Azziard – Vésanie (2014)

The French extreme Metal scene has been quickly growing in number of quality bands in the last few years. From the likes of Merrimack to Glaciation, tons of bands are emerging with excellent quality. Enter Azziard, a Parisian band ready to steamroll the scene with their savage Black/Death Metal combination and their sophomore release “Vésanie”.

Pummeling through a no BS intro titled “Allégorie”, the band fully explodes into action with the blistering “Disjonction”. Mixing old school BM riffing attacks with modern production values and a hectic pace, Azziard opens this release with a commanding brutality and engages the listener since the first minute. “De lumière, D'Obscurité” and “Sur La Toile” help establish the band’s crushing onslaughts with vicious guitar work, ripping vocals, and monumental drumming.

The band’s style is by no means your typical repetitive BM, but instead they focus on crafting sickening passages filled with atmospheric brilliance, like on the demoralizing “Dialyse”. The band’s raw and devastating sound is what makes “Vésanie” so appealing, like on the war anthems “Ekphrasys” and our favorite “Dans Ma Chair”. The closer, “Digression” leaves no stone unturned and delivers another gut-wrenching hymn to destruction with incisive traditional BM riffs and excellent atmospheric elements.

Overall, “Vésanie” is a devastating release that every Black/Death Metal collector should posses. If the French scene keeps producing bands of this caliber, soon other countries might stop being the “go-to” areas for Extreme Metal. So be warned and head over to your record store (or webshop) and pick up a copy of this demoralizing record.

Label: Mortis Humanae Productions

Release: February 21st, 2014

Genre: Black/Death Metal

Country: France