Blessed Altar Zine: Délétère

25 June 2018

Délétère - De Horae Leprae

Band: Délétère
Title: De Horae Leprae
Label: Sepulchral Productions
Release Date: June 15th, 2018
Country: Canada

The québéquois hordes attack again, in this fateful June, covering the poor foundations of what remains of civilization with a macabre chant of plague and redemptive futility, which will end up corrupting our black hearts in an absolute way.

Délétère edits his second Full Length, and joins the already mythical occult black metal collection from Quebec. "De Horae Leprae" is a dense work that delves into a conceptual story set in the dirtiest entrails of the Middle Ages.

The work introduces us to the life of Teredinis, a taciturn leper who faces the fate of becoming a prophet and the very incarnation of the plague that will strike the entire population.

The band takes the arduous task of dividing the work into nine songs (Cantus), with a total duration of one hour and five minutes. Quite an odyssey of magnanimous proportions.

Stylistically you could compare Délétère with his compatriots Sorcier des Glaces, with some of Forteresse's characteristics, although strongly inclined towards a more melodic proposal, with hints of DSBM.

The truth is that the album sounds massive, from a sound view. You can see the band's emphasis on leaving behind the sound more inclined to Raw Black Metal, shown from their first demos and their first album, giving way to a more robust sound, with much more dynamics and depth.

The chosen concept and the compositional and sound treatment come together in a wonderful way this time. Of course, even being very melodic, this is a work that swarms away from the accessible and most popular hosts of that genre. "De Horea Leprae" is still difficult, which can result from very difficult digestion, due to the amount of sonic layers, its conceptual density and its duration, perhaps a little excessive.

I think that the only negative point that can be reproached is the lack of variety. The band almost never moves away from the tremolo technique formula on constant blasts, with occasional mattresses of synthesizers. There is a certain hypnotic factor at play, although hard to assimilate, due to its somewhat frenetic and melodic nature.

Beyond these appreciations I can assure you that "De Horea Leprae" is a very solid work and a great step forward in the career of this young band, which ensures the continuity and quality of the Québécois combo and gives us a very good Black Metal album to enjoy, while we fly in a dark dream towards mythical death rattles of medieval decadence. 8/10. Sergio.