Band:	Véhémence
Album:	Ordalies
Style:	Black metal, Folk metal
Release date:	March 2022

01. De Feu Et d'Acier
02. Notre Royaume...En Cendres
03. La Danse Des Pluies
04. Au Blason Brûlé
05. La Divine Sorcellerie
06. Quand l'Hiver Viendra
07. Un Contre Mille
08. Par Le Glaive

Imagine two French knights bonking each other in the head with flamed swords like the Slag brothers in Wacky Races.

It is known that the medieval era is the most black metal of all eras. Especially when the black metal is merged with some sort of folk, so stuff like Obsequiae and Forefather excel at bringing back a medieval feeling, with the approaches ranging from more romantic, more epic, or more steeped in folk. Véhémence originally started out as a bit more of a straight-forward melodic black metal band on 2014's Assiégé, before turning fully neo-medieval on 2019's Par le sang versé (French for "Now go away or I will taunt you a second time"). That album especially has turned a lot of heads for its use of neo-medieval folk segments to intertwine with their usual frantic melodic black metal and the epic feeling that came as a result.

Ordalies also continues in that vein, relying a lot on the combination of folk and black metal, as well as between melody and ferocity. The folk bits are often used separate from the black metal ones rather than alongside them, with two interlude tracks used specifically for that purpose. Outside of those, the use of folk lies less in the instrumentation but is intertwined with the melodic and epic feeling of the black metal. There are a lot of choirs and even the harsh vocals sound especially triumphant, so the lines between the two get blurred out quite easily, leading to a very consistent atmosphere of exaltedness. And due to how much the album relies on its melodies, even though a lot of them are just tremolo-picked riffs, they manage to create a really livid impact with those.

For an album that is so unabashedly melodic, it's also very ferocious. From the blast beats in the drums, to the raw appeal of the production, but mostly it all comes down to Hyvermor's vocal performance. Even with all the choirs and the melody within the harsh vocals, they still feel especially vicious. And this contrast between melody and fury is one of Véhémence's winning formulas. Their songwriting chops are fantastic, but I still get the feeling that they've overextended a bit here, even if the runtime is mostly identical to Par le sang versé's one. The interludes help with that a bit, but the album loses a bit of steam between the two, thankfully ending with the strongest track, thus leaving a pretty positive aftertaste.

There's still things I wish I'd see Véhémence improve upon, from integrating the folk more within the black metal rather than alongside it, to a bit more self-editing. But if Ordalies proves anything, is that the Middle Ages are here to stay.