The French underground scene has over the years thrown up some absolutely stellar bands for our listening pleasure, bands like Witchthroat Serpent, Red Sun Atacama, The Necromancers and of course the mighty Mars Red Sky and today we bring you another to add to that list, a band who share part of their name with last of those bands mentioned and like that band are a trio. The band we are talking about go by the name MARS and consist of Clément Rousont (bass); Sylvian Leflond (guitar/vocals) and Florian Demerson (drums), a band whose blending of post-metal, space rock and stoner-doom creates a textured mix of languid spaciousness and blustering heaviness that can be as transcendental as it is crushing, something that can be witnessed when giving their debut release "Cosmic Squid" a spin.
MARS get the ball rolling with "Run", a song that starts off with a subterranean bass motif accompanied by subtle percussion with that percussion taking a turn for the thunderous when the guitar joins in. It is fairly evident at this point that we are deep in stoner-doom territory but with Leflond's phase heavy guitar textures combining with his clean vocal to tell a tale of "wisdom" and "judgement", it becomes pretty clear, pretty soon, that this is stoner-doom of a more cosmic nature. "Icarus" follows, now this is a song that flits between pummelling heaviness and pulsing post-metal languidity, crushing and crunchy one minute spacious and airy the next with vocals that posses a very pleasing lilting quality. "Fall of the Mantis Star" follows and is an instrumental piece with a revolving dynamic, if you wanted to place this piece in a visual context then we guess it would equate to that of neutron star/pulsar, its endless circular groove routinely interrupted by bursts of dank dark and dangerous energy. Up next is "Burning Sky" this is a song boasting a more traditional slow'n'heavy stoner-doom dynamic with Demerson and Rousont laying down a barrage of pounding percussion and growling bottom end for Leflond to decorate with crunching guitar refrains and swirling solos , the guitarist also finding time to melodically wax lyrical on the subjects of "solar battles" and "celestial realms". Low reverberating refrains and a mix of militaristic and tribal drumming support a low in the mix clean vocal melody for the excellent "Pray the Sun" while final track " Shalbatana Vallis" sees MARS combining elements of space rock, post metal and doom together to create a melting pot of groove that you really wont want to end but that weirdly does for a full seventeen seconds before suddenly exploding into life again to take things to the close.
MARS' "Cosmic Squid" is a damn fine debut from a damn fine band, it is an album that sits dynamically in the stoner-doom canon but just a little left of its centre thanks to its clever utilization of space rock and post metal. If MARS stay the course, and let's hope they do, and keep making music of this quality then these guys are going to be major players on not just the French scene bur worldwide.
Check 'em out ....
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