Review by Michael on October 24, 2023.

What is the color of rain? Hm, this is a tricky question. At first thought, you might think about the different colors while you see the rainbow when it is raining and the sun is lurking through the clouds. But you could also think about the sound when the rain comes pouring down from the skies. It can be very nice but when I think about the sound of the rain in our gutter it is pretty annoying, especially at night when you want to sleep. And of course you can think of the way the rain is falling – mild drizzle or pouring cats and dogs and sometimes causing terrible deluges. Bram Bruyneel who was responsible for the latest Schavot album cover did a fantastic job here with this cover painting.

With Oceans Above the Dutch guys in The Color Of Rain (featuring Gerhans Meulenbeld (Sad State Of Decay), Floris Velthuis (Asgrauw / Schavot) and Devi Hisgen (Teitan); have created a musical counterpart to this description I just did. On their debut album you will find a lot of devastating soundscapes that if it was rain doesn't make you to leave your house (listen to the heavy dissonant and very repetitive riff attacks in the title track) but also some very nice and relaxing sounds that make you want to dance in the warm summer rain. What makes the album very diverse are the very nested parts which combine very technical and often very dissonant moments with some sections that are easier accessible to the listener because they have a little bit more melodies in it. 'Translucence' is a perfect example for this mixture of stylistic elements. In a split second you have almost balladic structures and then all of a sudden the guys come back with fury and hate and pour a bucket of water over your head with the heaviness. 'Darkness Cloaks The Cradle' almost sounds a little bit like The Gathering with their “Mandylion” breakthrough album at the start only to switch into something absolute insane that sounds like absolute hate and desperation after about one minute. It is a little bit tricky to explain how the whole thing sounds, maybe it is best to describe as a mixture between old Cynic and Deathspell Omega. And this is also the difficult part: is it death or (post) black metal? Maybe The Color Of Rain is something in between. Of course this isn't just because of the really sick guitars with a lot of tremolo picking and the pummeling drums but also because vocalist Devi Hisgen does a really insane, sometimes slight schizophrenic voice performance here. What I can promise you is that you will never ever find more than 20 seconds to calm down a little bit because the album is such much full of energy (negative and positive) so it is a wild hunt from the start to the end. But be warned – don't listen to the album while you have a bad day or while you feel unsettled (or while you write your tax return)

The whole album really isn't an easy listening experience because a lot of parts on it don't let to be explored too easily. It is a little bit like cracking a Brazil nut. It is very hard to open it but once you get to open it you can truly enjoy the content. So enjoy the drizzling rain but don't be surprised if you get totally soaked by some really cold blackish acid rain.

Rating: 8 out of 10 black rainbows

Review by Michael on October 24, 2023.

What is the color of rain? Hm, this is a tricky question. At first thought, you might think about the different colors while you see the rainbow when it is raining and the sun is lurking through the clouds. But you could also think about the sound when the rain comes pouring down from the skies. It can be very nice but when I think about the sound of the rain in our gutter it is pretty annoying, especially at night when you want to sleep. And of course you can think of the way the rain is falling – mild drizzle or pouring cats and dogs and sometimes causing terrible deluges. Bram Bruyneel who was responsible for the latest Schavot album cover did a fantastic job here with this cover painting.

With Oceans Above the Dutch guys in The Color Of Rain (featuring Gerhans Meulenbeld (Sad State Of Decay), Floris Velthuis (Asgrauw / Schavot) and Devi Hisgen (Teitan); have created a musical counterpart to this description I just did. On their debut album you will find a lot of devastating soundscapes that if it was rain doesn't make you to leave your house (listen to the heavy dissonant and very repetitive riff attacks in the title track) but also some very nice and relaxing sounds that make you want to dance in the warm summer rain. What makes the album very diverse are the very nested parts which combine very technical and often very dissonant moments with some sections that are easier accessible to the listener because they have a little bit more melodies in it. 'Translucence' is a perfect example for this mixture of stylistic elements. In a split second you have almost balladic structures and then all of a sudden the guys come back with fury and hate and pour a bucket of water over your head with the heaviness. 'Darkness Cloaks The Cradle' almost sounds a little bit like The Gathering with their “Mandylion” breakthrough album at the start only to switch into something absolute insane that sounds like absolute hate and desperation after about one minute. It is a little bit tricky to explain how the whole thing sounds, maybe it is best to describe as a mixture between old Cynic and Deathspell Omega. And this is also the difficult part: is it death or (post) black metal? Maybe The Color Of Rain is something in between. Of course this isn't just because of the really sick guitars with a lot of tremolo picking and the pummeling drums but also because vocalist Devi Hisgen does a really insane, sometimes slight schizophrenic voice performance here. What I can promise you is that you will never ever find more than 20 seconds to calm down a little bit because the album is such much full of energy (negative and positive) so it is a wild hunt from the start to the end. But be warned – don't listen to the album while you have a bad day or while you feel unsettled (or while you write your tax return)

The whole album really isn't an easy listening experience because a lot of parts on it don't let to be explored too easily. It is a little bit like cracking a Brazil nut. It is very hard to open it but once you get to open it you can truly enjoy the content. So enjoy the drizzling rain but don't be surprised if you get totally soaked by some really cold blackish acid rain.

Rating: 8 out of 10 black rainbows

Review by Michael on October 24, 2023.

What is the color of rain? Hm, this is a tricky question. At first thought, you might think about the different colors while you see the rainbow when it is raining and the sun is lurking through the clouds. But you could also think about the sound when the rain comes pouring down from the skies. It can be very nice but when I think about the sound of the rain in our gutter it is pretty annoying, especially at night when you want to sleep. And of course you can think of the way the rain is falling – mild drizzle or pouring cats and dogs and sometimes causing terrible deluges. Bram Bruyneel who was responsible for the latest Schavot album cover did a fantastic job here with this cover painting.

With Oceans Above the Dutch guys in The Color Of Rain (featuring Gerhans Meulenbeld (Sad State Of Decay), Floris Velthuis (Asgrauw / Schavot) and Devi Hisgen (Teitan); have created a musical counterpart to this description I just did. On their debut album you will find a lot of devastating soundscapes that if it was rain doesn't make you to leave your house (listen to the heavy dissonant and very repetitive riff attacks in the title track) but also some very nice and relaxing sounds that make you want to dance in the warm summer rain. What makes the album very diverse are the very nested parts which combine very technical and often very dissonant moments with some sections that are easier accessible to the listener because they have a little bit more melodies in it. 'Translucence' is a perfect example for this mixture of stylistic elements. In a split second you have almost balladic structures and then all of a sudden the guys come back with fury and hate and pour a bucket of water over your head with the heaviness. 'Darkness Cloaks The Cradle' almost sounds a little bit like The Gathering with their “Mandylion” breakthrough album at the start only to switch into something absolute insane that sounds like absolute hate and desperation after about one minute. It is a little bit tricky to explain how the whole thing sounds, maybe it is best to describe as a mixture between old Cynic and Deathspell Omega. And this is also the difficult part: is it death or (post) black metal? Maybe The Color Of Rain is something in between. Of course this isn't just because of the really sick guitars with a lot of tremolo picking and the pummeling drums but also because vocalist Devi Hisgen does a really insane, sometimes slight schizophrenic voice performance here. What I can promise you is that you will never ever find more than 20 seconds to calm down a little bit because the album is such much full of energy (negative and positive) so it is a wild hunt from the start to the end. But be warned – don't listen to the album while you have a bad day or while you feel unsettled (or while you write your tax return)

The whole album really isn't an easy listening experience because a lot of parts on it don't let to be explored too easily. It is a little bit like cracking a Brazil nut. It is very hard to open it but once you get to open it you can truly enjoy the content. So enjoy the drizzling rain but don't be surprised if you get totally soaked by some really cold blackish acid rain.

Rating: 8 out of 10 black rainbows

Review by Fernando on June 25, 2019.

To say that Peste Noire is a controversial band is a massive understatement in many ways. Founder and composer Famine have actively positioned his band to be polarizing and get a strong reaction from his listeners, at first this M.O. served him well, despite many people’s distaste for what this band represents and endorses, no one can deny that the music and their wild experimenting over the years was good. That isn’t the case in this album though.

Peste Noire have been praised for their outlandish and eccentric music, experimenting and playing around with a variety of genres and styles, from folk, to punk to even industrial music the band set out to continue this experimenting in this album but with their most baffling, outright incompetent and even mediocre results. This album is divided in two sides of five songs each; a “Traditional” side which is comprised of straightforward black metal and a “Degenerate” side which is comprised of the more experimental side. I’ll start addressing the latter over the former because this is the side of the album which in my opinion is the worst part of the entire album and some of the worst songs to come out of any black metal band and even any extreme metal project. 

First let’s address the elephant in the room; the experimentation with trap music and hip hop is terrible, Peste Noire had in the past incorporated industrial and electronic elements into their signature black metal style, in this album instead of using those genres as an addition, a seasoning if you will, Famine has instead attempted to fully mix trap music with black metal and the results are as I said, terrible, aside from how jarring and disjointed the album as a whole feels the trap parts are simply atrocious. The trap music parts of the album are extremely mediocre and even shocking that Famine, who has often being lauded for his musicianship, would release songs this poorly composed and this mediocre, I’m at a loss for words as to how bad this “experimentation” is, whether its intentional or as a joke to the listeners the incorporation of trap music comes off as a self-indulgent parody of the style, I’m not a fan of trap at all but this music sounds stereotypically bad, like what a diehard metal head would describe trap as; bad and dissonant synths, repetitive beats and vocal performances that do not even try to flow with the music and a general apathy for quality control, Famine is still using his usual raspy shouts for this but his performance sounds intentionally lazy and artificial, like he’s aware of how bad this sounds and doesn’t even care to perform well.

Then there’s the “Traditional” part of the album, the first half which opens it and the best way to describe this album is simply as mediocre, it sounds like outtakes from Peste Noire’s first 3 albums, there’s no experimentation, no innovation and no breaking of the mold, the biggest tell of this shocking display of apathy is the 2 recycled and rerecorded songs; “666 millions d'esclaves et de déchets” and “Des médecins malades et des saints séquestrés” taken from their Macabre Transcendance... demo and their infinitely superior debut album.

The final aspect I’m going to address are the lyrics, first and foremost Peste Noire is a band I don’t feel comfortable recommending due to the political and provocative nature of their lyrics in general but that’s beside the point, good music is good music regardless of what their authors support or promote (death of the artist). However in the first half of the album you get what you usually expect from Peste Noire; punk like screeds about anarchy, French ancestry and so on but on the trap side of the album, the lyrics feel extremely self-indulgent, ham-fisted and again like if Famine is having a laugh at the expense of the listeners, the song "Turbofascisme" has a reference to the Pepe internet meme, again I don’t know what’s the motive or reasoning here, the entire “Degenerate” side of the album whether if it’s because Famine is playing around with trap music which is criticized for having extremely simplistic and even dumb lyrics is unknown to me, there’s certainly an urban or street aspect to this side of the album but due to the reasons I’ve been stressing it really comes off as an insulting joke where the only one laughing is Famine.

It’s easy to just say this album is bad but the worst part of this album is how it feels like an elaborate joke on Famine’s part, it’s no secret the man enjoys the infamy and negative press that Peste Noire gets, he famously recorded Folkfuck folie in poor conditions to scare off the people that praised La Sanie des siècles, but beyond whatever intentions Famine had with this record this album is simply a mediocre mess, it fails in being what it set out to do; a simultaneous “return to roots” and experimenting with the current popular music, its disjointed, misguided and as an experiment it fails the basis of failing to understand why trap music has gotten so omnipresent in the mainstream. The first half is a retread of past efforts but with better production and the second half is again, a botched experiment. I do not recommend this album to anyone, if you want to a better album that succeeds where this album failed, stick to L'Ordure à l'état pur.

Rating: 0.5 out of 10

Review by Fernando on June 25, 2019.

To say that Peste Noire is a controversial band is a massive understatement in many ways. Founder and composer Famine have actively positioned his band to be polarizing and get a strong reaction from his listeners, at first this M.O. served him well, despite many people’s distaste for what this band represents and endorses, no one can deny that the music and their wild experimenting over the years was good. That isn’t the case in this album though.

Peste Noire have been praised for their outlandish and eccentric music, experimenting and playing around with a variety of genres and styles, from folk, to punk to even industrial music the band set out to continue this experimenting in this album but with their most baffling, outright incompetent and even mediocre results. This album is divided in two sides of five songs each; a “Traditional” side which is comprised of straightforward black metal and a “Degenerate” side which is comprised of the more experimental side. I’ll start addressing the latter over the former because this is the side of the album which in my opinion is the worst part of the entire album and some of the worst songs to come out of any black metal band and even any extreme metal project. 

First let’s address the elephant in the room; the experimentation with trap music and hip hop is terrible, Peste Noire had in the past incorporated industrial and electronic elements into their signature black metal style, in this album instead of using those genres as an addition, a seasoning if you will, Famine has instead attempted to fully mix trap music with black metal and the results are as I said, terrible, aside from how jarring and disjointed the album as a whole feels the trap parts are simply atrocious. The trap music parts of the album are extremely mediocre and even shocking that Famine, who has often being lauded for his musicianship, would release songs this poorly composed and this mediocre, I’m at a loss for words as to how bad this “experimentation” is, whether its intentional or as a joke to the listeners the incorporation of trap music comes off as a self-indulgent parody of the style, I’m not a fan of trap at all but this music sounds stereotypically bad, like what a diehard metal head would describe trap as; bad and dissonant synths, repetitive beats and vocal performances that do not even try to flow with the music and a general apathy for quality control, Famine is still using his usual raspy shouts for this but his performance sounds intentionally lazy and artificial, like he’s aware of how bad this sounds and doesn’t even care to perform well.

Then there’s the “Traditional” part of the album, the first half which opens it and the best way to describe this album is simply as mediocre, it sounds like outtakes from Peste Noire’s first 3 albums, there’s no experimentation, no innovation and no breaking of the mold, the biggest tell of this shocking display of apathy is the 2 recycled and rerecorded songs; “666 millions d'esclaves et de déchets” and “Des médecins malades et des saints séquestrés” taken from their Macabre Transcendance... demo and their infinitely superior debut album.

The final aspect I’m going to address are the lyrics, first and foremost Peste Noire is a band I don’t feel comfortable recommending due to the political and provocative nature of their lyrics in general but that’s beside the point, good music is good music regardless of what their authors support or promote (death of the artist). However in the first half of the album you get what you usually expect from Peste Noire; punk like screeds about anarchy, French ancestry and so on but on the trap side of the album, the lyrics feel extremely self-indulgent, ham-fisted and again like if Famine is having a laugh at the expense of the listeners, the song "Turbofascisme" has a reference to the Pepe internet meme, again I don’t know what’s the motive or reasoning here, the entire “Degenerate” side of the album whether if it’s because Famine is playing around with trap music which is criticized for having extremely simplistic and even dumb lyrics is unknown to me, there’s certainly an urban or street aspect to this side of the album but due to the reasons I’ve been stressing it really comes off as an insulting joke where the only one laughing is Famine.

It’s easy to just say this album is bad but the worst part of this album is how it feels like an elaborate joke on Famine’s part, it’s no secret the man enjoys the infamy and negative press that Peste Noire gets, he famously recorded Folkfuck folie in poor conditions to scare off the people that praised La Sanie des siècles, but beyond whatever intentions Famine had with this record this album is simply a mediocre mess, it fails in being what it set out to do; a simultaneous “return to roots” and experimenting with the current popular music, its disjointed, misguided and as an experiment it fails the basis of failing to understand why trap music has gotten so omnipresent in the mainstream. The first half is a retread of past efforts but with better production and the second half is again, a botched experiment. I do not recommend this album to anyone, if you want to a better album that succeeds where this album failed, stick to L'Ordure à l'état pur.

Rating: 0.5 out of 10

Review by Michael on October 24, 2023.

What is the color of rain? Hm, this is a tricky question. At first thought, you might think about the different colors while you see the rainbow when it is raining and the sun is lurking through the clouds. But you could also think about the sound when the rain comes pouring down from the skies. It can be very nice but when I think about the sound of the rain in our gutter it is pretty annoying, especially at night when you want to sleep. And of course you can think of the way the rain is falling – mild drizzle or pouring cats and dogs and sometimes causing terrible deluges. Bram Bruyneel who was responsible for the latest Schavot album cover did a fantastic job here with this cover painting.

With Oceans Above the Dutch guys in The Color Of Rain (featuring Gerhans Meulenbeld (Sad State Of Decay), Floris Velthuis (Asgrauw / Schavot) and Devi Hisgen (Teitan); have created a musical counterpart to this description I just did. On their debut album you will find a lot of devastating soundscapes that if it was rain doesn't make you to leave your house (listen to the heavy dissonant and very repetitive riff attacks in the title track) but also some very nice and relaxing sounds that make you want to dance in the warm summer rain. What makes the album very diverse are the very nested parts which combine very technical and often very dissonant moments with some sections that are easier accessible to the listener because they have a little bit more melodies in it. 'Translucence' is a perfect example for this mixture of stylistic elements. In a split second you have almost balladic structures and then all of a sudden the guys come back with fury and hate and pour a bucket of water over your head with the heaviness. 'Darkness Cloaks The Cradle' almost sounds a little bit like The Gathering with their “Mandylion” breakthrough album at the start only to switch into something absolute insane that sounds like absolute hate and desperation after about one minute. It is a little bit tricky to explain how the whole thing sounds, maybe it is best to describe as a mixture between old Cynic and Deathspell Omega. And this is also the difficult part: is it death or (post) black metal? Maybe The Color Of Rain is something in between. Of course this isn't just because of the really sick guitars with a lot of tremolo picking and the pummeling drums but also because vocalist Devi Hisgen does a really insane, sometimes slight schizophrenic voice performance here. What I can promise you is that you will never ever find more than 20 seconds to calm down a little bit because the album is such much full of energy (negative and positive) so it is a wild hunt from the start to the end. But be warned – don't listen to the album while you have a bad day or while you feel unsettled (or while you write your tax return)

The whole album really isn't an easy listening experience because a lot of parts on it don't let to be explored too easily. It is a little bit like cracking a Brazil nut. It is very hard to open it but once you get to open it you can truly enjoy the content. So enjoy the drizzling rain but don't be surprised if you get totally soaked by some really cold blackish acid rain.

Rating: 8 out of 10 black rainbows

Review by Fernando on June 25, 2019.

To say that Peste Noire is a controversial band is a massive understatement in many ways. Founder and composer Famine have actively positioned his band to be polarizing and get a strong reaction from his listeners, at first this M.O. served him well, despite many people’s distaste for what this band represents and endorses, no one can deny that the music and their wild experimenting over the years was good. That isn’t the case in this album though.

Peste Noire have been praised for their outlandish and eccentric music, experimenting and playing around with a variety of genres and styles, from folk, to punk to even industrial music the band set out to continue this experimenting in this album but with their most baffling, outright incompetent and even mediocre results. This album is divided in two sides of five songs each; a “Traditional” side which is comprised of straightforward black metal and a “Degenerate” side which is comprised of the more experimental side. I’ll start addressing the latter over the former because this is the side of the album which in my opinion is the worst part of the entire album and some of the worst songs to come out of any black metal band and even any extreme metal project. 

First let’s address the elephant in the room; the experimentation with trap music and hip hop is terrible, Peste Noire had in the past incorporated industrial and electronic elements into their signature black metal style, in this album instead of using those genres as an addition, a seasoning if you will, Famine has instead attempted to fully mix trap music with black metal and the results are as I said, terrible, aside from how jarring and disjointed the album as a whole feels the trap parts are simply atrocious. The trap music parts of the album are extremely mediocre and even shocking that Famine, who has often being lauded for his musicianship, would release songs this poorly composed and this mediocre, I’m at a loss for words as to how bad this “experimentation” is, whether its intentional or as a joke to the listeners the incorporation of trap music comes off as a self-indulgent parody of the style, I’m not a fan of trap at all but this music sounds stereotypically bad, like what a diehard metal head would describe trap as; bad and dissonant synths, repetitive beats and vocal performances that do not even try to flow with the music and a general apathy for quality control, Famine is still using his usual raspy shouts for this but his performance sounds intentionally lazy and artificial, like he’s aware of how bad this sounds and doesn’t even care to perform well.

Then there’s the “Traditional” part of the album, the first half which opens it and the best way to describe this album is simply as mediocre, it sounds like outtakes from Peste Noire’s first 3 albums, there’s no experimentation, no innovation and no breaking of the mold, the biggest tell of this shocking display of apathy is the 2 recycled and rerecorded songs; “666 millions d'esclaves et de déchets” and “Des médecins malades et des saints séquestrés” taken from their Macabre Transcendance... demo and their infinitely superior debut album.

The final aspect I’m going to address are the lyrics, first and foremost Peste Noire is a band I don’t feel comfortable recommending due to the political and provocative nature of their lyrics in general but that’s beside the point, good music is good music regardless of what their authors support or promote (death of the artist). However in the first half of the album you get what you usually expect from Peste Noire; punk like screeds about anarchy, French ancestry and so on but on the trap side of the album, the lyrics feel extremely self-indulgent, ham-fisted and again like if Famine is having a laugh at the expense of the listeners, the song "Turbofascisme" has a reference to the Pepe internet meme, again I don’t know what’s the motive or reasoning here, the entire “Degenerate” side of the album whether if it’s because Famine is playing around with trap music which is criticized for having extremely simplistic and even dumb lyrics is unknown to me, there’s certainly an urban or street aspect to this side of the album but due to the reasons I’ve been stressing it really comes off as an insulting joke where the only one laughing is Famine.

It’s easy to just say this album is bad but the worst part of this album is how it feels like an elaborate joke on Famine’s part, it’s no secret the man enjoys the infamy and negative press that Peste Noire gets, he famously recorded Folkfuck folie in poor conditions to scare off the people that praised La Sanie des siècles, but beyond whatever intentions Famine had with this record this album is simply a mediocre mess, it fails in being what it set out to do; a simultaneous “return to roots” and experimenting with the current popular music, its disjointed, misguided and as an experiment it fails the basis of failing to understand why trap music has gotten so omnipresent in the mainstream. The first half is a retread of past efforts but with better production and the second half is again, a botched experiment. I do not recommend this album to anyone, if you want to a better album that succeeds where this album failed, stick to L'Ordure à l'état pur.

Rating: 0.5 out of 10