Monument aux morts sounds like undertakers got lost in centuries-old catacombs and gradually devolved into shambling husks of hellchildren. In other words, supreme death/doom is at hand.
Release date: July 31, 2026 | Transcending Obscurity Records | Facebook | Instagram | Bandcamp
Blah blah blah, I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a million times: sometimes death metal can be too devoted to its own tropey bullshit to really stand out or justify itself. More cynically, it’s boooooooring. This is why I really need a little more pizzazz with it. One surefire way to do that is adding some liberal spritzing of doom metal. Death/doom metal is almost always worth a listen, especially when bands really like to settle into slower grooves and melodies to make you turn into a frothing goblin. That’s a big part of Viande‘s MO on their new album, Monument aux morts.
From France, in case the name didn’t give it away, they really like to toil in abject subterranea, blowing loud drum segments that stir and bash, handling guitars in a way that sounds like rusted surgical tools, and letting vocals that bubble and gasp pour from mouths. It’s the soundtrack of the catacombs for sure, and Viande is giving a guided tour.
Monument aux morts constantly feels like it’s blazing trails on ground that’s a thin layer above hell, like a single misstep and you’re Satan’s concubine for the rest of time. For me, I really have to watch where I listen to this album because the catchier portions, which are littered all over the damn LP, make me jerk my head in unnatural motions or swing my arms like a stop-motion caveman or George Carlin when he got cartoonishly animated during his performances. Everything is gurgly and threatening in a monstrous way, inviting you to unleash your true feral being when the music picks up.
At almost an hour long, the desire to scrutinize and critique rises as most bands can’t justify an album of that length anymore. While I’m sure I could nitpick, I’m honestly not really compelled to. One big boon for Viande is that Monument aux morts simply doesn’t feel as long as it is. It’s so preoccupied with making you move or feel like the world’s coolest skeleton that time seems to melt away. The album just sounds like death too – perhaps these last two points are more linked than I think.
‘Viande’ is French for ‘meat’ which is interesting because the album feels like everything lowered to its most base properties or elements. Meat, bones, the primal milieu of everything (see, I can French too) all find homes in the ghastly, vitriolic chambers that Monument aux morts was seemingly recorded in. If you really pressed me to pick some favorite songs from this bunch, “Germes de mort” really kicks the action and atmosphere up in a nice way. “Cercueil de vase” has a wonderfully sparse moment near the end where the instrumentation chokes you out with the quiet claustrophobia it summons, then bashes again with big drum strikes and curdles growls. Regardless, the whole album can be treated as one elongated track weaving fear, death, malaise, and much more onto its death/doom frame as the electric currents to keep this monster moving.
Big fan of the darkness and tumult that Viande captured on this album. It’s immense, wielding a keen sense of vacuous gaping that swallows all who get close, and yet it crushes with ease with how densely it flips its soundscapes in seconds. There’s no safety to be found on Monument aux morts and I think that’s exactly how the band likes it. I must say I see and like where they’re coming from. Take this LP to the face if you want to grunt, swing your fists, and have a bummer summer (complimentary).
