Band:	Fange
Album:	Perdition
Style:	Hardcore, Industrial metal, Sludge metal
Release date:	February 23, 2024
A review by:	RaduP

01. Césarienne Au Noir
02. Mauvais Vivant
03. Toute Honte Bue
04. Foudres Fainéantes
05. La Haine (Bernard Lavilliers)
06. Lèche-Béton
07. Désunion Sacrée

Previously standing out for how chameleonic they were, Fange are starting to grow into a mold.

Part of what made Fange so appealing and something that feels like I could always include in reviews of their music is how our story with them and their Metal Storm Awards nominations had them nominated (or at least considered for nominations) in multiple categories. Premiering a sludge sound on their first records, albeit a very noisy one, before a more death/hardcore sound on Punir got them nominated in the hardcore category. Pushing further into industrial with Pudeur saw their category for nomination moved to industrial, and they remained within that sound ever since. Progress within the sound was still observed, Pantocrator especially standing out for its atmospheric focus due to its long-form songwriting that came from the two-long-songs structure. Post-metal was the latest element to be introduced in last year's Privation, an album that went back to a more usual tracklist structure and sounder like Pudeur mixed with a bit more early-Fange sound, but also with Pantoctrator's melodic and atmospheric tendencies and a direction where the atmospheric sludge veered into post-metal.

Perdition arrives quite shortly after Privation, seemingly acting like a continuation of it. Progression of sound was something that was quite emblematic of Fange hitherto, as I've already exemplified, and Perdition is the first of Fange's albums in recent memory to feel this much like an album they've already done. Parts of the sound that are specific to the album at hand do exist, but they're less obvious than I would have hoped for. Partition-wise, it is a standard 7-tracks album with all songs sans an interlude being in between 4 and 6 minutes of runtime. Post-metal and post-punk and darkwave, the nuances that seem to accent the industrial sound most, were already introduced on albums prior and it doesn't feel like Perdition has any genre tag to make it stand out among the larger Fange discography. Possibly a bummer for most bands, but also few bands have created a concoction of sounds an infectious as the one Fange have created.

Progression or lack thereof aside, there's always been something more interesting about Fange than merely just which genre tags are attached to each album. Plenty of names could be namedropped, from industrial oldies like Godflesh and Fear Factory to more melodic alternatives like Stabbing Westward or, perhaps most relevant for this album, Health. Production-wise but not only, Perdition reminds me of Health's latest album, in the way that there seems to be a latent heaviness and gravitas in atmosphere throughout the whole album, even in its softer moments. Part of that is also due to the inclusion of guest vocals, something that was also a staple of Privation, and the closing track especially has a big contrast due to the softer vocals of Diane Pellotieri. Pristine choruses might've been part of Fange's sound before, but their size seems to be Perdition's biggest defining feature.

Preferably, I would've had something more defining about Perdition, but even a Privation II only shows just how strong the sound they already crafted is. Picking apart what makes it work might without resorting to genre dissection and when trying to follow the band's album naming tradition by how I'm starting every sentence in this review.