Royaume des Ombres

Reviewed by Dylan Raine

Artist: Borgne
Album: Royaume des Ombres
Label: Sepulchral Productions
Release Date: 12 June 2012

1. Fall of the Lost Souls
2. Suffer As I Paid My Grave
3. In the Realm of the Living Im Dead
4. Only the Dead Can be Heard
5. All These Screams Through Me
6. The Last Thing You Will See

Industrial/Black Metal band ‘Borgne‘ have thrown out all the stops in creating the most powerful yet hypnotic metal Switzerland will possibly ever see. Combining dark textural ambient passages, phrasing and thirteen years of experience with many previous albums the ‘Royaume des Ombres‘ is set to be a next milestone in Black Metal.

The studio line-up was previously solely Bornyhake responsible for the Vocals, Guitars, Bass, Drums, Keyboards, Programming and Cellos, whereas now a live line-up consists of Bornyhake “aka” Ormenos (Kawir, Enoid, ex-Krigar) on Vocals, XaX (ex-Disaster, ex-Unborned, ex-Sword) Guitar, Lady Kaos (ex-Ipsum) Keys, Ardelean (ex-Krigar, Fosse, Euclidean) Guitar and Quaoar (Astral Silence) Bass giving us plenty of influences and high expectations whilst remaining technically up there with the best of the best.

Into the album and the cold dark textural ambiences which start off this magnificent album leave you almost haunted within yourself. with the moody introduction on ‘Fall of the Lost Souls‘ using a full mix of trance pads and sythns beyond everything else you could be quite easily listening to ‘Aphex Twin’s – Come to Daddy’ with the complexities and musical genius’s hidden within this track. Onto ‘Suffer As I Paid My Grave’ with body tingling nuances and melodies before the vocals start with the black metal growls and shouts which are simply exquisite to hear. Before long you are thrown back into the chilling breakdowns of Gregorian type choirs and effects combined with ‘Bornyhake‘ controlling the stage opening up everything for the listener.

Track by track you are given blasts of dark moody black metal at its finest, mixed with beautiful intro’s and acoustic sections like that in ‘All These Screams Through Me‘ with the water effects in the background this could be a relaxation/hypnosis track for the much chilled out metalhead alike. Once again, as the music opens up into the heavier sections the delivery and production are excellently done without any need to overcomplicate too many other sounds or instruments.

This is an epic album well worth a listen.

10/10