La Torture des Ténèbres, in spite of the sadistic propensity for aural flaying, offers a unique voice in black metal. A one-woman show with an aesthetic evoking dystopian urban shimmer, decopunk, classic science fiction, and the space age, it conjures images of glittering mile-high cities built on the backs of the impoverished, brave women overcoming the adversity of the stars, the sneaking static cutting through a dictator’s commands through the radio, the jazzy bombasts of the elite’s decadent galas – and the loneliness of it all. There is no overselling just how noisy and jarring this act’s sound is on the ears, but lone mastermind JK has concocted a trademark stew that makes it stand out in nearly every way. Episode VII arrives a mere five months after its predecessor, expressing a fusion of its aesthetics.
Episode VII – Revenge of Unfailing Valor deals in a sound that retains La Torture des Ténèbres’ signature style, the vicious rawness and lonely melodic tremolo leads while fusing its two aesthetic influences. 2016 began with the formidably raw and ambient spacefaring canon of Choirs of Emptiness and Acadian Nights,1 but was reinterpreted by the more dystopian Civilization is the Tomb of Our Noble Gods, which set the tone for the following releases up to last year’s V and The Lost Colony of Altar Vista. In this way, Episode VII – Revenge of Unfailing Valor blends these two themes, dystopian civilizations set amongst the stars, its vast colonies and glorious cities plagued by inequality, sexism, and the hive mind’s whims.
Episode VII – Revenge Of Unfailing Valor by La Torture Des Ténèbres
La Torture des Ténèbres lives up to Revenge of Unfailing Valor’s description (“VOLITIONAL EXPLOITATION // SMOULDERING HIVES”) by channeling its trademark melodic template and ambient sensibilities into a fuller sound that amps violence while hinting at a tragic heart beneath machinelike mania. Its trademark is intact: the rawness and utter saturation of rawness is ubiquitous, as even its more placid moments of lonely melodies are scathing. However, one distinction is melodic motifs that tie the album into one cohesive whole: an ascending jazzy synth run (“Vast Black Claws Drag Her Back to Space,” “Metropolitan Warfare,” “Out of All the Years We’ve Come…”) and sanguine synth melodies (“The Second Piscean Abyss,” “Angels”). As always, this is communicated through the ebb and flow of three prongs of scathing second-wave blasting/tremolo/shrieking, lonely tremolo, and distorted vintage samples. This arsenal and dynamic are as intriguing as they are jarring, samples and melodies inviting comparisons to classic science fiction (“Vast Black Claws…,” “The Second Piscean Abyss”) and the roarin’ twenties worship of decopunk (“Breathe in the Fucking Sawdust and Die,” “Yes But Can a Camp Girl Do This”). The first act in particular utilizes a bombast of violent second-wave rawness in contrast with an over-the-top sample presence. A grandiosity pervades in a way that recalls predecessor V, but La Torture des Ténèbres‘ fuller sound adds to the assault – tinnitus is guaranteed.
The second half of Episode VII finds La Torture des Ténèbres taking risks – the samples are fewer, the melodies are far more tragic and empty, and there is rest to be found. The brutal mid-album climax in “The Second Piscean Abyss” allows for reinterpretation for “Metropolitan Warfare” and beyond, trademark and motifs carrying across in emptier and more tragic melodies and moments (i.e. the release of all sound but tinny tremolo and blastbeats in “Traditions” and total collapses into noise in “Out of All the Years…”). This reinforces the need for bulletproof songwriting rather than reliance on samples and jarring movements to do the heavy lifting, and JK is up to the task. “Angels” is placed perfectly, its minimalist, distorted, and aptly angelic sample providing rest for the weary ears – for the first time in La Torture des Ténèbres’ career.
La Torture des Ténèbres will not sway any naysayers of raw black or blackened noise. In fact, many will point to their ringing ears or pinched nerves2 and say “See??” after Episode VII concludes with the noise fadeout of “Out of All the Years…”. Those who are willing to endure will find treasures aplenty, an opus of hyper-atmospheric, excessively noisy, and endlessly tragic melodies and motifs. Episode VII – Revenge of Unfailing Valor sweeps you away to a universe yet to be explored; but even in the dead vacuum of space or within mankind’s hive-mind colonies, you can’t escape your humanity.
Rating: 4.0/5.0
DR: 4 | Format Reviewed: PCM
Label: Self-Released
Website: latorturedestenebres.bandcamp.com
Releases Worldwide: March 7th, 2025
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