Putting two renowned musicians together is no guarantee of success. Those chemicals can fuse and fizz in strange and exciting ways or they can implode and meltdown, leaving an anticlimactic feeling in their wake. Thankfully, when vocalist Harvest and guitarist/bassist Ferment hooked up in Kir the results were very much in the former camp and these sonic terrorists produced a sound that ruptures with exceptional force. Featuring five tracks that signpost a bright future, L’appel du vide is a vibrant and vital debut album that sets the standard for others who dare to follow.
L’appel du vide is French for “Call of the void”, and considering the overarching feeling of bleakness and dread which permeates this album, it is a pretty apt title. Opening instrumental ‘Destination Void’ is an eerie number and one that sets an ominous tone (quite literally). It feels as if Kir have expended a great deal of effort in searching for just the right notes and timbres when composing this brief piece, and their hard work has certainly paid off. It’s a track that reaches deep into your psyche and reverberates on some deep, primordial level (like Cro-Magnon primordial) and stirs something in the soul that hasn’t been disturbed for generations. It’s a hypnotic affair and one which creates a trance-like state and means that when the following ‘Monument’ hits, it hits hard. There’s no space between the two tracks and the juxtaposition between the two is akin to the ground splitting beneath your feet. The sense of enormity that Kir create with ‘Monument’ can barely be comprehended; it’s a forbidding Nordic sky about to unleash a raging torrent or grey, brutalist architecture towering over the individual. That this album sounds so massive is all the more impressive as it was just recorded by Harvest, Ferment and session drummer Krzysztof Klingbein, yet from this tight unit the band have created a monster and one that sounds far bigger than their constituent parts.
Housed in a striking sleeve, the music contained within is equally arresting and whilst black metal requires a few listens to fully appreciate, L’appel du vide grabs your attention from the first note and then holds it for the next half hour. Those tonal shifts are ever present whilst the chord changes serve to alter and constantly reposition the listener, it’s a constantly revolving beast and it is from that which it derives much of its power. As with the warm hues which grace the sleeve, this record has been furnished with a thick and treacly production, it places the listener in the eye of the storm and ensures it flows like new engine oil. It seamless segues means that epic closer ‘Apoptosis’ comes around far too soon, yet the ominous ending to which it builds will resonate long after the disc has stopped spinning.
At just 30-minutes, this is a fairly brief experience, but it certainly leaves you hungry for more…and now that the band have been expanded to a quintet, hopefully we’ll be hearing much more from Kir.
- L’appel du vide is released via Godz Ov War Productions and is available now.
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Track List:
- Destination Void
- Monument
- Znów
- Eter
- Apoptosis
