Cover art by McVtx
Style: Post-Metal, Sludge Metal, Hardcore (mixed vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Chat Pile, (later) Norma Jean
Country: France
Release date: 8 January 2025
Originally emerging out of the post-hardcore proto goop, Membrane has changed their sound up only slightly over the years—imagine an angrier version of Snapcase morphing into a shadier, more haunting chaos—and Deathly Silence continues their embrace of post-metal heard on their most recent releases. Post-metal can be a bit of a minefield, with the term encompassing such a wide spectrum of sounds and emotions that it feels meaningless on its own. That wine needs a cheese pairing, and the curd for Membrane is a healthy slice of sludge metal on a hardcore platter.
Speaking of wine, I have to admit that vocalist (and guitarist) Nicolas Frère has a style that isn’t for me. He has a whiny timbre—even in his harsh vocals. However, he possesses a certain je ne sais quoi for infusing singable notes into his vocal fry and screams; Deathly Silen[t] he is not. I particularly enjoy the way he employs this panache on “Fire and Fear,” interchanging it seamlessly with a touch of pure clean singing—ascending the peak of Mount Melody and hopping quickly back down into Harsh Valley repeatedly throughout the song. By the end of the track, I was completely vibing with the vocals. Frère also trades off between French and English throughout this LP and while I understand why a lot of acts choose to only use English even if it isn’t their nation’s primary language, the native tongue can really make a difference on the emotional impact of a song. Membrane succeeds at this aspect on Deathly Silence.
The lyrical themes are right up my alley, too. They’re clever in that they most prominently touch on humanity’s abuse of planet Earth, and in many parts you could easily superimpose a different interpretation of what or who is being abused within the context of the album. Differentiating between the lyrical themes and the lyrics themselves is important, though, because in many instances the latter prove to be about as poetic as fourteen year-old me: “In a world where greed is so profound / Man’s destruction knows no bounds.” That’s deep like a kiddie pool.
All of the vocal material is complemented by Membrane‘s unyielding focus on deep, heavy, open-stringed guitar riffs punctuated by dissonant, brash chords and arpeggios on the high strings. We’re tossing out structure in favor of atmosphere, here. It’s post-metal to a T, coincidentally my cup of tea. So why can’t I just love this release? For every bit or bob that has me nodding my head with a stank face—like the droning portions in “Raise” or the creepy bridge-to-outro of “The Soft Whispers”—I get another that just makes my eyes roll. Nearly all of the songs here transition into one of those typical hardcore shouted-spoken-word-monologue-over-eerie-melody moments at some point. That’s no cardinal sin on track one, but by the time you’re on track three it’s a novelty no more, and once you get to five (out of six) it’s downright grating. Plus, there’s just not enough variety or individuality in the riffs across these forty-one minutes. You could swap out heavy riff A in “Too Late” for heavy riff B in the title track and the character of each song isn’t going to change.
Ultimately, while Deathly Silence is a bottle of post-metal that pairs well with its sludge and hardcore accompaniments, the package as a whole turns out to be less than the sum of its parts. If Silence was a sophomore effort from inexperienced newcomers—instead of the seventh full-length release from a band going on twenty-five years—I’d be curious what was on the horizon for them. It’s fine to sip, but not to savor.
Recommended tracks: “Raise,” “Fire and Fear”
You may also like: Celeste, Meth, A Swarm of the Sun, An Inconvenient Truth by Al Gore
Final verdict: 5/10
Related links: Bandcamp | Instagram | Facebook | Spotify | Metal Archives
Labels: Blind Prod / Ma Saret Records / Dayoff Records / Araki Records / Pogo Records
Membrane is:
Nicolas Frère – Guitars and Vocals
Nicolas Cagnoni – Bass and Backing Vocals
Maxime Weingand – Drums
Hugo Perestrelo – Guitars
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