Artist: Amargura
Country: France / Portugal
Label: Altare Productions
Formats: LP / Cassette Tape
Year: 2025
Some four years ago this rather enigmatic entity called Amargura debuted with their Altare Productions-released ‘L’astre Mort’ demo tape and while for today’s standards a gap of four years is rather long, I remember that demo tape quite well. Its relatively short songs offered quite a dark and oppressive atmosphere and the French language gave it a bit of a exquisite taste. Drilled down to its fundamentals, Amargura might not bring anything really special in terms of musical originality, yet their take of the Raw Black Metal genre clearly tickled my fancy.
The band’s full-length album, ‘Dernier Soupir’ is a clear continuation of what the band offered on their 6-track demo from a few years prior. However, the one who are familiar with that demo tape, might notice that the sound on this debut album is slightly different. The darker and almost suffocating texture of the guitars and overall production is largely traded for a sharper tone. In the process giving the music a bit more of a “tradition” Raw Black Metal character.
Although the music has undergone a slight cosmetic change, one of the main ingredients has remained unchanged: the rather portentous vocals. The lyrics are not always easy to make out and the song titles have been reduced to Roman numerals, but at least for the most part, if not entirely, it has remained French. That in itself is quite a typical asset of the music, but the way the vocals are used definitely contributes to the overall experience in the music. The wide vocal range that band serves itself with go from rather bellowing almost sermonic vocals to yearning, howling or downright creepy spoken words. This vocal variety does not only add to the music’s eerie atmosphere, it especially brings a dynamic contrast to the primarily slow and very moody Raw Black Metal foundation.
The reverbed riffs are hard to really distinguish and are more embedded into the whole musical sculpture, not much unlike the still very breath taking debut album of Candelabrum. In fact, it resembles this band’s specific guitar antics that much that I wouldn’t be surprised that at least one of the musicians involved is also in Candelabrum’s ranks.
A bit of anonymity adds to the charm and overall experience of the music, another aspect that makes Amargura a great addition to the Altare Productions stables – a label that hardly ever disappoints. People who like a dash of mystique and unorthodoxy to their Raw Black Metal are encouraged to give ‘Denier Soupir’ a shot.
