Artist: Verdigris / Crève-Gorge
Country: France
Label: Starless Industries
Formats: Split Tape
Year: 2026
Although I am familiar with Veins Like Vines, I had missed the existence of this project by Septembre. About a year ago, he released his debut demo ‘Somnambulism In A Verdigris Field’ and is now taking a broader approach by presenting this project through a split cassette with the brand new Crève-Gorge, which is making its debut with this release. Although the title of this split tape is not literally mentioned as such, it is promoted this way by the label. Of course, you don’t need too much imagination to figure it out. And that’s a good thing, because you’ll need it all the more for this gloomy and almost unlistenable Lo-Fi Black Metal.
That is to say, for the Crève-Gorge part. But first it’s Verdigris’ turn. Of course, I don’t know if this is actually the case, but everything points to Septembre having been inspired for this project by the wave of American and Portuguese Raw Black Metal bands that flooded the genre about ten years ago. It is almost impossible not to hear the influence of bands such as Sanguine Relic, Orgy Of Carrion, Lampir, and especially Black Cilice. A band like Obscuritatem is also surely familiar to Mr. Septembre. So it may not be particularly original, but the execution makes up for it. The oblique, non-stop atonal and dissonant riffs create a strong sense of unease. This is further reinforced by a raw production that also leaves enough space for those suffocating repetitive riffs and melodies. Nightmarish!
The second part, however, is where it becomes really challenging. Verdigris ends with a short but utterly mesmerizing Dungeon Synth piece: a bigger contrast with Crève-Gorge is unthinkable. The first part of the cassette tape was already harsh and rough, with a strong lo-fi character, but at first I thought that only noise had been recorded for this part of it. Seriously cranking up the volume did help a lot, because it seems it was recorded with almost zero loudness. But once the volume has been adjusted and your ears have become accustomed to the lo-fi recording, there is definitely something to enjoy. Lila “L.S.” Chupin (sometimes also known as Vöghräth) has already demonstrated her expertise with noisy, semi-improvised, and overall quirky music in an impressive number of projects. Although not exactly strange, Crève-Gorge is definitely something you could call an “acquired taste”. Nevertheless, the discerning listener will notice that this project is perhaps one of her most conservative. Like her split partner, the core value of this project lies in a rocking but very gruff kind of Black Metal, which is also close to the same school of bands that Verdigris can be compared to. Lila has only gone a step further in terms of the production barrier. Not an easy listen, but one that should appeal to fans of the more obscure kind of Black Metal.
