Review by Maciek on September 27, 2020.

It seems that over the last few years more and more French metal bands are getting my attention, don't know whether I was not aware of the metal scene there or if it has grown that much recently. Either way I am very glad I heard this album and it is amongst my favourite albums of all time now.

The band seems to be a one-man project with M-Kha doing most of the composing and playing all instruments with support of Alix R. playing bass and writing some lyrics and Laurent C. playing rhythm guitars and doing choirs, both are also listed as the band's live line-up.

Their style has been described as atmospheric black metal and that seems to be the perfect description. It's definitely got black metal as the main ingredient, but with some doomy elements, with haunting melody lines being played throughout most of the tracks in the background. And probably those melody lines are the part that grabbed me the most - once they entered my head through my ears, they decided to stay there for good. I remember listening to Deliverance's "Holocaust 26:1-46" album (another good French production) and thinking about "Sancte Iohannes" track that it would be cool to have a whole album where you could find that kind of atmosphere and Aodon has perfectly answered my wish. And in every single track. To find some other comparisons I would describe it as a darker, less catchy version of Kampfar ('L'oeuvre' track, for example), but with an even bigger ability to provide you with plenty of earworms which in my case are just impossible to get rid of.

The rhythm section is very good, there are plenty of proper black metal fast tempos, but there's a lot of variety to it, especially during those haunting passages, which got stuck in my head. The vocals are black metal shrieks with that "howling" style that reminded me of Deliverance mentioned before. All lyrics are in French, so to get the full experience I had to use Google Translate, but I think that the vocals are clear enough for someone who knows the language to get it without the need to read the lyrics. Which are very dark, depressive and a perfect match with the cover art. The guitars are perfectly balanced, the sound production is generally very good, you can clearly hear all instruments and the vocalist, which is also a big advantage. It's very difficult for me to pick a favourite track, because in my opinion all are perfect from the beginning to the end. It keeps me hooked on every sound, no matter if it's fast black metal parts or clean guitar fills.

Grab a bite of this piece of metal and see if it's for you, too. And share with your friends, family, neighbours and enemies. Because good music should be shared.

Rating 10 out of 10

Review by Felix on January 2, 2020.

Roughly 60 years ago, Germans loved to visit Italy. After this tiny unconditional surrender, the Wirtschaftswunder had its first effects and so it was time to conquer other countries without having a machine gun under the arm. New experience! Sunny Italy was the first choice, but I bet that my ancestors would have selected another destination, if Violentor would have been already active. Their sound has nothing in common with a sun-drenched holiday.

Do you know at least one album of Violentor? Okay, good news, then you know them all. But bad news as well, you are missing some exciting tunes as long as you have not heard Putrid Stench. Although the general formula has remained untouched, the individual design is always new. The three-piece still concentrates on almost painfully simple songs, conventional patterns and a big portion of shabbiness. M-A calls the band’s style thrash metal, but I fear that dudes like Alex Skolnick, Kragen Lum or Jeff Waters beg to differ. Okay, Waters has to be quiet since the release of “Set the World on Fire” and further trivialities, nevertheless, Violentor’s style has a punk-driven core. Perhaps one can say they are more metal than Agnostic Front and less thrash than Testament. But come on, this review is getting much more academic than the music itself. Thus, let’s express it simply. Violentor give full speed, they love unembellished attacks and their narrow-mindedness is bliss.

Tracks like the aptly titled “Burning Rage” leave nothing but scorched earth behind, “Butcher the Holy Swine” is a whirlwind of terror and “Hunter of the Anorexis” wants to be an almost multi-layered track (but of course only in the context of the band’s remaining material). Despite the basic brutality of the compositions, the trio always has an eye on catchiness as well. Naturally, the musicians use very simple means to create catchy sequences. For example, the frequent repetition of a single line of the lyrics is not forbidden, right? The boozy and antisocial voice is an important element, even though the rabid guitars dominate the sound. Speaking of the sound, enjoy a direct and brutal production which scores with the right relation between dirt and transparency.

The partially blasts beat driven title track represents the authentic violence of the protagonists significantly. Violentor do not disguise their musical preferences – they are what they do and their music sounds like they are. This means it’s up to you to decide whether or not you like to have another dose of pure, straightforward aggression. Violentor will probably never reach out for the stars, but their down-to-earth mentality and their non-commercial way of proceeding just make fun. Maybe I should take a trip to Italy this year in order to see them live on stage.

Rating: 7.5 out of 10