This is the third album from French black metal band Mourir.
Following on from 2020’s Animal Bouffe Animal and 2022’s Disgrâce, Nous, le Venin contains 41 minutes of new, ferociously grim material from Mourir. If you haven’t encountered Mourir before, then steel yourself before entering their threatening world.
Stylistically Mourir take influences old and new into their music, learning from the classic 90s era, while simultaneously injecting modern venom and contemporary worldbuilding. Elements of sludge, hardcore, and post-metal can be detected, yet Mourir never lose sight of the blackened crown; Nous, le Venin is a modern black metal monster.
The songs blend violence and atmosphere. There is an inherent brutality to Mourir’s music, emphasised further by the use of dark growls in key places. However, Nous, le Venin also increases the amount of sinister atmosphere, tense melody, and emotive nuance in their sound. Mourir’s furious attack and dissonant darkness has been given space to breathe and expand into, adding textured respite to the oncoming storm. Nous, le Venin is still harsh and abrasive, but there’s a larger focus on mood-based atmospheric enrichments within the violence. The latter is still a primary driver of the music though, and there’s plenty of scathing aggression and murderous fury to satisfy.
Mourir’s world is one of intensity, tension, viciousness, and malevolence. For the listener, this is a big win, as Nous, le Venin is hideously enjoyable. It’s another chapter in Mourir’s continued escalation, and it’s something you absolutely should check out if you’re a fan of acts such as Agriculture, Black Birch, Hæresis, Nidelgret, Terzij de Horde, Underdark, Unmother, and Wiegedood.
The apocalypse has rarely sounded as good as this.
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