Les Discrets - Ariettes Oubliées... (2012)

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As one of the most anticipated releases of 2012 here at Infernal Masquerade, “Ariettes Oubliées...” is Les Discrets second full-length release and a substantial improvement over their first effort. In this release the band delivers eight highly emotional tracks that if you can’t find the beauty in them; you are definitely deaf or have some hearing problems.

Combining elements of Post-Rock, Shoegaze, Doom Metal and acoustic passages, Les Discrets manage to deliver a more concise and mature album that showcase the band’s abilities in making emotional music that will transcend in time. Fursy Teyssier’s vocals have greatly improved since “Septembre Et Ses Dernières Pensées” and together with Winterhalter on drums (Alcest) and  
Audrey Hadorn providing additional vocals and lyrics, the band is a force to be reckoned and hopefully continue to release even better albums in the future.

The solemn opener “Linceul d’hiver” nicely sets the mood as it progresses from an acoustic opening to some distorted guitars. The dreamy guitars the band uses as a signature make their way on “La Traversée”, another very well crafted track that features very engaging vocal melodies. It is very interesting how this song changes its shape around the half-way point and it goes a bit Doom-ish just before exploding in full Post-Rock mode.

“Le Mouvement perpétuel" delivers very chilling guitar work that makes our skin crawl every time we start listening to the track. The vocals are also very well crafted by Audrey and Fursy. One thing to note is that the drumming is also considerably better than on the first album. This song has a very desolate feeling to it and the band did a great job in transferring this feeling with the music. Our absolute favorite track of this release is “Ariettes oubliées I : Je devine à travers un murmure...”, an even more somber and depressive song. In this track everything oozes emotions, and with the excellent vocals and clean guitars the atmosphere is nicely built. However, things only get better when the distorted guitar sections come in and elevate the song to an absolute high for Les Discrets. The combination of female/male vocals is disarming and makes the song even more special.

In “Au Creux de l’hiver” the band explodes with powerful guitars and tight drumming while keeping their atmospheric aura intact. On “Après l‘ Ombre” we have a more conservative neo folk-like track that nicely changes the pace of things and prepares the listener for the closing track. Ending the release (at least the version we got) we have “Les Regrets” another brilliant shoegaze/Post-Rock piece that nicely summarizes what we have witnessed through this excellent release. 

Overall, Les Discrets have greatly improved since “Septembre Et Ses Dernières Pensées”, and on Ariettes Oubliées...” the band sounds more cohesive and the songs work better between themselves allowing the release to flow more naturally and effectively. By not sticking to a particular genre, the band appeals to fans of many different genres, and this is excellent since their music deserves to be heard by as many people as possible. This release is an immediate candidate for our top 10 of 2012 since we can’t see many other albums being as sublime as this one.

Band: Les Discrets Album: Ariettes Oubliées...
Label: Prophecy Productions

Release: February 10th (Europe) / March 27th (North America)

Oficial Site myspace
Genre: Post-Rock / Shoegaze / Doom l

Country: France

Rating: 95/100
Year: 

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