Saille – Irreversible Decay ~ [Black metal album review]
Well, I figure as my first post here I might as well write about something I’m good at so here we go.
The debut album Irreversible Decay from Belgian Symphonic Black metal band Saille may be one of, if not THE best black metal albums I’ve heard all year and I’m not ashamed to say it.
Band members as taken from the Saille website;
- Jonathan Vanderwal- Guitars, Screams
- Filip Dupont – Lyrics, Additional Screams
- Reinier Schenk – Bass, Studiowork
- Gert Monden – Drums
- Dries Gaerdelen – Music, Lyrics, Keyboard, Voices
- Marco Born – Acoustic Guitar
- Bran Van Eeno – Violin
- Vincent Werbrouck – Cello
- Mathias Brys – Violin
The album starts off with a slow and gloomy all acoustic song called ‘Nomen’ as far as I’ve listened it truly captures the attention of the first time listener, setting a calming mood before the storm as it were. The next track ‘Passages of the Nemesis’ immediately lit my headphones up with the speed I’ve come to expect from the genre, the unique sound of the keyboards and violins and cello lighting up the background as the vocalists and guitar do their dirty work. At this point I’m so absorbed in the song that I’ve completely yet to realize that a whole 7 and a half minutes have gone by and I’m ready to press replay (again).
The next track ‘Overdose of Gray’ begins from the calm ending of the previous song, a dreamy fluttering piano sound having its way with my ears as the full song begins, the guitar and blast beats sending my headphones into overdrive. Halfway through the song I’m stricken with another amazing part, of disembodies saying “Torment” in a ghostly way to a rather eerie music box style keyboard effect before exploding back into the utter brutallica that makes me ever so moist.
‘Plaigh Allais’ The title of the fourth track stuns me at first with its beautiful acoustic guitar opening, leaving my unprepared for the assault my ears are about to receive from the extraordinary guitar work. Before I know it I’m at the middle of the song and I’m being blown away by more symphonic goodness, a slow acoustic guitar with whispering vocals. From that point forward the acoustic guitar plays behind the electric until the song reaches the chorus.
Unfortunately, not every song on every album can be great, so the next two tracks ‘The Orion Prophecy’ and ‘Revelations’ let me down quite a bit, sounding rather repetitive and almost alike to the rest of the songs in some parts. I really wish the band tried a little harder here but nothing’s perfect as they say.
‘Maere’ The title that’s been etched into my “Repeat Track” on Foobar for the last 3 hours at the time of this writing. This incredible track opens with 40 seconds of the most amazing and captivating symphony work I’ve ever heard outside of an Abigail Williams album. The sound similar to what one would expect in an late 1700’s to early 1800’s London setting, something dark and wicked…the pure insanity of that single part alone enough to leave me shivering for quite a long while. After a few minutes of extremeness I come across a verse I don’t understand…upon looking into it I find that he’s SINGING IN FRICKEN DUTCH! positively incredible. This has to be the best song on the album, and my new favorite song for quite a while.
The next track ‘Tephra’ strikes me as one of the tracks that they didn’t seem to put much work into…UNTIL the end that is…the mediocre beginning attached to this amazing piece doesn’t do any justice. In fact that last 2 mintes and 20 seconds should have been the entire song. The beauty of the piece is enough to have made me want only this content on the entire album.
The final track ‘Tremendous’ is quite aptly named, as the nearly frightening harpsichord opening sets you up for a rather tremendous explosion of black metal, somewhere down the line I come across the violin and cello being mixed in with the main guitar solo, I’m finding this band loves to place incredible pieces around the middle. After the solo it slows down to the harpsichord again with an accompanying cello, making the already incredible opening even more incredible, ending the album on a high note.
My final impressions were somewhere between ‘Lets listen again’ and ‘Ow, I think I’m deaf’ I couldn’t control myself quite honestly, the content of this album so good I cranked up my volume FAR past my average level putting myself in the ‘ear ring zone’ do I care NOPE, this is the best ‘You’re going deaf’ ring ever, I rather enjoy the swansong of the ring, signifying my ears will never be able to hear that frequency ever again as I kick back and play ‘Maere’ one more time.
I give this album a 9/10 based upon the two tracks that could have been worlds better compared to the rest of the album, aside from that I WHOLLY recommend you buy this and give this band a great welcome into the metal world. I’m expecting great things from them in the future.
-Dillon
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