renkls Though there's been a few albums in the vein of Edge of Sanity's Crimson emerge in the last few years, none have really overthrown its fundamental influence in the death metal scene - but that doesn't stop several talented bands from trying.

Ysengrin is a rather obscure french band, and I must say that their album To Endotation is my first experience with them. Like Crimson, To Endotation takes form in one unbroken track of 40 minutes. It uses a style that sits in the middle of both death metal and black metal - but instrumentally incorporates several different styles, from acoustic sections to hard rock riffs, then the heavier doomy parts.

While the album is one unbroken track, there are at least two parts where fades are really obvious, and the flow is sort of broken, but these are just minor niggles which come with the ambitious layout of the album.

Lyrically, the vocalist has a strange blend of death/black metal vocalizations, being able to go from raspy one moment to clear and authoritative the next. They're definitely vocals to get used to, as they're not like most that I've heard.

The album is in french, so you may need some translation to understand the story they're telling.

Overall, there are plenty of catchy moments in the album length song that make it recommended enough for four stars, but it still doesn't have the edge on many of the notable one track classics. I look forward to seeing where the band takes their unique style next.

Time Signature To endotation...

Genre: hermetic dark metal

Labeled by the band as hermetic dark metal, the music of Ysengrin, at least on this album, is considerably eclectic, containing elements of death metal, doom metal, gothic metal, black metal, thrash metal and even some more traditional heavy metal.

And this is a blend that works incredibly well, as the forty-minute sole song found on the album takes the listener through various metal music landscapes, from melodic upbeat riffs over slow and heavy doom-laden passages to black metal-styled blastbeating. To this you can add chucking Celtic Frost-ish riffage and other primitive black-thrash moves, and there is even a slightly funky acoustic section towards the end.

A song of forty minutes can easily get boring, but that does not happen here, as Ysengrin manage to stuff a lot of variation into the composition with cleverly placed changes of tempo, style and atmosphere and breakdowns and build-ups. Musically, I would say that this is a very well put together epic track, which never gets boring. I am not a big fan of the husky whisper-like growled vocals, and I think that a more varied vocal style would have done the album more favors, but I can see how Guido Saint Roch's growls on this album contribute to the overall dark atmosphere.

Not all metal bands can pull off doing a 40-minute song, but Ysengrin do it successfully on "To Endotation", and anyone who is up for a dark journey through the world of metal should jump on for the ride. It is indeed a very well put together track.