No critic aggregate on Album of the Year yet for Nous, le venin — just a 77 user score across 28 ratings — but the specialist press has already ruled, and clearly. Metal Storm lands an 8.3/10 and calls it « a monumental step up from the previous album »; on the French side, Among The Living and Hardforce file two unscored but wholly won-over reviews. For the second album by these Toulouse natives, now on Pelagic Records, the consensus writes itself — and it’s another point of pride for a French black metal scene that keeps punching above its weight.
What everyone agrees on: the maturation. Where Disgrâce laid down raw black metal, this one floods it with sludge, doom, noise and post-metal. Among The Living hears a band « able to combine radicality, high standards and a strong identity », « faithful to black metal’s codes yet determined to shake them »; Hardforce describes « experimental black metal » that « walks through darkness in search of hope ». The same tracks come up everywhere: opener « Feu d’un regard », the startling « Je est absent » with its near-jazz detours, and the ten-minute title track that seals the coffin.
What divides? Nothing in the reviews themselves — the only real caveat is visibility: three write-ups found, no big general-audience outlet. A shame, because Lolmède’s vocal performance, from gutturals to piercing howls, deserves a wider room. Until the aggregate fills in, we align our score with the reviews at hand: 8/10, and one more name near the top of the French black metal pile.