“Sans Adieu holds on to the reins of classic abrasiveness, but also brings moments full of compositional focus and emotion.”
French quartet Pilori are back with Sans Adieu, their third descent into the bowels of crust, hardcore, and black metal. Or just extreme metal, if you prefer. When we realised the band came from Normandy, we knew it had to be something furious and filled with sharp, incisive teeth. What else could come out of a place that witnessed some of the world’s fiercest battles, like those of Omaha Beach and Utah Beach? Mostly sung in French, Sans Adieu holds on to the reins of classic abrasiveness, but also brings moments full of compositional focus and emotion.
The record starts somewhat as expected, then moves into “A Pierre Fendre”, which is closer to what we would want to hear, before the first real jewel arrives in the form of “Le Couteau par la Lame”. It carries the classic fast and heavy elements of crust, but with a shining, recurring black metal riff and guitar structures that leave a dent. The musicianship throughout the album is quite solid, and instead of the excessive chaos one might expect, there is enough clarity to understand what is going on most of the time.
When we turn onto the B-side, we are greeted by the title track, “Sans Adieu”, an instrumental piece where cello, metallic sounds, and other eerie instruments, or perhaps samples, create a magnificent passage, something far too good to go unnoticed. Each track on Sans Adieu has its own strength. Some, like “Avant que le Vent ne se Lève” or “A Pierre Fendre”, show a band that knows how to build an impregnable wall, while others, like “La Présence des Absents”, sound like a platoon marching relentlessly towards its destiny, be it death or victory. The final “La Rose et l’Épine” is a simple but grandiose farewell.
The mixing and mastering of Sans Adieu are finely tuned and sound quite clean when we consider the genres involved, which are often chaotic. Overall, the band put an immense amount of effort into a record that is plainly worth it, from the cover to the final arrangements, and it should be no surprise that they sound like their own version of Full of Hell meets Philip H. Anselmo & The Illegals. Not as gritty as either, more like sandpaper: more precise and more “musical”, if you will, which only makes it sound better.
