Sometimes music captures your ever attentive fiber and just can’t let go. Cebren-Khal’s A Mass of Despair combines the black-doom genres to a very precise degree and leaves the listener disheveled and mentally spent. France now appears to have one hell of an export in the black metal movement.

The essence of A Mass of Despair is its cold and dim feel within the context of the music; this is some pretty caustic music. But within that thick veil of dismal supremacy there also lies some incredibly beautiful music that transcends the typical ‘1-2-1-2-1-2’ that is modern black metal. “The Lunar Tragedy Act I: The Parcae’s Night is Sleepless” is a mix of gothic gorgeousness and all out black reverence that causes the psyche some serious introspection. The fantastic instrumentation and arrangements on this album are received with an emphatic approval from yours truly. There simply isn’t music being made like this today, and what Cebren Khal does here in the course of nearly 38-minutes is rework and rejuvenates the black metal contingent on creative life support in recent months. The jumps from black to doom to ambient all flow together so nicely and without notice or predictability.  

The mixing job with this album is really fine; nothing truly gets lost in the not-so-perfect mix, and it really doesn’t matter because the intricate majesty of the music just forces you to get lost within it. I also really like the mixture of low, harsh vocals that slither out like syrup between bouts of clean efforts that showcase the French accent just perfectly. It’s hard to not like this album if you’re into the low-fi doom or hi-fi black; it just seems to placate and satiate the camps on both sides.

With a mixture of ‘Opethian’ highs and lows ala Morningrise and maybe some current Bethlehem, A Mass of Despair powers through the muddle that is today’s ‘black mediocrity’ and flattens the playing field evenly. The lush and permeating tones found in “Where All Faith is Lost” are nothing short of surreal; this track alone proves that this band has the ability to transcend the one-and-done stigma for bands like this that put out one stellar album, then either fade into obscurity or put out one clunker after another. I see many good things for this band if they follow the line and continue to produce quality music like this.

TRACK LISTING

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*Comments:

1.  Mortshaped
2.  The Lunar Tragedy Act 1:
     The Parcae’s Night is Sleepless
3.  The Lunar Tragedy Act 2: Mouroir,
      Mouroir, Suis-je le Plus Mort?
4.  The Lunar Tragedy Act 3:
     Experience of Downfall
5.  Where All Faith is Lost

Total playing time:  37:43

Release Date: August 30, 2010
Label: BadMoonMan Records

Cebren-Khal - A Mass of Despair

Reviewer: Chris

May 11, 2011