I wasn’t quite as smitten with the Frenchmen Moonreich Loi Martiale 2011 full-length to call it the best record of last year, but appreciated their take on solid no-frills black metal enough to be interested in their digital EP release Curse Them. If anything, I expected to get a quick fix of some black metal intensity and that is exactly what I got.

Focusing more on Christ/Prophet/Idol slaying than on war or its aftermath, the Frenchmen use the same brutal aggressive blasting and melodic tremolo weave to relay their message. Periodically more anthemic fist-in-your-face riffs emerge (Slay the Prophet), but this is all still very dense, no holes, fuzzy and skuzzy music. Buoyed from time to time by beautiful melodies (the one at 5:30 mark in Slay the Prophet caught my attention in particular), the whole of EP is pretty much blasphemous, hellish black metal, full of red meat, and something that would appeal to the fans of Aosoth, Urgehal, Tsjuder and veterans Dark Funeral and Marduk. It is very true that Moonreich comes up with riffs more fitting for Northern Europe and its frigid surroundings than something more psychedelic which could be expected from a pigeonholed French band. Croaking voice and stretched out grinding of the title track makes for some sadomasochistic torment, and throughout the EP Moonreich makes for groovy trance-fixing moments by their use of tempo plays and variations. Christian Death cover of Deathwish (the song I was not familiar with) applies Moonreich black metal sound to a more steady rocking rhythm and is a welcome departure from the otherwise impenetrable web of sound from the rest of the EP.

Curse Them is a classic case of “what you want is what you get” and is a continuation of an early line chosen by the band.