Review by UnhinderedbyTalent for Miserere Luminis - Ordalie (2023)

The flames that engulf the horse and its surroundings on the cover of Miserere Luminis’ second full-length, hold a heightened resonance right now as various parts of the world start to set ablaze as global temperatures continue to rise. If that seems kind of a deep reflection to open the album review with then I can only add the context that Ordalie is very much a deep experience and one that certainly holds a level of hopelessness alongside some equally frequent moments of uplifting and engaging black metal.

Having missed the Canadians and their self-titled release some fourteen years ago I was drawn to Ordalie initially because of that striking artwork. However, once I got to the inner layers of the musical content then things started to get more interesting. The expansive opening track, Noir fauve sets the tone perfectly for the rest of the album. The sadness inherent in the track is veiled in the ethereal beauty of the atmospheric passages that are interspersed amongst the darkness of the more aggressive vocals and riff-driven fury of the more progressive parts. At over thirteen minutes long, it is a bold opening statement and one that stands up well in the main. The regular changes of pace do become a tad overwhelming after a while though and I do think the track would hold up slightly better if there was a little more focus in one direction for a while longer.

As the album progresses, I am increasingly reminded of Gaerea, most certainly in terms of the vocal delivery and in the melodic angst of the music that when in full flow sounds like it is bashing up against the more delicate textures of the music – as if not wanting to break them or ride roughshod over them. As such it creates an odd balance of the rough and the smooth. The guitars ring with an almost warming chime during the latter parts of Le sang des rêves whilst those vocals continue to grate away at the air around them.

This sense of being propelled by the rhythm of the record whilst being caressed by the applied melodies and atmospheres I found to be quite unsettling at first. However, I soon settled into this slightly esoteric pattern with repeated listens and feel like the album becomes more accessible with each listen. Ordalie does not need to dredge the depths of extremity to get its message across and nor does it need to rely on excessive shrouding of atmospherics to simply make its mark. Instead, it creates a clever maelstrom of the required component parts to deliver what is ultimately a clean and concise sounding record overall.

There are times when I want the bass to take more of a centre stage yes, but I cannot ignore that there is a presence imbued from it, nonetheless. The guitar and vocals very much steal the show on Ordalie but they do not shoulder-barge the rest of the instrumentation aside in doing so. There is always a sense of calmness and cohesion, like the bass and drums are more than happy to explore their role with subtlety and restraint to let the other two elements shine. The penultimate track being an instrumental piece acts as a palate cleanser going into the tumultuous album closer, De venin et d'os. Building with keys and sax we are soon back in the darker and more aggressive space that I have by now become accustomed to.

I sense a CD purchase in the offing…