Band:	Demande À La Poussière
Album:	Kintsugi
Style:	Post-metal, Blackened sludge metal
Release date:	May 2024

01. Inapte
02. Kintsugi
03. La Parabole Des Aveugles
04. Ichinawa
05. Le Sens Du Vent
06. Vulnerant Omnes, Ultima Necat
07. Attrition
08. Fragmenté
09. Miserere
10. Brisé
11. Partie

What does a French post-black band have to do with a romantic drama produced by Tom Cruise and starring Colin Farrell? I honestly don't know. But the music is pretty cool!

Demande À La Poussière translates to Ask The Dust, which is also the title of a 1939 book by John Fante that has been adapted as a 2006 film. Is it simply a coincidence of names? Are the band members of Demande À La Poussière fans of the novel's depiction of Los Angeles during the Great Depression? Or do they just think Ask The Dust is a badass name for a band? Je ne sais pas!

Kintsugi is the third studio album of Parisian project Demande À La Poussière. The word Kintsugi (meaning “golden repair” in Japanese) refers to mending cracks of broken pottery with gold-infused lacquer. This can be recognized in the cover art, which seems to depict a demonic chimera impaled by several swords, and whose crack-like wounds glow with gold. Why the Japanese album name? Well, I suspect you can thank drummer Vincent Baglin for that, who also played for the band Moshi-Moshi (which is what you say when you answer the phone in Japanese). See how many fun little factoids you can learn from reading Metal Storm reviews?

Anyway, onto the metal! Demande À La Poussière offer a powerful, heavy blending of atmospheric post-black with uncompromising, sludgy doom riffs. With alternating chilling tremelo-picked guitar-work, contemplative post metal melodies, and the heavy, trudging doom-laden rhythm, the band deliver a very enjoyable extreme metal concoction that nicely balances the crushing heaviness with softer, atmospheric breaks. One of the most notable elements to their sound is the vocal performance from Simon Perrin, who, in fact, makes his debut appearance on Kintsugi. Replacing founding member Krys Fruit-Denhez, Perrin provides an excellent display of anguished, raspy snarls, unnerving whispering, and even occasional high-pitched shrieks. You don’t need to understand the French lyrics to understand the desperate emotions conveyed by these expressive cries.

I'd say that the overall mood on Kintsugi is one of melancholy and agony. However, the tempo on the album is very variable, changing rapidly from calm ambience to intense, blackened fury, before switching to a mid-tempo groove, for instance. The constantly morphing style and tone can create a bit of a disorienting feeling, causing the album as a whole to feel a bit messy and directionless. Still, the individual tracks are all very enjoyable on their own, and the combined performances of instrumentation and vocals make for a very entertaining listening experience.

In conclusion, Demande À La Poussière are clearly a band of skilled musicians, showcasing on Kintsugi their enjoyably heavy, post-black style. While the album may feel like it's lacking some structure, and there's not much to distinguish the similar-sounding songs from one another, the combination of talented instrumentation and agony-stricken vocals should be enough to satisfy most listeners.