Originally written by Jon Eardley
Sorcier Des Glaces is a project spearheaded by Sébastien Robitaille, who plays all instruments involved and composes all of the music. Moonrise in Total Darkness is the second release by the one man band and has been sitting on the shelf – supposedly finished and ready to roll – for the past eight years or so, yet it is now finally receiving an official release through the folks at Mankind’s Demise Records. Whatever the reason(s) for the delay may or may not be, I’m not sure the recording would have gained any more attention had it come out when it was first recorded, because it is nothing more than another feeble attempt at rehashing the sounds of early Emperor, Mayhem, Immortal, Darkthrone, and countless others.
MiTD starts off with your typical keyboard driven intro that lasts about two and a half minutes too long, and while not a completely awful piece of music, the idea is as old and tired as this entire sound is. As expected most of the songs fly by at a pressing pace courtesy of the typical blast beats (the snare could arguably be mistaken for a plastic pail), bombastic tom fills, and a plethora of single note tremolo picking. But where Robitaille changes things up a bit is with some gently placed acoustical interludes with speaking keys in the background that, while as simplistic as it gets, do well to give the music some much needed atmosphere. The guitar tone couldn’t be any tinnier, another prerequisite for this style, I suppose, and simply screams for a complete overhaul. And while most of the underlying riffs are simple two and three chord progressions, Robitaille does toss in some flavorful melodic guitar passages that bring Amon Amarth to mind. As for the vocals, they are of the standard blend containing mostly gurgly croaks with a minimal amount of high end shrieks. Bass guitar? Forget about it…it’s hardly audible. I can’t say for sure if the drums are programmed or not, but my guess is that they are because they sound about as primitive as it gets.
When all is said and done there are black metal enthusiasts that will never get their fill of the archaic and frost-laced atmospheric-tinged black metal that Sorcier Des Glaces plays, and those same fans will more than likely dig some of what this release has to offer. While I’m well aware that the minimalist approach is the idea behind it all, I can’t help but reach for far more moving albums by the likes of Melechesh, Wolves in the Throne Room or Anaal Nathrakh if I want a taste of some newly improved black metal with a modern edge. I can certainly appreciate the work Robitaille put forth into the recording of this album, but at the end of the day I just can’t recommend it as being something you need to be hearing.
