Kev Rowland Whenever I see the word “gator” in a musical sense, my thoughts always turn to Molly Hatchet, but before you start thinking that these guys are contemporaries from Jacksonville, Florida, let me set the record straight. Firstly these guys are French, not American, hailing from Paris, and this has little to do with good-time boogie, although there is room in the mix for some elements of that. Following on from 2011’s ‘The Great Southern Darkness’ (okay, so there is a theme at least in the recent album titles), this is their fifth album and again they are showing that there is plenty of room within black metal to expand and bring in new ideas. There are elements of sludge, blues, boogie, and a whole host more in an album that is threatening and dynamic in the traditional sense, but expanding and very wide in another.

At times very down and dirty, and at others extremely clean, this is an album that is going to excite fans of Watain and Eyehategod for example, although in many ways it is quite different to both. The production is extremely good, and allows the nuances and inflections of the bass to come through and not be lost – there are times where S is gently bending the strings, adding another dynamic to the overall sound. But there are plenty of times when it is just a full on onslaught.

Although these guys are classed as Black Metal, and rightly so in many ways, they are definitely not restricting themselves to what others may view as being what they should be doing within the genre, but instead are very much following their own path and this album is all the stronger for that. Extremely heavy, with those Southern influences being just part of the melting pot, this is going to find them a whole new group of followers. www.agoniarecords.com