Tracks
1. L'empreinte de Lucifer
2. Orage de cuir
3. Sentence
4. L'emmurée Vivante
5. Société Fantôme
6. Dans l'ombre et l'oubli
7. Pris au piège
8. Comme un loup
9. Elixir morten (bonus demo)
10. Berceau du mal (bonus demo)

Band:
Florent B-Manquat - guitars/vocals
Hellex B - drums
Guillaume Pasut - guitars
David Berbel - bass

Discography:
Debut

Guests:

Info

Released 25/8-2011
Reviewed 20/11-2011

Links:
myspace
emanes metal records

The mark of Lucifer, that is the for heavy metal very clever title of this album. An album featuring an equally atypical skull on the cover. There is also a glass on the cover, a glass of red wine or is it blood, beetroot juice or maybe it is only red ink. To say that it is a typical looking album with quite a typical title is not an exaggeration on my part, so at first glance there is nothing that impressive. They are marketed as french heavy metal, which is kind of stating the obvious. I mean, the band is french so why wouldn’t they be french heavy metal, it is like saying that Gamma Ray is german heavy metal. But maybe it is down to the language, singing in french might make them a french heavy metal band just like Finntroll is a swedish heavy metal band.

Musically I would say that they adhere to a rather traditional way of heavy metal, a heritage from the NWOBHM and also maybe a bit from the darker sides of things. They sing in the french language which still makes it quite different from your everyday metal album. The production is not exactly what you call fantastic, it feels quite cheap and low tech actually. The sound is like it has been recorded in some dirty old basement in northern Belgium. This album has ten tracks of which two are bonus tracks from the demo, those are slightly worse produced than the eight other tracks on the album. The album plays for just over 30 minutes which would be good for it to fit on an LP-album which it will be released on some time. I would say that in short this is traditional heavy metal with a quite cheap production and rough sound.

I like this album as it has catchy and good songs, I think though that they are slightly dampened by the poor production. Not maybe much dampened but enough to feel that they have something going for them that has been let down by the production. The good thing about the album besides the catchy songs is the length of the album, being that short makes it much easier to accept the production and that also makes the songs work much better. The last two so-called bonus tracks I can live without though as they feel a bit too cheap for my taster.

Track three Sentence I think is the best track on the album, an album that works quite well in its simplicity. I believe that the roughness around the edges will please quite a few people, namely those who enjoy the back to basics, rough around the edges heavy metal. I think that they do what they do well, but unfortunately their production is letting them down slightly. Still, the album is a good album and nice to listen to, I enjoyed listening to this album, the songs in french is refreshing as well.

So in the end this is a good album, and an album that I think will really appeal to those who like their metal a bit rough around the edges. Don’t let the french fool you, these guys wears mark of Lucifer.

HHHHHHH

Label: Emanes Metal Records
Three similar bands: ADX/Killers/High Power
Rating: HHHHHHH (4/7)
Reviewer: Daniel Källmalm