Band: Glorior Belli
Title: The Great Southern Darkness
Label: Metal Blade Records
Distribution: Rough Trade Benelux.
Release date: September 23rd 2011
Review: CD

I’m a fan of everything this French band did so far, so you can imagine my enthusiasm for being able to listen to this new, fourth, studio recording in almost a decade of existence. Since 2009’s Meet Us At The Southern Sign, the band changed from Candlelight to Metal Blade (the latter seeming to find back the honesty behind extreme Metal in general, finally), and the style did evolve as well. A lot, as a matter of fact.
The Great Southern Darkness opens with Dark Gnosis, a rather short (2:30; the ten other songs last between three and a half and six minutes) hymn with a hypnotive Suicidal / Funeral-alike approach, while Secret Ride To Rebellion is one of those compositions that maintains Glorior Belli’s glorious past: impressively intense Post-influenced Black Metal with an industrialised apokalyptik touch of abyssal obscurity, including the most ominous sphere. Yet there is one enormous difference which goes for most songs: the new sound. I did compare Meet Us At The Southern Sign with Norwegian bands like Thorns or Satyricon, yet these characteristics made place for a much groovier and sleazier approach, for more than once. This album too is the most varying to date when it comes to the structure of the totality. The Great Southern Darkness is as pitch-black as ever before, yet softly and sweetly injected with some subtle elements of Southern Rock (I’m talking about the Stoner-alike musical religion), the quasi-bluesy way, and I think it works out very well – songs like Horns In My Pathway or the title track say it all, doesn’t they? I did mention ‘groovy’ and ‘sleazy’ before, so let me continue this résumé with ‘dirty’ and ‘dusty’ or, why not, ‘groovy’ and ‘sleazy’ again?...
Those tastefully filthy comparisons (at least in this case) go for the varying tempo as well. As we’re used to, Glorior Belli interacts between slow, mid-paced and fast speeds, and it is not different on this album. But I cannot ignore the feeling that it has been worked out much more mathematically correct this time – which is both good and not either. Good, because: each listen reveals new details that sort of ‘complete’ the total picture; sad / bad, because: there seems to be less cohesion between the individual songs this time. It’s a fact: The Great Southern Darkness is, at the same time, much more approachable than before yet less chaotically structured (follow me?).
Total running time: 48:15.

87/100

Ivan Tibos.