Arkhon Infaustus - Perdition Insanabilis (2004)

   It seemed like metal music totally avoided France. While some stabile underground scene - smaller or larger - formed in almost all surrounding countries, except a few bands there was literally nothing. But the situation fortunately changed, and plenty of high quality productions showed up from the '00s.
   Arkhon Infaustus catched the current main tendencies of the extreme scene already by their debut by playing a genuine style of black/death. While there are exact directions in this style and some common alternative options of turning technical or involving other unusual inflences, they showed another aspect by staying at the basics. Their music definitely counts as a modern sound of black/death with excellent quality, but they liked to experiment with themes and song structures. Even though the album is extremely dark, heavy and intense and may not come in mind in the case of selecting some chilling sunday afternoon background music after a satisfying lunch, it's not so hard to get into exactly because of the diverse themes they've operated with. It could totally bond the attention of the listener what uncommon musical brutality they will perform next time. The sound is definitely like in death metal, but the way how they made their own mix of black and death makes hard to distunguish the features of the two styles. And in this case not because of the old school tendencies, it's a modern fusion that created a common ground. Strongly recommended material!