Transcending Rites – Enthronement of the Third

Band: Transcending Rites
Title: Enthronement of the Third
Label: Transcendance
Release date: 30 May 2021
Country: International (France / Belgium)
Format reviewed: High-quality Digital Recording

One thing I can tell you is that this album is devastating. Yes, this would be pretty much the word to resume it all. Listening to “Enthronement of the Third” several times has been like allowing a great wave of fierceness to sweep away my entire being again and again. Nothing that I regret, on the contrary! I love when some music has this effect on me. It’s overwhelming and at the same time soothing, it’s emotional cleansing, it’s pure relief. I’d dare to use the word “beautiful”, maybe for most people this is not a word associated with Black Metal acts but those of you who know, will understand…

This album contains ‘only’ three songs with a total length of 41 minutes, being the last one the longest, 21 minutes. What you’ll find here is amazing Atmospheric Black Metal skilfully played by only two artists: Déhà (from Belgium), who is involved in a lot of other projects where he is at charge of everything, and Brouillard (from France), who is in at least two one-woman projects, and she also runs the label Transcendance. Musically, it’s about cold, raw and metallic tremolo riffs that sound repeatedly, creating a catharsis effect, along with the drums that alternate fast and frenzy rhythms with some mid-paced tempos. Vocals are simply perfect: grim and bleak shrieks, totally unintelligible but hey!, it’s just the way it is expected to be! Listening to these tortured vocals makes me shiver, I really like how desperate and tormented they sound, providing an extra layer of agony to the whole sound.

Production of the album is gritty, sometimes you can feel as if the riffs create a harsh sounding bubble, pierced here and there by the savage shrieks, and driven along by the drums, with perfect use of both snare and cymbals. A thing that caught me completely while listening to “Enthronement of the Third” is the musicians ability to create some pure and perfect desolated passages, as in the middle of the first song, “Through Descent”, and also at the beginning of “Through Enlightenment”: those dark echoing guitar notes are the promise of something savage and ablazing that will come next… and that’s exactly how it happens. The third and closing track, “Awake !”, has the most savage and abrasive sound, guiding you through an emotional path full of pain, suffering and despair… that’s what it provokes in me.

*Special mention to the artist who did the artwork and also the design of the band’s logo, Pierre Perichaud, also known as Business for Satan… what an amazing illustration for an album so full of bleak atmosphere!

So, if you are ready for a dark journey, don’t miss this album, it’s a 8,5/10 for me!  Sílvia

Band

No links because the band is not on social media. But the label, Transcendance, is run by Brouillard, one of the two members in Transcending Rites. 

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8,5/10 To Greatness and Glory! 
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