Cepheide – Respire

When Respire fell through the mail slot at my home, I could tell almost immediately that this was an album that I would either love or hate. Strong emotions either way. After doing a little digging and learning that Cepheide is a French Atmospheric Black Metal trio (a combination of words I am very fond of), I get even more excited and gave it a spin or two. And, as usual, I was far from disappointed. As indicated by the name of the subgenre chosen by the band, Cepheide’s main focus is to build up an atmosphere, to convey strong emotions to their audience. This is more easily done over time ,and as such Respire contains only two tracks (yet still manages a running total above thirty-five minutes; Quite fantastic, albeit also very normal within the genre). And, I assume, in order to help further their agenda, every single instrument and the vocal track works together to create a veritable wall of sound that permeades both tracks, making it difficult to pinpoint any particular part of the record that you like; Instead, you either enjoy, or perhaps downright dislike, the whole thing. In my case it is the former as the French have once again managed to create an album (well, EP in this case) that is going straight out into my car to make those long drives more pleasant. It should be noted, however, that the second album is slower and somewhat more intense than the first. In my opinion, another great way to do it, yet by no means better or worse than its predecessor. Now, the record label mentions that the three members of the band all comes from different musical backgrounds, yet do not explain which. Whatever the background, they are all three quite obviously greatly talented, and are more than accustomed to work together. They have played together as a band since 2013 and have released a Demo and an EP in that time; And if Respire is any indication as to where they started as a band, I have no reason not to believe that I would not love that record as well. Below you can find both tracks present on Respire. I greatly recommend that you give both of them a listen (if you are into the genre, at least) and then head straight on to the bands bandcamp site if you, like me, loved the album.

https://cepheide.bandcamp.com/music