Band:	Year Of No Light
Album:	Nord
Style:	Atmospheric sludge metal
Release date:	2006
A review by:	Herzebeth

01. Sélénite
02. L'angoisse Du Veilleur De Nuit D'autoroute Les Soirs D'alarme À Accident
03. Traversée
04. Librium
05. Les Mains De L'empereur
06. Tu As Fait De Moi Un Homme Meilleur
07. Somnambule
08. Prosodia
09. Par Économie Pendant La Crise On Éteint La Lumière Au Bout Du Tunnel
10. La Bouche De Vitus Bering
11. L'oeil dans le ciel [Vinyl bonus]

The Post-Metal hype is hitting like Maxwell's Silver Hammer coming down upon her head; the last couple of months I've received at least 11 Post-Metal albums to review?fortunately more than 6 are great releases actually, the others are just rip-offs of older bands like Neurosis. Year of No Light falls into the first category, this band is actually a great band with amazing ideas and a fresh offering for the Post-Metal aficionados.

Nord is an album packed with hostility, it's a grenade thrown right in your ears while a bullet is piercing through your forehead at the same time. This record has almost everything an avant-garde metal-head could ever want; the album is mostly instrumental, but everything becomes much more aggressive when the vocalist appears. The music manages to be quite impressive but not very technical, most of the chords and structures are somehow simple; but when you hear the final product you can't stop being overwhelmed by the greatness of their music.

There are both mellow and intense tunes in Nord; most of the placid songs are managed like "fillers" but with a good length ("Prosodia", "Librium", etc. but the other kind of tracks are incredibly crushing. This shows the enormous versatility of Year Of No Light and of course their fantastic songwriting capabilities; most songs have a constant ascending scheme, thus hooks the audience and makes them stay to the very end of the whole CD without creating tediousness or monotony (Fact lost in most bands nowadays).

France is a country packed with great extreme metal, this year we already have great albums from bands like Gorod, Benighted, Disgorged Foetus, Blut Aus Nord, Datura, Lex Talionis, you mention it; and this is exactly why you must have this album in your hands, chances are you won't ever have the opportunity, and believe me when I say opportunity, to own a French album with this kind of experimentation and avant-garde music again. You'll be very pleased with the results no doubt; I'm sure many of you are looking for something like this already?well I just gave you the answer to your prayers.

Highly Recommended

Best Tracks: The Whole Album Will Blow Your Brains Out.