This is the eleventh album from Swiss black metal act Borgne.
I really enjoyed 2021’s Temps Morts, so was eager to check out what Renaître de ses Fanges had to offer. With 65 minutes of music to absorb and digest, Borgne’s latest is a satiating meal of atmospheric industrial-tinged black metal flavour. Convincingly demonstrating that Temps Morts was not a one off, Renaître de ses Fanges has more than met my expectations.
Renaître de ses Fanges is rich in atmosphere and grim presence. It’s sinister and malevolent, but in an interesting, atypical way. The music frequently has an ethereal quality that adds an otherworldly spectral feel, while also benefiting from an industrial grit that drags it down into the dirt, even as it ascends into the fractured heavens. There are even parts of the album that recall symphonic black metal, albeit in its less orchestral, more industrialised varieties. Borgne somehow manage to satisfy all masters, all in service to a black metal darkness that feels immersive and vast. The band effectively combine all of these component parts into a record that makes a strong impression that only reinforces itself over time.
There are sweeping synths and dark ambience, alongside vicious aggression and punishing programmed drums. The melodies are forlorn and drip with emotive consequence, while the envenomed vocals spit diatribes and invective. The songs mix brutality with atmospheric weight with ease, blurring the lines between raw blackened harshness and compelling mood-focused worldbuilding; the album has both, largely at the same time.
Renaître de ses Fanges is a grower. It has instant appeal for sure, but its true strengths reveal themselves over time, as you give yourself over to its punishing and dehumanising ways. It’s less about the individual tracks, (although there are some damn good songs here), and more about the overall experience; Renaître de ses Fanges offers a journey into darkness, with Borgne as your capable and knowledgeable nightmarescape architects.
A churning maelstrom of brutal intensity, wraithlike atmosphere, and darkened feeling, Renaître de ses Fanges is an album that’s extremely good at what it does. Don’t miss out on the latest from Borgne.
Very highly recommended.
Wonderbox Metal 