Darkenhöld is an interesting band – Originally starting off in the mid-to-late noughts as more or less a love-letter to the nineties era of Black Metal, the collective love for anything medieval shared by the three French musicians and supposedly heavily inspired by the scenic, castle-laden surroundings where they all resided, quickly caused the band to veer slightly off course while integrating these aspects into their lyrics and musical approach. This caused the tempo to drop somewhat compared to the bands of the era to which they were paying tribute as well as downplaying the raw ‘wall of sound’ that was often prevalent throughout these bands. Instead, Darkenhöld leaned into more traditional aspects and themes, resulting in the music being more somber, old-fashioned in a sense and with a far more… Shall we say solid? Atmosphere. It feels almost as strong and inevitable as the stone faces of the medieval castles from which they draw their insights.

This has been the case since the bands inmception and throughout their career, at least as far as I have had the pleasure of being along for the ride – Which for me I seem to recall encompasses four of their now six Full-length releases. And so far, the band has been equally consistent across all releases I have been privvy to, each new album building upon the foundations of what came before it, while growing slowly but surely more extravagant without at any point diverging too much from their predecessors as to stand out in any negative manner. As such, the short answer to the question – Will I like Le Fléau Du Rocher (which translates from their native French into ‘The Scourge Of The Rock’)? – Would be that if you enjoyed the musical exploits of the band up until this point (like I did), then yes you almost certainly would.

The slightly longer answer, probably mostly aimed at people unfamiliar with the band, would entail describing the band as reminiscient of Aorlhac and Véhémence, both Black Metal kinsmen of theirs who likewise have a strong historic and even somewhat noble bent to their approach and music. It is consistently present, kept simple, engaging and rock-solid – Built to last and to resonate with fans of the genre to a quite succesful degree even among people such a myself who do not speak a word of the language.

As a result, Le Fléau du Rocher is yet another addition to my collection that I will be welcoming with open arms and recommend to anyone with a penchant for modern or even atmospheric Black Metal. But then again, as is often the case when reviewing the French, it would only seem prudent to point out that I am inherently biased, finding a strong appeal in the overall emotive, free-flowing and often powerful mindset of the French which tend to bleed into their music on performances such as these.

https://www.facebook.com/Darkenhold