Gregory Hoepffner isn’t the sort of artist to settle comfortably into a rut. Whether behind a microphone or a drum kit, he explores, experiments and keeps things varied: Jean Jean, Sure., Time to Burn, Juni… his various projects range from cold wave to hardcore, via post-rock and pop. Kabbel is his latest creation, a solo project that we imagine to be, consequently, very personal – and whose name we’ve already come across here and there (with a debut EP, End of Norms, in 2021 or, more recently, for example, on Messalina’s excellent debut EP), gradually piquing our curiosity about him. The War is Over is the debut album from this French artist, based in Sweden, and finally lets us to immerse ourselves in a sensitive and elegant world that doesn’t forget to really get us moving.
There’s something the ‘guardians of the temple’ of industrial music like to repeat to tease fans they deem too mainstream: ‘Nine Inch Nails isn’t industrial, it’s pop’ – arguing that their catchy choruses are straying a little too far from the experimental sounds that challenged traditional notions of music. But what if that’s precisely why it’s so good? Looking at the evolution of Reznor’s project, it’s hard to say they’re entirely wrong. In this respect, Kabbel and his music – which he labels ‘queer sadcore’ – is the heir to this noble and respectful approach to pop, which skilfully combines effectiveness with experimentation, gentleness with harshness, and accessibility with depth. Less outlandish and exuberant than Aesthetic Perfection’s industrial pop, for example, The War is Over plunges us straight into a HEALTH-style melancholy – a cold atmosphere into which we nevertheless snuggle comfortably, much like the twilight duet with Perturbator on Reward (the two had previously covered Depeche Mode’s Dangerous Days together).
Right from The Blaming Game, a sense of gloom begins to weigh down the beats: you’ll be dancing, but it won’t be with a carefree spirit. It’ll be to exorcise a demon or two, to forget your apocalypses – both internal and external – or to recall Dave Gahan’s hip-swinging moves during Fiction Clouds. The approach is modern; the influences blend into a personal, uninhibited and unapologetic maelstrom, as exemplified by the exhilarating Elephant (it’s a bit like The Soft Moon trying to do a nu-metal cover of N Sync): Kabbel doesn’t pretend, doesn’t cut corners, and there’s something liberating about this sincere intensity (the heavy riffs and screams on You Don’t Matter bring something truly visceral). Just because it’s alluring and enjoyable doesn’t mean it’s sanitised, empty or vulgar. Quite the opposite, in fact: what works for Kabbel is the emotion that pierces through the synthetic coldness, found as much in Hoepffner’s vocals as in the haunting string layer of No More XTC – here in a more subdued version than on the End of Norms EP.
From the very start, this sombre celebration has the feel of an end-credits sequence. Kabbel sings of his melancholy. When the War is Over, an atmospheric conclusion tinged with bittersweet nuances, doesn’t feel like a triumphant fanfare; we come away from it with quite a few bruises, but alive. With class, Kabbel finds, within the accessible packaging of his music, a universal language to share the ghosts that belong to him, so that, perhaps, we might borrow them for the duration of the listen. Really nice!
