French Metal Friday: Eryn Non Dae

Toulouse, France-based Eryn Non Dae was not a band that I was familiar with before receiving a pleasant email from the group's guitarist/backing vocalist Franck Quintin. Still, after listening to the group's latest release (and second album overall) "Meliora", which was released in 2012 on M&O Music, I found myself wanting to know about this ambitious five-piece act. Formed back in 2001, END (as they were known at the time) sounds as if it was seeking out a different path in life from the very beginning. While it appears as if there was music released under the END moniker (with one of their songs, "Beyond The Senses", ending up on the June 2005 Rock Hard sampler) the more "modern" version of this complex and compelling act came about in 2009. As Eryn Non Dae the group released their (well-received) first album "Hydra Lernaia" in 2009 on Metal Blade Records. Reportedly it ended up being nominated "album of the year" several times over and the band itself was nominated as "best newcomer band". As I listen to the almost hour-long, 7-track "Meliora" as I type this it's easy enough to see how a band like this could warrant such compliments. On the one hand "Meliora" is an excellent example of the (overall) appealing nature of extreme metal. Eryn Non Dae, which (besides Franck Quintin) also features vocalist Mathieu Nogues, guitarist Yann Servanin, bassist Mickael André and drummer Julien Rufié, are devilishly effective at unleashing severely aggressive, no-holds-barred, metal that is both bleak and unnerving. Musically this is as heavy as if gets with sludge-dredged guitars mixing it up with hostile bass riffs and the unrelenting sound of drums behind demolished in a manor that leaves little to the imagination as far as the intent of this doom and gloom, bone-pulverizing French metal act. But on the other hand this is the work of a avant-garde band that carefully assembles all of these different textures so that their music will features layers upon layers intertwined within each grand passage! Feedback gives way to adventurous waves of atmospheric post-rock all while the band savagely tears apart technical death metal! It's quite likely the most experiment extreme metal album that I've heard in some time as it can go from flashing images of Gojira brightly in your eyes to inspiring you to dust off those well-loved and fashionably warn-out Pink Floyd LPs that you still keep hidden away in your closet! And all that can be had for the taking in just one song! While it can be a wee bit of a head-rush the first time around "Meliora" is still a inspiring listen from a band that I will be keeping a keen eye out for! The French metal scene has already proven many times over to be just as compelling and intriguing as they come and with bands like this making albums like "Meliora" I can't imagine that will stop anytime soon!