In a week littered with exciting exclusives for Everything Is Noise, those of you who enjoyed the wonderful Black Fucking Cancer premiere yesterday are in for another ultra-heavy treat today. Ouranos was formed back in 2016 as a means for lone member Silmar to satisfy his need to fuse black metal and experimental electronic music – and the self-produced/self-released Les Visions du Vide and Hiérophaines followed. Now ready to push the project further forward, Ouranos‘ next release Voir la Lumière will be the first to feature outside influence with mixing and mastering from Lead & Sulfur Studio and UK-based label Sludgelord Records, a small handful of contributors entrusted by Silmar on the album. Prior to the release of the album in April, Everything Is Noise is delighted to present the tremendous “La Boussole”, direct from Voir la Lumière.
“La Boussole” opens with gentle glitches and electronics, before exploding to life with doom-infused riffs. Silmar’s brutal vocals join the musical assault, maintaining a steady pounding pace for the first few minutes. Interestingly, the initial electronics remain throughout this first section (and beyond if you focus your ears enough), a direct result of a change in writing approach, as Silmar explains: ‘La Boussole was the first song I wrote for Ouranos‘ new album – Voir la Lumière. It was also the first time I built my riffs around synth patches, that you hear at the beginning and the end, and not the other way around.‘
Instead of giving the listener time for reflection after this initial onslaught, “La Boussole” only increases in intensity as the track progresses. ‘The song becomes increasingly denser, darker and more intense, which was exactly the spirit of this new album‘, explains Silmar, and this statement is hard to argue with. The drums in particular explode just prior to the three-minute mark, complementing epic yet subtle guitar lead lines. It is testament to the writing that you will likely fail to realise that over five minutes have passed before yet another change of pace, the last few minutes of the tracks descending into a doomy sludge-fest, simply whetting the appetite for future releases from Ouranos.
“La Boussole” is taken from the upcoming Ouranos album Voir la Lumière, due for release April 1, 2022 via Sludgelord Records. The album is available to pre-order on both digital and physical formats right now via the Sludgelord Records Bandcamp page. While you wait for the release, you can also check out previous Ouranos releases via the artist’s own Bandcamp and keep up to date with any news by following the Facebook page.
