Even before looking at the titles and the record label, one look at that cover and I suspect anyone familiar with the Quebec scene would have it tagged as emanating from there. This is a first solo project by Moribund of Forteresse and from the off as the sounds of raw wind and desolation rise you can feel the lineage in Serment. An owl hoot, a slow brief swell of keyboards with a Tangerine Dream like quality and then the presence of the riffs and drums hove into view.

This is melodic, cold and of the beauty in the wilderness. The vocals howl somewhere in the distance and then the simply gorgeous keyboard comes in. This is oddly more symphonic than say Forteresse. A raw quality to the riffing is present, but with such an impact on your soul with the keyboards that you are almost immediately lost in it. The kind of touch that Saor have with their Caledonian melodies..

This then is a concept album. It apparently (I say, as I have neither lyrics nor skills in French) concerns the legend of a pact with the Devil and the resulting epic quest to find a lost heritage deep in the heart of Quebec’s snowbound and wild forests. Moribund is certainly the musician to bring this to musical life, too; here his deftness with the keyboard melodies aligned with relentless, raw riffing is simply wonderful. The world is conjured up in a perfect balance of awe at the epic scale of the land, and the harsh teeth and claws of nature underlying it.

There are six tracks here and it really is a journey into the heart of winter. There is great romance here though, curiously for a black metal album but it is the only way I can describe the symphonic feel. Romantic; not in the sense of everything being a subtle shade of rose, but and acceptance and a wonder at the land around you. Though there are six parts, with their own identities, this is very much one of those albums that need to be experienced as a whole, as the journey that you have to follow. Musically as well as Forteresse’s earlier sounds around Les Hivers De Notre Epoque, there are nods towards some of the early black metal dalliances with dark ambient and dungeon synth but woven into the whole with a fine touch.

If you enjoy hugely atmospheric black metal that tells a tale through the land of the composer then give this the most serious of listens. Enthralling.

(8/10 Gizmo)

https://www.facebook.com/Serment-2218821681488288

https://sermentqc.bandcamp.com/album/chante-flamme-de-la-libert