. 63 minutes proves to be too long, and a "samey" feeling begins to develop about halfway through. A few more memorable compositions and a shorter running length would've ultimately enhanced my experience significantly. The musicianship of Saille is impeccable, and I especially have to give a nod to the terrific keyboard playing from Dries Gaerdelen. The atmosphere he adds to the album is unbeatable, and his neo-classical influences are also admirable.

Conclusion:

Irreversible Decay has created a lot of waves in black metal circles, and it's not hard to understand why. This is an excellent symphonic black metal album from a young band with tons of potential and promise. The compositional quality is a bit mixed, though, and I can't quite put it into as high of regard as some other reviewers have. If Saille can hone in a bit on making more consistent compositions, I sense a terrific sophomore album on the horizon. For this promising and enjoyable debut album, I'll go with 3.5 stars. I'd recommend fans of old school symphonic black metal to definitely give this a spin.

adg211288 Irreversible Decay is the debut album by black metal band Saille, released in 2011. The music of Saille is best described as Symphonic Black metal, however there are times within their music that where Classical Black Metal would perhaps be the more accurate description to give them.

The album begins with an instrumental piece that really plays on the classical/symphonic influences in the band’s sound. This is a nice lead in to the first actual song, Passages Of The Nemesis. Initial impression of the album at this stage are that the band are competent at their instruments and that they have not gone that the under-produced route that some black metal bands do, resulting in a good clear sound topped off by some pretty decent vocals which at times remind me of Mayhem’s Attila Csihar. Normally coming from me that wouldn’t be a complement because I can’t say I go much on Csihar’s vocals, but Saille vocalist Jonathan Vanderwal manages to pull off the style in a way that that complements the music well. Instrumentation from the other members of the top is top notch for the style they play, and I find it nice to hear a bit of lead guitar in the music as well. But it’s the classical/symphonic element in the music that really makes Irreversible Decay an interesting album, as it is this that really makes the sound atmospheric.

There is plenty on offer here for the black metal fan, and even to people who don’t enjoy the genre so much. This is a more accessible album than some black metal releases I’ve come across, but it sounds all the better for it. This is symphonic black metal at its finest and to top it all the album proves itself to be no one trick pony as well, with fourth track Plaigh Allais being very progressively inclined with several random changes in the track’s delivery, and it instantly became one of the album’s highlights for me. Another highly is Maere, which is the first song the band released to promote the album. The intro of this one really showcases that classical feel again, to excellent results. It is an album where every song provides some fresh ideas and there isn’t a single track that can be considered the album’s weak link.

All in all Irreversible Decay is without a doubt one of the first truly exciting albums from 2011 and is also one of the best debut’s I’ve heard for some time. The band can safely be proud of this gem. Consider this reviewer highly impressed.

(Review originally written for Heavy Metal Haven)