Year Of No Light presents their brand new studio album, »Consolamentum«, out now via Pelagic Records

French post-metal collective Year Of No Light presents their brand new studio album, »Consolamentum«, out on July 2nd, 2021 via Pelagic Records.

Tracklist:
01. Objuration
02. Alétheia
03. Interdit aux Vivants, aux Morts et aux Chiens
04. Réalgar
05. Came

Courtesy of US/THEM Group:

Top-tier post-rock, suspenseful throughout and culminating in an explosive, cathartic climax.” — Brooklyn Vegan

Bordeaux, France post-metal sextet Year Of No Light stream their fifth studio album »Consolamentum« on all digital streaming platforms.

»Consolamentum« is the band’s first album on Pelagic Records. To celebrate joining the label and Year Of No Light’s 20th anniversary, they will release a limited edition deluxe wooden box set of the band’s entire discography, titled Mnemophobia on July 2nd. The handmade, hand-silkscreened wooden box features 12 vinyl LPs in 6 gatefold sleeves, exclusive colored vinyl variants, a slipmat, metal pin, patch and poster. For more information, see HERE.

Year Of No Light’s lengthy, sprawling compositions of towering walls of guitars and sombre synths irradiate a sense of dire solemnity and spiritual gravity, and couldn’t be a more fitting soundtrack for such grim medieval scenarios. But there is also the element of absolution, regeneration, elevation, transcendence in the face of death. »Consolamentum« is dense, rich and lush and yet somehow feels starved and deprived.

It comes as no surprise that ever since the beginning of their career, the band have had an obsession for the fall of man and salvation through darkness. The term “consolamentum” describes the sacrament, the initiation ritual of the Catharic Church, which thrived in Southern Europe in the 12th – 14th Century – a ritual that brought eternal austereness and immersion in the Holy Spirit.

“There’s a thread running through all of our albums”, says the band, collectively “an exploration of the sensitive world that obeys a certain telos, first fantasized (»Nord«) and reverberated (»Ausserwelt«), then declaimed as a warning (»Tocsin«). The deeper we dig, the more the motifs we have to unveil appear to us. Yes, it’s a bit gnostic. This album is invoked after the Tocsin, it’s the epiphany of the Fall.”

With debut album »Nord« (2006) and sophomore release »Ausserwelt« (2010), the band made themselves a name in the European avant-metal scene. Extensive tours of Europe, North America and Russia in 2013 and 2014, including two appearances at Roadburn Festival, Hellfest and a spectacular performance in a 17th Century fortress in the Carpathian mountains introduced them to a broader and quickly growing international audience.

With their seminal 3rd album »Tocsin«, released in 2013, Year Of No Light reached the peak of their career thus far – a logical decision that »Consolamentum« was made with the same team again: recorded and mixed by Cyrille Gachet at Cryogene in Begles / Bordeaux, mastered by Alan Douches at West West Side.

“We wanted this album to sound as organic and analog as possible”, comments the band. “All tracks were recorded live. The goal was to have the most natural, warm and clean takes possible, to give volume to the dynamics of the songs. We aimed to have a production with a singular personality.”

For the adept listener, »Consolamentum« seems to be venturing deeper into the dark and claustrophobic spheres explored on »Tocsin – but the band doesn’t conceive of the evolution of their music in a linear way, as it would be apparent from looking at their discography.

“It’s more a matter of sonic devotion. Music against modern times. Year Of No Light is above all a praxis. We wanted intensity, trance, climax and threat, all of them embedded in a bipolar and mournful ethos.”

»Consolamentum« is huge, poignant, frightening, sublime, smothering and cathartic – and, much like Decibel Magazine says of its predecessor, it’s “audacious, memorable and supremely confident.”

»Consolamentum« will be available on 2xLP, CD and digital on July 2nd, 2021 via Pelagic Records.

Year Of No Light is:
Johan Sébenne – Bass, Electronics
Bertrand Sébenne – Drums, Keyboards
Jérôme Alban – Guitar, Keyboards
Pierre Anouilh – Guitar
Mathieu Mégemont – Drums, Electronics
Shiran Kaïdine – Guitar

Bojan Bidovc // music enthusiast, promoter, misanthrop and sometimes a journalist as well