After the end of industrial metal band Sybreed's adventure in 2013, Benjamin Nominet, aka Ben DMN, released a new album rooted once again in a cyber universe with Shadow Domain... But while Sybreed made a sort of comeback last year with a new track and reissues, this time around he's at the helm of a very different project. Locus Noir “draws its energy from late-night introspection”: it will be gothic. Paradise Lost (more specifically from the late 90s/early 2000s), Type O Negative, and The Fields of the Nephilim are mentionned as major influences. What was supposed to be a solo project has mutated into a quartet, and the first album, Shadow Sun, is now ready.
Goths have read Bram Stoker. That's just how it is, there's nothing we can do about it, it's in our DNA. Shadow Sun begins like the Irish author's most famous novel (in some versions)... on Walpurgis Night. Walpurgisnacht 1996, with its hooting owl, howling wolf, rumbling thunder, doom-laden guitar, and light synth accompaniment, is an enticing introduction: it's theatrical, grandiose, and ticks all the boxes for a joyful ride in a hearse. Of course, we're going to sulk. Of course, we're going to wear dark glasses. Yet Locus Noir sweeps away a few cobwebs with its rock ‘n’ roll energy from the very first track, which borrows its dynamism and sense of mysticism from the Sisters of Mercy. It's no coincidence if guitarist Ben Christo makes an appearance on Cemetery Youth.
A sepulchral voice echoing through the mausoleum, simple yet haunting melodies reminiscent of Tiamat's early 2000s choruses, post-punk shadows creating tension (the expressive She Haunts the Night, which makes you want to dust off the skeletons in the closet!), the coldness of a full moon night... Locus Noir knows the ingredients. We savor the atmospheres and the funeral melancholy (the heaviness of Thicker Than Darkness Itself) as much as the riffs that make you want to sway, as you would with a best-of compilation from The 69 Eyes. Locus Noir's approach reminds us of the Helsinki vampires with this string of potential hits, this constant quest for catchiness even in the heavier, doom-metal tracks (Hollow and its flavor of marble with a delicious dark romanticism).
For listeners who happen to wander among the graves, it doesn't really matter which track they choose: they all work, they all share the same fetishistic love of gothic rock, with its smell of smoke machines and black-and-white photos, while opting for a more modern and lively approach. At the risk, perhaps, of losing us a little. Because between two macabre dances, we need to catch our breath! What we come here for is constant enthusiasm rather than surprises. After all, gothic rock, especially in its current revival on the metal scene, is often associated with a form of nostalgia, and it's normal to want to rediscover that pleasure, that balance between darkness and the urge to live. Remember the supergroup Cemetery Skyline and their “gothic rock for arenas”... Don't worry, Locus Noir isn't quite there yet, the atmosphere is still all about crypts and bats!
In its final section, Shadow Sun drifts away somewhat with a long, theatrical conclusion of macabre refinement. We return underground, and although Reburial may evoke a downward movement, it is also the pinnacle of the album... The lucky few who get their hands on the collector's edition will be treated to a very successful cover of Lady Gaga's Marry the Night, with its twilight musical theater feel, and How Harsh is the Light of Dawn, a new, more contemplative track that deserved to be included on the “normal” album. To fully enjoy the whole thing, we recommend listening to this extended version, which, paradoxically, has more space to breathe! Without reinventing the hears's wheel, Locus Noir offers a debut album overflowing with sincere love for the genre, with no downtime, no track inferior to the others, a distillation of dark, catchy, and introspective poetry that is certainly faithful to the codes but produced with real skill and attention to atmosphere... isn't that ultimately all we wanted?
