• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• 5

Seth was one of many black metal bands that I got into some 21 years ago when I started listening to black metal. The first two albums were very good, though The Excellence hinted at some weirdness, which came in full speed with Divine-X in 2002. That album turned me off and I lost track of the band, so I was surprised to see La morsure du Christ land in my inbox (and even more surprised to see there were two other full-lengths before that).

La morsure du Christ sees Seth going all the way back to their first album, Les blessures de l'âme, and cranking up the metal even more. That debut had the keyboards on display more prominently, whereas La morsure du Christ really banks more on heavy, aggressive guitar and drum work and not so much on the keyboards. The keyboards are absolutely present here, but they're not as prominent, providing a good backdrop and some atmosphere, but really leaving the front row to the guitars. The songs are sung in French and the vocals really add to the dark, hateful and even kind of melancholic atmosphere that can be found throughout the album. Long story short, this album is like a throwback to the heydays of French black metal in the late '90s and early 2000s before that scene hit a slump that it's slowly getting out of.

Seth have really gone back to their mid-to-late-90s roots here and, while I can't go as far as to claim this is their best album as I haven't heard the two that came before this one, compared to the first three albums I find that this is their best, with Les blessures de l'âme coming a close second. A very strong return after some eight years.