There isn’t a great deal of information available on this French one-man outfit. I say this only because this album had me really intrigued about its concept; in the booklet it mentions it as being “a night story written during the summer of 2006,” and musically this comes across exactly as having a story, or a concept, running through it. I would partly therefore expect some piece of writing somewhere at least on their MySpace page to talk about the theme, but then again, sometimes it’s better when the listener is left to draw their own conclusion and interpret the album in their own personal way.
Translating as Urban Melancholy, this album really does take you straight into the city as police sirens ring out into the distance and car tyres tread against the dampened tarmac. ‘Urban Lights’ wastes no time in setting a scene of the concrete hell in which all natural life has been wiped out to make room for endless office blocks and ugly grey buildings are adorned in graffiti tags and lit up in the orangey glow of the street lights. The initial siren leads neatly in as various synths swirl around, grappling to be heard over what sounds like a drum machine laying down a dark and mellow beat and again this kind of puts across a very cool, urban hip-hop vibe. After a couple of minutes it suddenly all reaches its crux and with an alarming shriek this all virtually comes to a halt and the tone becomes utterly depressive. Beneath the minimal, strained and haunting guitars you can hear distant synths swimming around in the darkness, while the vocals are no more than a haunting whisper that echoes around, rising up into a soul-wrenching cry which leads the music equally into a rising intensity before calming again.
‘La Page’ begins with a real post-punk beat and that kind of Joy Division-esque misery, before things really pick up. The synths begin to take you into more of a cosmic void. In-between bursts of blackened intensity, I am really struck by the beautiful sense of loss and emotion particularly in the clean crooning vocals. It is here where I begin to really pick up on what this is all about and it seems as though it is purposely trying to narrate a very personal story of sadness to the listener, having lost everyone he loves when all that’s left is lost memories, and breaking down into tears, leading into the more mid-paced ‘Outside…alone,’ which kind of breezes in with a swagger in its step and certainly feels less claustrophobic than the first two tracks. This trails off into a long instrumental passage where Netra shows off some bluesy guitar work, before fizzling out and leading us down the promenade where the ocean waves can be heard crashing up against the wall. “The ocean…this is all I need…forget the city, the city is wrong…” is how it begins; no vocals in such a sense, and it’s kind of like snapshots of dialogue from a movie, while there’s an underlying Burzum-esque guitar steeped in distortion that gradually gets louder in the mix, and that’s when the dialogue gets more and more intense… Some really hypnotic and depressive guitars take over setting a truly bleak picture and the voices get louder, shouting, what sounds like someone trying to talk their friend out of suicide.
For me, this album works incredibly well, with tons of atmosphere and variation that paints a very depressive, colourless picture. Now on track four, ‘Through The Fear,’ things get incredibly reflective and introspective. The vocals are back to those emotive clean croons and there’s even a bit of a Roger Daltrey in them. To me this track is beautiful and incredibly emotional without sounding whiny; it’s quite understated and subtle and has a great melody behind it. ‘Terrain Vague’ is an intriguing little interlude; a cool, dark and trip-hop beat that protrudes a kind of Portishead vibe, before ‘Outside…Maybe’ returns to the harsh Burzumesque distortion-heavy guitars. ‘Blasé’ finishes the album off on an incredibly down-beat, morose note without the slightest ray of hope in sight….culminating in a most alarming loud scream followed by a gun shot which brings everything to its demise.
I really managed to get into this album, and it’s one where you notice different things every time you listen to it and the conceptual flow makes it a thoroughly engaging piece. The atmosphere is splendid, and the sense of depression and isolation comes across particularly well due to the variation and complexity of this; the use of synths and inclusion of styles such as trip-hop and post-punk are blended nicely into the music without sounding disjointed or like they are throwing too much into the equation, and if you’re bored of Burzum clones but want to hear a more unique take on depressive black metal then Netra is a must-buy. This year is already looking great for metal with Falkenbach, Septic Flesh, Fen and Dornenreich all early contenders for my annual favourites list…add Netra to that list as well!
http://www.myspace.com/emlazh
