French Abduction, on their 3rd full-length album Jehanne, clearly represented to me a case of why multiple listens before starting to write a review is a correct practice I should steadfastly adhere to. Don’t just start typing away having listened to the album once.

Should I have rushed with my assessment of Jehanne I probably only would have noticed the schizophrenic personality disorder stuck between the desire of playing hyperblasting, but not too vile, black metal riffs and alternating them with quieter sections just to gain some room to breathe. And so it would go from noisy guitars and blastbeat on one extreme to acoustic forays on the other. All kinds of violent fast rhythms dangerously standing at the edge of falling in a total rut, long winding tracks broken up by sudden introverted stops. Making sense? Easy to follow? Not awlays.

But then I was patient, put Jehanne away for a day or so … and suddenly it all crystallized in one cohesive picture. The riffs (although you still get slammed with a wall of noise) became less jumping and less chaotic, less their French brethren Sunhopfer in a way, which I had a chance to review recently. The mixture of various semi-harsh and clean vocalizations started to glide with what all of a sudden became obvious melodies. The overall feel of heroic, epic music became rather obvious (Par ce cœur les lys fleurissent, Dieu en soit garde), with me wondering how I had not noticed it from the very start. The acoustic inclusions proved to be tender (Par ce cœur les lys fleurissent), and melodies acquired a very natural French/Italian folk feel to them (La chevauchée de la Loire, Très fidèle au Roi et au trône). The desperation in the mood (Très fidèle au Roi et au trône) became palpable and enticing. Quiet, slightly demented waltz (Aux marches de Lorraine) exploding into constant exaltation was truly a progressive statement. Multiple non-stop climaxes occurring in every song became moments to look forward to on Jehanne. Fading to sad end (Par ce cœur les lys fleurissent) or pensive explosion after quieter longing (Foi en ses murs jusqu'aux rats) started being the favorite moments to relisten to over and over again.

And naturally, when the review became less of a formality to write quickly and forget about I ever did it, more research on the band and the album itself followed. While I can’t tell you more about Abduction (except it is four very French sounding names), Jehanne is an epic album about French patron Joan d’Arc, the cover providing an obvious hint, if you ever saw the Maid of Orleans numerous medieval portraits. If you are in good command of French language and get the album with the booklet, perhaps you can enjoy the Abduction version of history.

If you like Vintersorg, where black, clean, melodic and epic collide, or a fan of many romantic Quebecois black metal bands, you should certainly enjoy Abduction circa 2020. I know I did.