K.F.R — L'Enfer à sa source
K.F.R project started life in around 2014- it’s a one man project all revolving around one Maxime Taccardi. And seemingly over the project's existence, the sound has blended in elements of dark ambient, industrial, rap(!?), and synth horror sound-tracking. For this release the focus is very much on sparse, often slurred slow, and crude blacked metal- which is attempting to be as wonky & unwell as possible.
L'Enfer à sa source takes in six tracks- with runtimes between two & twelve minutes- with a total album runtime of just shy of fifty minutes. Things start off decidedly disorientating & ultra grim with the just under eight minutes of "L'enfer, c'est toi"- where we find a decidedly blunt & hazed blend of blurred black guitar buzz & doom hover, swarming & pitch shifting ambenice, simplistic struck ritual cymbal work( which is high in the mix), and croaked & growled vocals. At moments you can make out more formal drums & possible bass- but mostly the whole thing flows into haphazard & lose blur/ or dragged out smudge of the black metal form- with the pace swinging randomly between haphazardly speedy & pulled-out doomed. The third track "Simulacre de Chair" is an instrumental track which really pushes the levels of wonkiness & sliding discord to new levels as we get a slowly detuning guitar, blended with lo-fi pitch shifting ambeince- it really is one of the most discordant & ear grating examples of the metal form I've heard in some time.
The second side just features two epic examples of the project's souring of the blacked metal form- first, we have the just over nine minutes of "Anathème de l'envie"- this sees sour cat wailing & pitch descending guitars harmonics, barren strums, and barely there drums added to crawling croaks & almost sloppy ritual drum hits. Then the albums topped off with the twelve & half-title track- which moves from sourly simmer synth & guitar ambeince slammed with random pockmarks of chugging- reverb stretched guitar. Onto speedy & blurred black metal smears all topped off with grunted & growled French vocals- with the track ending with a pulled out & an extremely soured blend of pitch-shifted guitar, feedback forks, and bleak harmonics.
I guess it’s clear that you really need to enjoy the more painful, wonky, and noise seared side of black metal to get anything from L'Enfer à sa source- and there’s no doubt there are moments here of real discordant black-ness, equally at times it does start to sound a little samey. If you’re a fan of the more stark, unwell & often freeform projects with-in Les Légions Noires, I think you'll get something from this release.