Cendres

Cendres - Ungeziefer
Drakkar Productions, 2007
Genre: Black Metal

1. Aliénation
2. Libération de l'Âme
3. Ruine
4. La Troublante Danse du Pendu
5. Ungeziefer











Today we look at the mysterious Cendres.  In an age when information is almost always available about everything  I find nothing about who is involved with Cendres.  It's 2013 as I review this and since 2007 nothing is known, I have the utmost respect for this.  It is quite a challenge to maintain for an extended period of time.  The tape is dubbed, but with a pro-printed booklet which bears the cover above and has the track listing inside along with a thanks to Drakkar.  That is it.  I find this unfortunate because with an artistic piece of this level I wish there was more art to the booklet.  I feel it would only bring the listener deeper into the world of Cendres, but the cover is an excellent choice to represent the type of music the listener is about to be subjected to.

Cendres is definetly a strange piece of musical art and I will be the first to admit it is not for everyone.  First off Cendres is extremely minimalistic in it's composition.  The goal, I believe, is to create a very hypnotic or trance like state of mind while listening to this.  Every song has only one or two riffs, sort of a similar idea to the other very good French project  Edicius.  The major difference here is that Cendres doesn't play with the dynamical variations of a single riff, Cendres insteads lulls the listener into a calm and contemplative state while being subjected to various terrifying elements.  Some of the guitar riffining can take on the dissonant style of the Blut aus Nord's "Mort".  While I wasn't as into "Mort", Cendres application of the style is absolutely magnificent.  The vocals come in your standard Black Metal style but at other times there are very haunting wails scattered throughout the music.  It really blends and brings the listener into the depths of Cendres world.  Finally the album closes with a haunting and beautiful clean guitar section, which ends the experience on such a perfect note.

The production is actually perfect for what this demo is trying to capture.  Things feel extremely dense, while also being somewhat harsh.  The music seems to be recorded just well enough and you can honestly hear everything you need to hear.  The overall density in the production gives the listener a feeling of being crushed under waves as you journey through this recording.

As you can tell I highly recommend checking this out.  It's been a few years since this tape came into existence and I worry that the project will see nothing else and part of me is okay with this.  I feel like Cendres coming out of the shadows and then fading into obscurity is exactly how this project should be, but on the other hand I would really love to hear more music from this project.