Review: DDENT ‘Couvre-sang’
What’s that you say, French industrial mood music, what could that possibly be? Well, you’re in luck, because right here I have a perfect example of twenty first century industrial doom music, and it’s in the form of rising band DDENT. Tell me more I hear you cry, okay, I will…
DDENT is the instrumental brainchild of guitarist and multi-instrumentalists Louis Lambert and drummer Marc Le Saux. After two well received previous releases, Lambert started working on this third album Couvre-sang, in late 2019, writing and recording all eleven songs by himself. Pushing DDENT‘s experimental side further, this third album depicts their own vision of reality as a life time-lapse. Inspired by Henri Bergson’s work on language, Couvre-sang conveys a poetic and philosophical perception of a musician’s role.
As on the previous records, melancholy weaves its way deeply into Couvre-sang: this time, the language and its learning involve being torn away from reality, leading to the urge to create. Art becomes the answer to recover an immediate and intact relation to reality. Sounding good so far? You bet it is.
Couvre-sang is fifty minutes and thirty-one seconds of pure instrumental industrial bliss, a living breathing beast, crafted superbly, with real emotional levels, not really seen in most industrial music.
Personally, for me, the struggle I have with any instrumental album, because of the lack of vocals, it’s hard for me to give it my full attention for too long as I get distracted. I know of some incredible bands, Mogwai for one, who pretty much run as fully instrumental, and while it does sound incredible, it just doesn’t hold me, I long for a narrative vocally I guess, to carry me.
Couvre-sang is exceptional for me, in that this just isn’t true with this piece of art. It grabs me and holds me, it takes me on an emotional journey, somewhere I’ve never been before. One thing I’ve found is that the soundscapes are a literal representation of the titles concepts for each track.It’s more than just a title, it’s a feeling, a connection.
I’ve formed my own narrative within my head, and the ensuing music has been the perfect passenger…
Tracks like Songe, have the trademarks of that industrial presence, but it’s far more organic, it’s reminiscent of Type O Negative at times, and yet it isn’t. Its Gary Numan meets Nine Inch Nails, but it’s more, it’s evolved, it feels more like a rebirth of a genre, a new era if you will. It hints at a Blade Runner futuristic soundtrack, with a nod to Rammstein at times, but it’s far more advanced than that.
Then Puissancerevee, or ‘Dream Power’ to us non-French speaking savages, really does show this new revival of industrial genre, at its most vibrant, its as if a new level has emerged, and DDENT and leading the way.
Videsdechos stands out for me as a definitive moment, it has the hallmarks of a death metal soundscape, but without the visceral vocal monopolising the sound, giving the listener the opportunity to appreciate the sublime musicianship, that usually would be secondary to the vocal attack.
Liedevin, otherwise known as ‘Burgundy’ is monumental in sound, and if ever a colour needed its own signature opus, then this is the piece to fill that void. It’s so compellingly broody, and by the time it finishes, and the bass rumbles through me, I am intrigued as to where I’m being taken next.
As the album finishes it’s only then that I even notice the absence of a vocal accompaniment, and for the journey I’ve just been on, it’s been my thoughts calling out over the music the whole time, I’ve formed my own narrative within my head, and the ensuing music has been the perfect passenger.
Label: Chien Noir
Band Links: Official | Facebook | Bandcamp | Twitter | Instagram
Scribed by: Lee Beamish
