When we wrote seven years ago, "CORPUS DELICTI, like NEVA and VIOLET STIGMATA, is one of those original French gothic bands that, sadly, did not last long, leaving us with unstoppable albums that we would have liked to see continue for longer" in a review aimed at rediscovering the album Sylphes, we never imagined that a year and a half later, the Nice-based gothic band would reunite after more than twenty years apart, encouraged by the enthusiasm of a new generation of fans! In 2025, after numerous concerts and the singles Chaos and A Fairy Lie, Corpus Delicti is fulfilling its dream by releasing a new album.
Unfortunately, there is one downside: Roma, co-founder of the band, was unable to return to the drums for health reasons. This is all the more sad given that her playing was one of the most striking elements of Corpus Delicti's music in the 1990s. Nevertheless, the band was able to complete its comeback, calling on Laurent Tamagno as drummer during its tour and the recording of the singles, then Fabrice Gouré for this new album once Laurent Tamagno returned to his own projects. So here it is at last, an album that was unthinkable a few years ago, a ten-track disc entitled Liminal, produced entirely independently by the band and adorned with the impressive Generation X drawing by Nice-based artist Jean-Luc Verna. We're licking our lips. While everything looks very promising, nostalgia alone is not enough to make a record: we still have to discover what a Corpus Delicti album sounds like in the quarter of the 21st century.
We are then surprised to discover a Corpus Delicti that is more incisive and confident than before: benefiting from impeccable sound, the ten tracks on Liminal sound more rock than in the past, highlighting Franck Amendola's heavy guitar, behind which the bass and drums create a deep atmosphere, while the electronic elements are less present. Sébastien Pietrapiana's vocals have gained depth, becoming deeper and firmer, while abandoning the screams and high-pitched flights of the past. The structure of the tracks has also become more direct, articulating verses and choruses in a tense and catchy way. It is very reminiscent of the track Patient from the album Sylphes, as well as the American gothic scene.
This new formula is devilishly effective. The ten tracks are catchy and feverish, taking us on a journey through the wanderings of lyrics whose characters seem to be constantly on the verge of breaking point. We are particularly captivated by the dark energy of Room 36, which benefits from an unstoppable rhythm and has been the subject of a disturbing video clip. With a slower tempo but an equally captivating rhythm, we are also fascinated by Out of Steam, a song rescued from the nineties that we had only heard before in demo form: the sound of 2025 has finally given its frighteningly icy atmosphere the scope it deserves. And then, alongside these stormy pieces, Corpus Delicti also takes some welcome detours: this is the case with Under His Eye, where a piano and trombone (played by Frédéric Allavena and Max Abrieu respectively) burst into the foreground with Christophe Baudrion's bass, following a structure that we hardly expected – this time, we are reminded above all of the experimental taste of Bauhaus or Peter Murphy's solo work. The calmer Fate brings us the bittersweet touch we were hoping for with its melody, where sadness rubs shoulders with sparkle, as beautiful and haunting as can be; the lyrics were actually written by Sébastien Piétrapiana in 1995, about the feeling of losing one's emotions as youth comes to an end – he was twenty-two at the time. As is often the case with Corpus Delicti, the album ends with a long track, the eponymous Liminal, although this one is more reminiscent of post-punk fog than the dark incantations we once knew from the band on Lies Spoken and the magnificent Poisoned Dead Flowers.
As we can see, Corpus Delicti has returned stronger than ever, with a heart full of new hymns of dark struggle to share with us, against madness, time, and the imprisonment of life. We thank them for this new album, which will probably resonate within us for a long time to come, just like its predecessors.
