Friday, May 6, 2016

Entries from the Top 100: Les Discrets- "Song for Mountains"

Les Discrets- “Song for Mountains”
From the album Septembre et ses dernières pensées
Location: 40ish

An excellent track from Les Discrets' also-excellent 2010 debut.  Operating in the same scene that produced Alcest, Amesouers and Lantlôs, this band fit rather nicely to that same gazey, semi-metal sound that has been the biggest development in modern black metal, for good or ill.  Les Discrets is headed by the multi-talented Fursy Tessier, who also provided the fantastic cover art for the album. 
Less “metal” than many other bands in this loose collective (for the other end of the spectrum, Glaciation and Old Silver Key may appeal as well), Les Discrets make more frequent use of acoustic guitar, and keep the shrieked vocals to an absolute minimum.  The result is a calmer, more contemplative feel to the album.
Despite its English title, “Song for Mountains,” like the rest of the album, is sung entirely in French.  I find that it is a great example of the benefits of allowing a singer to perform is his or her native language, as the comfort and ease with the language and its sounds allows to words to seamlessly complement the music.  My French was never particularly great and has only rusted in the years since college, but with a little outside help the translation proves to be as beautiful as expected.

A great track for walking on a cool spring night, but be sure there are enough trees around.


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