Band:	Douce Morphine
Album:	Des Mots
Style:	Atmospheric doom metal
Release date:	May 2005

01. Nocturnes
02. La Dernière Chandelle
03. Nature Morte
04. Sous les Etoiles hurlantes
05. Fleur de Métal [bonus]
06. Le Soir Gagne [bonus]

Douce Morphine continues its journey through its very special universe with this EP released to celebrate the first recordings of the band as a quartet. There is only one entirely new song on the album ("Nocturnes"), the rest being re-recordings of songs featured on their first self-released album Du Mal De Vivre (2004). This EP makes me say: it's amazing how a band can change in only one year?

Before this EP, Douce Morphine played dark and depressive music more oriented towards gothic than metal. The guitars were underused, the vocals kind of repetitive and the music itself, calm but too soft, and eventually quite boring. Now things have changed thoroughly. The drums (albeit not really brilliant) cheerfully replace the robotic beat machine and Douce Morphine finally sounds like a band. Now Douce Morphine is metal. The unreleased track "Nocturnes" surprised me with its riff à la Paradise Lost and the ritual atmosphere brought by the keyboards and the spoken vocals. But this song also features (surprise!) quality extreme vocals, for the first time in their career. And even if the alternation female clean vocals/growls is considered to be cliché now, it really gives a new light to their previously rather spineless compositions.

You can't even imagine to what extent the re-recorded songs are better than their first versions. I listened to the Du Mal De Vivre album over and over again and couldn't believe my ears. Des Mots feels so powerful, so alive, so? metal compared to the previous recordings. "La Dernière Chandelle" and "Sous Les Etoiles Hurlantes" passed unnoticed one year ago. Now, with a bit more organic instrumentation and a better recording, they do sound really great. The highlight "Nature Morte" was already the song I liked best on Du Mal De Vivre, but this new version, with its fast riffing at the end and the growls is more brilliant than ever. This song now sounds like a (softer) Orphanage. Yes, a more gothic and less 'extreme' Orphanage, that's what Douce Morphine reminds me of today. Listen to the female vocals, Flore has almost the same strange tone as Rosan Van Der Aa. Only the two bonus tracks are too mellow and lacklustre for my taste.

I can't end this review without saying a word about the lyrics. All in French, they represent one new step inside Douce Morphine's particular philosophic ecologic world. Actually all their albums are based on the concept of a metaphoric tree-universe representing both our spiritual and physical worlds. The concept is quite complex, impossible to sum up in a few lines, so I advise you to go read a bit further on their website. Anyway, the lyrics are intelligent and poetic and for once, purposeful.

The new metallized direction taken by Douce Morphine really makes me crave for the upcoming full-length "Cicatrices". If all the songs of this album equal the quality of "Nocturnes", it's going to be something. For now, Goths as well as doomsters shall enjoy this very interesting and personal EP. If you're looking for melodic and intelligent music, Douce Morphine is for you.

Highlights: Nocturnes, Nature Morte (check it out on MS September compilation!!)