Néfastes – Scumanity

By RingMaster Review on June 3, 2021 • ( 0 )

Birthed as the human race is being challenged and ravished like few times before and inspired by the inexcusable acts and wrongs it has brought forth over the years, Néfastes is a vicious and violent incursion of sound and animosity which leaves no doubt of its rancor for what we as world and humanity has become. The French trio is poised to unleash debut album Scumanity, an encounter in breath and presence which is not so much nihilistic at heart as murderous creating one punishing trespass of compelling extreme confrontation.

Sowing its seeds in discontent in the November of 2020, Néfastes sees former Benighted guitarists, Liem N’Guyen and Olivier Gabriel, uniting with that band’s current vocalist Julien Truchan. Together they brew and embroil the senses and emotions in rabid, ruinous black metal infused with just as feral and psychotic grindcore corruption. It is a mix which despoils and ignites the safety of wellbeing and apathetic calm and provides Scumanity with a presence which is as keenly captivating as it is corrosively intrusive.

From its title to the initial outpourings of its acrimonious lungs there is immediately no escaping the pure spite and hatred of the album’s intent. A rousing volley of beats sparks an immediate sonic tempest as its opener, Progéniture Décadente, ravenously descends in turbulence and swiftly in further imposing eruption as Truchan’s almost raving tones escalate the open hostility. As rousing as it is debilitating, raw temptation fuelling its animus, the trespass proved irresistible and only more compelling as drama and irritability, not forgetting a sense of insanity, aligned in every subsequent twist and turn.

The gripping start is quickly taken further by the following Fuck With The Bull, You Get The Horn, it too an immediate consumption of the senses in a violently esurient tumult. That hunger to invade and harass is dealt with greater psychotic enterprise, the track sidestepping and jabbing like a boxer in certain moments, moments which never defuse its inherent rabidity and fury.

The band’s fusion of fervour bred styles seeds a fluid but unpredictable invasion with a slightly more progressive air sweeping through next up Make Apocalypse Great Again. N’Guyen’s guitar teases as it initially trespasses, the track prowling the listener before swinging beats push more animosity forward within the lure. Still the bass of Gabriel stalks an instinctive cowering of thoughts before the whole squall of discontent within the track breaks. Further cycles only enrich the grip upon attention, the trio never allowing a moment to pass without contemplation and intrigue being fired up.

The textural beginnings of Supplice breeds another inescapable incursion of sound and malevolence, its proposal lapping upon the senses like acidic corrosive waves while the album’s title track is an uprising steeped in as much terror as it is resentment. Neither song quite ignited the fires within as their predecessors but each and especially the second with its infernal weaves of intimation and hellish outpourings were a strong magnet for the imagination before Charognards from its scenic tranquillity, if one soon draped in portentous suggestion, unveiled a journey of dark and imposing instrumental drama springing seeds for the imagination to conjure with across every captivating second.

The final pair of Ashes Return and Carved Into The Flesh brings the release to a potent close, the first a cyclone of sound and vicious ferocity making a powerful contrast to its predecessor’s more tenebrific equanimity. From voice to sonic intrusion to rhythmic barbarism, the song sparks the richest fears and doubts as it grips ears and pleasure though it is soon instantly eclipsed by the final track and its inceptive rhythmic rallying of thoughts and attention. Nagging with every breath and movement, the song proved an addictive compulsion, the venom and ire in Truchan’s vocal and lyrical antipathy a more scathing but firm echo of the track’s creative insistence.

Scumanity ends as impressively as it began, indeed ending with our favourite track choice. In some ways it feels wrong to enjoy the album such the abhorrence and bitterness at what we have allowed humanity to become and do and indeed it does ignite a natural matching revulsion but there is no resisting its craft and temptation either or the pleasure bred.

Scumanity is released June 11^th via Source Atone Records; available @ https://sourceatonerecords.bigcartel.com/products