I opened my review of Abandon Of The Self by asking whether the six year long wait since Meliora was too long and whether it could live up to those expectations. Even with the benefit of hindsight, that was a pretty fair question, considering that Eryn Non Dae. are still far from being household names, and the little splashes that each release makes takes a lot to get followed up on, so it might be only due to the benefit of me remembering the band from having written that review that the name was familiar enough for me to return to Disunited States Of Anima months after missing its initial release.
If the six years of the previous gap between releases was more of an imaginary wait for me who only discovered the band with Abandon Of The Self, the larger seven years one since is one I had to actively live through. And those seven years were enough for me to completely forget about the band, only having the name jolted back in my memory when someone commented on their latest album, it presumably only being added a while after its release, which would explain why I missed it on its initial release day. And as much as I liked Abandon Of The Self, as proven by the high rating I gave it, I didn't revisit it since its year of release ended, I completely forgot how it sounded like apart from knowing that it was a post-metal album I loved, so I jumped into Disunited States Of Anima with an almost blank slate aside from having high expectations. I was taken aback.
Having gotten the chance to revisit Abandon Of The Self as well as the rest of Eryn Non Dae.'s discography, I was able to confirm with myself that the thing that baffled me the most on my initial listen of this new album did have precursors, especially on the album I apparently liked that much. When Disunited States Of Anima starts, the vocals, which I'd expect to go in a more hardcore-tinged sludge direction instead... speak? Not only that, but they have a kind of flow I can almost describe as... rap? Hearing that in an English with a very noticeable French accent is not what's usually on my post-metal bingo, and even if my revisitation of the previous album did reveal some spoken word passages (my review of it also notes "vocals may not be the best in post-metal, but they are certainly not one-dimensional"), but in a more restrained way than here.
Reading the Bandcamp description for clues of this direction, did reveal that this was a conscious effort from the band to move in that direction, while also revealing the gut punch that Mathieu Noguès, the vocalist, has passed away in 2023 during the sessions for this album, and this direction was his attempt to adapt his vocal style to his emotional state. I don't always find the way he does that compelling, even as the initial shock wore off, but the knowledge of Disunited States Of Anima's status as a swansong did force me to emotionally re-evaluate the vocal performance, to look past the accent and the mismatch between the flow and the style of music. Perhaps that would've been a more difficult task if I hadn't already encountered a spoken word post-metal album.
That album might be especially relevant because some of the spoken word passages on Disunited States Of Anima, especially in the beginning of "Eidiya" that do feel like they have a lot in common with Moor Mother's approach, not as skillfully but definitely with at least some of the same passion. Of course there's a lot more to the vocal performance than just a spoken word approach, with a huge chunk of it being in the usual harsher sludgier approach, and with a lot of it also covering the spectrum between the two enough to make it the album's most intriguing and avant-garde-ist quality, one that makes even trying to talk about the chuggish atmospheric sludge behind it feel a bit redundant.
Reviewing posthumously assembled albums is always tough. I'm stuck between wishing I enjoyed Eryn Non Dae.'s swansong more and appreciating how the band fully committed to Mathieu's vision of it, that uncompromising quality I can't help but respect.
This review is dedicated to Mathieu Noguès. Rest in peace.
