Conifère – L’Imp​ô​t du Sang (Review)

This is the debut album from Canadian black metallers Conifère.

L’Imp​ô​t du Sang offers up 31 minutes of old-school black metal. Conifère’s music takes the tried-and-tested classic formula and runs with it, producing a corker of an album that sounds far more vibrant and engaging than many that play the style.

This is a treasure trove of raw black metal, delivered with great streaks of melody, textured folk guitars, and a rich layering of medieval keyboards. Of these, the melodies are Conifère’s defining feature. The well-written songs are awash with emotive atmosphere, killer riffs, and furious passion. There’s a punk feel in places, which adds extra flavour to Conifère’s multicoloured melodic assault. It’s majestic, melancholic, upbeat, raging, glorious, and more besides.

Bands like Stormkeep, Darkthrone, Satyricon, Forteresse, Valdrin, Sühnopfer, Dawn Ray’d, Délétère, all came to mind at one point or another when listening to L’Imp​ô​t du Sang, but these are only limited reference points – and some more relevant than others; L’Imp​ô​t du Sang just needs to be heard. There’s no frills, no nonsense or messing around, just top quality black metal, with riffs and melodies that are catchy as all Hell.

Conifère seem to have already perfected their style on their debut record, and I can only imagine where they might go from here. Simply put, this is a great black metal record, and fans of underground melodic black metal simply must listen to this.

Essential listening.