Les Ékorchés - Frères De Sang (2011) - Another unique brand from Québec - 85% (14/06/11)

Les Ékorchés play a very unique and interesting mixture of sludge metal with some hardcore roots that is mixed with the sounds of some acoustic guitars and especially an electric cello which gives some dark and dramatic vibes to the music. Those instruments get more and more integrated in the straight metal sound and the mixture sounds surprisingly homogeneous. The vocals are still very rough and sound as if the singer had a rope tied around his throat and wants to scream out his emotions, fears and angers in the last seconds of his life. He harmonizes surprisingly well with the music and sounds quite unique even if he could vary a little bit more and accord some more liberty to the other musicians. The band creates a more and more unique metal brand and prefers to create catchy mid tempo metal tracks instead of fast paced hardcore songs. Nevertheless, you should not expect any big experimentation such as ballads, orchestral tracks or fully acoustic pieces as the band focuses on a very precise and unique sound.

The songs of the band are all as short and straight as the lyrics which talk about everyday problems in our society like complicated relationships, egoism, liars, thieves, loss of control, midlife crisis, anger about high gas prices or thoughts about being parents, feeling empty or approaching death. The band chose to create their songs in French but one should rather call it "Québécois" because the Canadian French isn't quite comparable to the original language from France. The band uses many swear words but beneath the very direct and emotional language are many hidden philosophical thoughts. The album is an authentic piece of Quebec's culture and worth to be purchased by anyone that would like to have something exotic and unique in his collection.

The music varies from very dark tracks like "L'diable au corps" or the amazingly discording and at the same time harmonious "La grande faucheuse" which is one of my favourite tracks that make me think of some straighter tracks of "Apocalyptica" to short and fast killer songs like "Zodiac" or "Té qui toé" that reveal the thrash metal and hardcore roots of the band. Many songs are very catchy and easily memorable. "Possédé" is a quite diversified but straight opener that should take no prisoners during the upcoming energizing live shows of the band and surely one of the best tracks on the record. "Sortir ca tête" has some exotic Asian folk vibes and is the most outstanding track with "La grande faucheuse". A video has been made for the track "Burn out" that is another catchy track and reminds of the style of the last video "Juste assez sharp" from the band's second album.

After the first two albums, the band parted ways with drummer Michel "Away" Langevin as Voivod began to continue its journey and he decided to focus on his main band. But even though a very talented musician parted this change helped the band to get the status of a regular band and not only a side project. He got replaced by a very diversified and talented new drummer and all members are now fully integrated in the band and into the new style they have created which is a big step forward for them. I think that this new motivating chemistry may lead to even greater albums in the near future.

But for now, we have a really unique and homogenous piece of straight metal music with electric cello, acoustic guitars and rough French vocals as well as highly interesting critical and philosophical lyrics. The album seems to be rather short but it almost has the perfect length for this kind of straight music and the most important thing is that there is no single filler on this record. The songs sound all rather similar but each song has something special and catchy that makes it stand out like a great chorus, a stunning riff, calm and epic cello passage, a little drum solo or a fast paced thrash part. There really isn’t much to criticize in here. This record simply never gets boring and is until now my best discovery of the year. Les Ékorchés are another unique band from Québec and maybe they will one day take the heritage of the great Voivod. I think they are the closest ones to have the talent, the creativity and the musical connections to fill in this big place one day. Be sure to check this very particular music out and open your horizons because we might hear something more from this band in the future.